Letter to The Editor - There is, in 2018, no fiction in Australia's self-presentation as a successful nation

To The Age          Catherine McGregor asks for the impossible ("PM must push Indigenous treaty", 10/8). She wants "a treaty, a makarrata" between Australians identifying as Aboriginal and the rest of us, which will not "undermine the sovereignty of the Australian nation" when that is exactly what such acts would do. She seems unable to accept that the "original custodians" are no longer with us, only those descended from them (in part or wholly). Today's Aboriginals must be seen as firstly Australians, having no more rights and privileges than any other Australians. Thus no "constitutional recognition" would be appropriate or just. As for Aboriginal culture, it is already widely recognised and honoured, along with the story of British pioneering and settlement. There is, in 2018, no fiction in Australia's self-presentation as a successful nation in which citizens generally and in most contexts have a "fair go".
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic