Assimilation versus self-determination: no contest

The current rhetoric that recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples threatens our national integrity has also strongly implied two things. First, that post assimilation Indigenous peoples have had self-determination and second, that self-determination has been a failure. To imply the failure of self-determination in this country when it has not yet existed for Indigenous Australians is disingenuous. It denies the reality of our day to day existence