
Originally Posted by
tickle
I do know something of your issues 'over there' and your issues do effect us here in Canada but when you say 'aboriginal' do you mean that in a derrogatory term, of do you mean 'native Americans or amerinds'? Can you change your terminology to a more respective terminology instead of 'aboriginal louts'.
The term aboriginal in Australia defines a specific racial group as distinct from Torres Strait Islanders. Aboriginal Definition: An original inhabitant of any land; one of the aborigines. Your equivalent might be first peoples. We have no such sensibilities and to define them otherwise I would have have to choose from more than two hundred tribal identities and that would be inaccurate so we use the collective noun aboriginal when referring to these people.We have done so for two hundred years and have no intention of changing what is normal and common place everyday speech. We have no definition of mixed blood people such as Metis as you do and so the term aboriginal encompasses all people of aboriginal dissent. However we do note that the troublemakers are usually of mixed blood. The term lout defines someone more likely to resort to violence than not and in this case is entirely accurate. The aboriginal people involved in this incident were at the aboriginal tent embassy, a tumble down collection of temporary buildings known by that name that has been a eyesore for 40 years when they were incited to attack a nearby restraurant and disturb an official ceremony. If I wanted to refer to them in a derotatory manner I would use the term boung (as in a mob of ignorant boungs attacked the Prime Minister) as I would use the term wog for people of middle eastern or southern European extraction.
So No my terminology is about as respectful as I am likely to get and I am sure you have better things to do than pursue the course of political correctness. How our issues could affect the peoples of Canada I cannot see as there is an entirely different set of circumstances and ethos associated with native affairs. It is more likely that our aboriginal population would take the lead from your successes than the reverse.