RE: Language group

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom O'Lincoln noted:

Me:
>>I use the term Aborigines rather than "Kooris" because the latter is
specific to southeastern Australia.<<

Mervyn:
>>Trouble is, that's got a colonialist origin too. 'Language group'
>>don't
sound too Indigenous either.<<

All true. So what do we do? I try to take my lead from what they  call
themselves. If it's a Melbourne context, the more political ones generally
use Koori. If they're looking for a term for use across Australia, they tend
to say "Aboriginal people". Or Aborigines, which is just a slightly more
formal version of that. You can also say "indigenous people" but that
includes Torres Strait Islanders.

In any case I was just trying to provide a bit of additional information,
not to lay down the Correct Line.

Response (Jim C) In addition to the usual reasons for using the term
"Nations" when possible and correct (Genocide also involves defining--and
use of other measures--nations out of existence) also, clans, tribes/bands
have no standing in international law--only nations do. The BIA/DIA use the
generic "Natives", "First Nations", "American Indians", "Native Americans"
not to denote Peoples or collectives of Peoples with common histories of
suffering and genocide but rather as aggregates of "national minorities"
suppposedly not covered by international law and it is "therefore" a matter
of "national sovereignty" what the occupation governments do to them (same
argument of the nazis at Nuremberg--"We didn't violate any German laws");
this is why Native nations were summarily declared "citizens"--and not
members of sovereign nations--in 1924 in the U.S and 1963 in Canada. After
World War I, when the allies were contemplating putting the Germans and
Turks on trial for war crimes etc, the U.S. came back, knowing they could
easily be charged with what they had done to Indians and Blacks, and
summarily forced citizenship on Indians as national minorities to attempt to
remove them from coverage under international law.

Jim C.