WSJ: 'Tough Love' in the Outback

'Tough Love' in the Outback:
Australia's Push to Help Aborigines Is Upending Tribal Customs -- And Giving Women an Unlikely Boost
(Wall Street Journal, 1/17)

Aboriginal society has experienced a dramatic decline -- partly a result of these very reforms. Australia's government has proclaimed the upsurge of violence, child abuse and alcoholism among Aborigines a national emergency. It is responding with controversial new policies that critics decried as racist, such as restricting welfare payments to Aborigines but not to whites or other Australians.

Those policies, however, are starting to show early results, the government says. They are also shaking up the Aborigines' ancient social structure. In Yuendumu, for example, the policies have unleashed a nascent feminist movement which is threatening to erode the vast powers of male tribal elders.