Outline the basic assumptions that Paul Keating makes about the reasons for the plight of the aboriginals.From the Redfern speech

In this speech, Keating makes two basic
assumptions.

The first assumption is perhaps the most
important -- that the actions of white Australians are to blame for the historical and
current plight of the aboriginals.  Keating assumes that the problems of the aboriginals
were caused not by some fault or faults of their own but rather by the abuses committed
by Europeans.  As Keating says:

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We took the traditional lands and smashed the
traditional way of life. We brought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the
murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and
exclusion.

The second
assumption is that these abuses were committed because whites did not see the basic
humanity of aboriginals.  Keating argues that whites could never have done these things
if they had understood that aboriginals were people like them who had feelings like
them.  This is why he repeatedly invites white Australians to imagine how they would
feel if the wrongs done to aboriginals had been done to them instead.  To quote Keating
again:

It was
our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to
us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and
enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done
to me?

From these quotes, we
can see that Keating assumes that the plight of aboriginals was caused by whites because
they failed to see the basic humanity of the aboriginals.