David Akinsanya Reporter, This World

Can Aboriginals successfully find their place in modern Australia?

I imagined them to be a dark-skinned people, the men with bushy beards, eking out a living in the country's outback.

Instead I found a lost people, bereft of their culture and struggling to survive as outsiders in a European society they have no real hope of being integrated in.

I went to Sydney to investigate how and why the death of an Aboriginal teenager sparked Australia's worst riots in recent years.

Seventeen-year-old Thomas James Hickey, or TJ as he was known to family and friends, died on Valentine's Day 2004.

He was impaled on a metal fence after falling off his bicycle near the notorious Sydney suburb of Redfern, also known as The Block.

Rumours

TJ as a child with his mother and father in happier times

No-one knows exactly what happened that day, but it's likely that TJ, who had an outstanding warrant against him and cannabis in his pocket, panicked at the sight of a patrol car and sped off as quickly as he could.

The following day The Block, a largely Aboriginal district where TJ lived, erupted into violence amid rumours that the police had chased him to his death. This is vehemently denied by the local police.

The violence lasted for hours and its intensity shocked the nation as it was broadcast on TV screens across Australia. Forty officers were injured in what became a running battle between Aboriginal youths and the police.

I spent one month with TJ's mother, Gail Hickey, and her six daughters. Through them I hoped to get a sense of what life was like for Aboriginals on The Block.

REDFERN RIOTS In pictures: City riots

Gail's life is a daily grind; her husband is in jail and she survives on government handouts. She doesn't have a home of her own, so spends her time staying with family and friends. This isn't unusual within the culture she comes from.

With no permanent home or fixed routine it's difficult to get the girls to attend school regularly. It's the same story with many other Aboriginal kids.

The Block is made up of a few inner-city streets that were handed over to Aboriginals in the 1970s to run and manage themselves. The government of the day bought run-down housing stock as a first step towards giving the indigenous population the chance to determine their own affairs.

But the experiment hasn't exactly been a great success.

My taxi dropped me outside Redfern train station. I'd asked the driver to take me to The Block but he told me he preferred to stop on the main road as taxis are targeted there.

I was anxious about what I was going to find.

Key facts Life expectancy for Aboriginals is 20 years less than for white Australians Indigenous children have the same life expectancy as their white counterparts had in 1900 Aboriginals account for 3% of Australia's population They also make up 40% of Australia's prison population Australian Bureau of Statistics The Fred Hollows Foundation

Despite having been to many run down areas all over the world I didn't know what to expect from The Block - or its people.

Outside the station, watching over the shabby, main street were two police officers standing in the baking sun. The police were a permanent fixture during my five week stay here.

My first glimpse of the notorious Block was a group of men and women, some obviously worse for drink, taking cover from the sun under a few trees. They were sitting on crates, cardboard and an assortment of broken chairs, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. One man was on his back and seemed to be semi-conscious.

Drugs

It may have been shocking but it certainly wasn't as dangerous as people had made out. They were warm, friendly and everyone shook my hand as they introduced themselves. My anxieties evaporated.

An Aboriginal toddler plays with a discarded syringe

I asked whether the guy on his back was drunk but they told me he was on heroin, which they say is as easy to get hold of on The Block as beer in a pub.

I knew that alcoholism was a real problem in many Aboriginal communities, but I was surprised to learn about the heroin problem.

I spoke to some of the riot ringleaders, who said that TJ's death had brought to a head years of tensions with the local police. They claimed they were second class citizens in their own land and that - sooner or later - their frustrations were bound to spill over into violence

They said white Australia had it coming.

It seems extraordinary that many white Australians have never met, or even seen, an Aboriginal. In Sydney they didn't appear to be integrated into the city at all. I didn't see a single Aboriginal commuting on trains, working in shops or even employed as a porter at my hotel.

Following TJ's death his 15-year-old girlfriend April fell in with drug users

Having spent a month with Gail Hickey and her family, I ended up feeling that there is no easy solution to the problems facing Australia's indigenous people.

Until Aboriginals themselves can find a way of managing their own affairs more successfully, they are going to remain foreigners in their own land.

Just before I left Sydney I went to the opening of the new Redfern community centre. It was ironic that at the launch, the organisers had to bring in didgeridoo players from outside to entertain the guests. There were no local Aboriginals who could provide this service.

It is also ironic that I was unable to find Aboriginal handicraft made in Australia.

Tourists are going home with boomerangs made in China.