Genocide against Aboriginal people
Posted by John, January 28th, 2012 - under Aborigines, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, Genocide.
Brett commented on my recent article about the attempted genocide of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. He said:
‘You either believe in an erroneous definition of the word genocide, or are ignorant and/or bat-shit crazy, pardon my French.’
Thanks Brett. Why is my view of genocide erroneous?
I quote from the Bringing Them Home report done for the Howard Government on the Stolen Generations and headed by Ronald Wilson. Wilson was on the High Court of Australia between 1979 and 1989 and was the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission between 1990 and 1997. He describes the stolen generation action as genocide. But I guess he is batshit crazy too.
A former judge of the High Court wouldn’t know as much as you, Brett, about the issue of genocide and the treatment of aboriginal people would he?
Here is what the Australian Human Rights Commission says on its website about the Inquiry:
An act of genocide
The Inquiry concluded that forcible removal was an act of genocide contrary to the Convention on Genocide ratified by Australia in 1949. The Convention on Genocide specifically includes ‘forcibly transferring children of [a] group to another group’ with the intention of destroying the group.
Genocide is not only the mass killing of a people. The essence of genocide is acting with the intention to destroy the group, not the extent to which that intention has been achieved. A major intention of forcibly removing Indigenous children was to ‘absorb’, ‘merge’ or ‘assimilate’ them, so Aborigines as a distinct group would disappear. Authorities sincerely believed assimilation would be in the ‘best interests’ of the children, but this is irrelevant to a finding that their actions were genocidal.
But I guess the UN and the Human Rights Commission are batshit crazy too, eh?
Maybe you should look at the UN Convention on genocide. Or what Wilson wrote, or Colin Tatz on the issue, instead of deliberately ignoring the fact that Australian society is built on the attempted genocide of the Aboriginal people and the consequences continue.
Telling the truth, as George Orwell wrote, is a revolutionary act.
The reality is that the consequences of genocide continue to this day but new attempts at wiping out Aborigines, driving them off their land etc arise. The Northern Territory Intervention, the loss of lands to miners, what David Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession, these are genocidal actions too.
No wonder our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bothers and sisters are angry. They are right to be. So should you be.
Advertisement
Comments
Comment from Jolly
Time January 29, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Aboriginal people have been robed of their land, their culture, their language, their children, their stories and history. We have built this nation on their suffering, denial and neglect.
Yes, to-day, we have a new Australia, a prosperous one at that. We dig deep into our pockets and dispatch money and goods to disadvantaged people in far away lands. We send our young men and women to fight distant wars so that others may live in peace and dignity. We condemn dictators and autocratic rulers who reel in outrageous wealth at the expense of their starving citizens. We do all this and much, much more for other non Australians in strange lands. Splendid!
Yet we are begrudging to assist and accept our own native Australians as people deserving of dignity and equal opportunities. We are unhappy and reluctant to give a helping hand to Aboriginals caught up in the vicious cycle of utter poverty and abuse.
I have always believed that the older generation of Aboriginal people may have been docile (easy push-overs) and keen to keep the peace. But the disenfranchised young Aboriginals will not take the injustice of the past meekly. In any society, it is the young, educated, energetic and proud people that will resort to harsher means to demonstrate their claim to justice and fair play. A study of human sociology and human progression revel this retributive trend in the proud young. Our Aboriginal young are no exception to this progression.
Pious platitudes and empty apologies from politicians will not ring true any more in the ears of the young. What WE (ie, public-private sectors and individuals) need to do is to seriously redress this disparity (in all aspects) between migrant Australians and native Australians. We need to do this not only to maintain our achieved progress but mostly because we have a moral obligation to do so. The likes of Andrew Bolt (another new migrant) should not deter us from doing what we are capable of doing for our fellow citizens. We are a good people. Whilst what was done to Aboriginals by our forefathers, is not at our beckoning, we, however, have benefited and build on their wrong doings. It is therefore our task to pause, re-evaluate out future and our remedial actions towards those who have been wronged, those whose land, culture, language, stories and history have been robed and denied.
We must move forward together, we must succeed together for our history forward is bound together. As decent and fair minded Australians we have no other options!
Pingback from En Passant » No more sitting at the back of the bus
Time January 29, 2012 at 9:19 pm
[...] Readers might also like to look at my article about the Tent Embassy demonstration and another on the genocide against Aboriginal people. [...]
Comment from Chris Warren
Time February 1, 2012 at 11:50 am
Genocide is a term that can be defined by anyone. Once you know the facts, the conclusion of genocide is obvious.
It was not all ‘genocide’, but plenty of peaceful natives were killed by bullets and poison and herded into concentration camps simply because they were aboriginal. There was certainly a desire by settlers that the aboriginal race should become extinct.
It may not have been fascist genocide. You do not need an explicit government policy for genocide to arise.
There were plenty of other murders and slaughterings and injustices, beside the genocide.
However the British, Russian and French capitalists were of such mettle, that they could massacre just as wantonly members of their own genotype, and did. Class violence and fratricide also occur and loom.
Comment from Ross
Time January 28, 2012 at 6:35 pm
When you look at our species John (Homo Sapiens),we are pretty nasty species. Chimps our closest relatives will kill another tribe of Chimps to gain territory.Aborigines ,Papuans,Negoes and Anglos have all carried out genocide on their own and other races.We can be both a loving but awfully hateful and destructive species not matter what our race.
How do we stop it? Right now there is a scientific and economic elite who want to reduce the world’s pop drastically,because we are using their precious resources.Maurice Strong (billionaire and ex -secretary of the UN) wants a 90 % reduction in world population.There are many backing him.
Just imagine John if nutters like this have the Banking Military Industrial Complex that JFK warned us about,thinking the same way?
They have wars ,germ warfare, monetary policy,food controls, energy controls,Obama’s/Bush’s oppressive laws to really bring about enormous genocide.
The elites tried to play India off against China,the two most populated countries on the planet.Note that India did not send their PM ot the last CHOGM conference.They also want to buy more Iranian oil.
It is a big game and Zibigniew Brezezinski nailed it in his book,’The Grand Chessboard’
In the grand scheme of the elites,we workers count for nothing.