Aboriginal community closures are ‘an attempt to destroy our culture’
Posted by John, March 23rd, 2015 - under Uncategorised.
Tags: Aboriginal community closures, Aborigines, Assimilation, Dispossession, Genocide
On Wednesday 11 March Tony Abbott, visiting Kalgoorlie in the WA Goldfields, strongly endorsed WA Premier Colin Barnett’s decision to shut down 150 remote Aboriginal communities after Commonwealth funding cuts. WA is planning to withdraw essential services such as power and water. In a statement condemned as racist by Aboriginal leaders across the political spectrum Abbott said, “the taxpayer can not be expected to endlessly fund people’s lifestyle choices”.
Snap protests were held across Australia on “Black Friday”, 13 March, including a rally of more than 1000 people in Melbourne. Meriki Onus, protest organiser from the youth group Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, spoke to Solidarity about the need to resist these community closures and the broader agenda of assimilation. Click here to read the full interview.