Aboriginal rally condemns government `war'

BY RUSSELL PICKERING

SYDNEY -- The federal government's policy towards the Aboriginal people would turn the Sydney Olympics into “the games of shame, not the games of peace”, Aboriginal Tent Embassy representative Isobel Coe told a 200-strong rally on July 8 commemorating the National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration.

Coe said that any notion that indigenous people should celebrate the Olympics or the centenary of federation was like believing that “Jewish people should celebrate what occurred in Nazi Germany”. “We can't have reconciliation while the war continues”, she said, calling on people to support the tent cities that Aboriginal groups are planning to establish during the Olympics.

The crowd marched from Redfern, blocking traffic on city streets and gathering much support before it arrived at Hyde Park. Speakers there included: construction union leader Andrew Ferguson; the Indigenous Social Justice Association's Ray Jackson, who described PM John Howard as a “creature of Menzies” who is doing “more damage to the Aboriginal people than any since federation”; the NSW Greens' Lee Rhiannon; and Zanny Begg from the Democratic Socialist Party.

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