The ongoing injustices and dispossession of First Nations peoples can be seen in the devastating impact of stolen water rights. But, writes Tracey Carpenter, some changes have been won in Victoria.
colonialism
Tens of thousands have turned out around the country for Invasion Day protests, reports Kerry Smith.
Rupen Savoulian writes that modern history is full of examples where, rather than erasing history, tearing down statues of racist conquistadors has been a necessary starting point for illuminating the darkest corners of imperial colonisation.
Human rights activist Stephen Langford has been charged with defacing the Governor Lachlan Macquarie statue in Hyde Park. Jim McIlroy reports his 'crime' was to paste Macquarie's own words to the statue.
A tweet by Victoria’s deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Annaliese van Diemen on the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival in Australia, which provoked a furious response from right-wing culture warriors, has led to a greater awareness of the legacy of colonialism, writes Chloe DS.
It has happened again. A white supremacist has committed another atrocity, this time in El Paso, Texas, in the United States. Like the Christchurch murderer, he took to the internet to promote his motives.
I don’t know if an opinion poll has ever been done, but a sizeable portion of Australians, perhaps a majority, recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had their land invaded by the British and experienced a systematic genocide.
The fact that this is widely recognised is reflected in the huge protests in response to threats to close remote Aboriginal communities and the response to Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance’s call-out for protests. Even back in 1988, there were 100,000 people protesting the so-called Bicentenary in Sydney.
Brisbane
See a film at Red Cinema: Disruption. This film looks at the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York. Entry $15/$10 conc. Meal and drinks available. Friday November 6 at 6pm. Brisbane Activist Centre, 74B Wickham St, Fortitude Valley. Phone Angus 0431 935 576.
Melbourne
China’s Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new Empire in Africa
Howard W French
Knopf
Published May 20, 2014
304 pages
www.howardwfrench.com
In his 2009 film Rethink Afghanistan, director Robert Greenwald suggested that the US should not try to control the world through military means, but by building schools and hospitals in the countries it wishes to invade.
Journalist Howard French's book China's Second Continent shows how such a model can work in practice.
This year marks the bicentenary of the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in NSW.
For white Australia it was a great triumph and a significant step forward in the process of colonising the entire continent.
For the Aboriginal people of this area, however, it was a disturbing development that heralded the most significant challenge they had ever faced.
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