I know I know, it is pretty shocking a country that had a whites only immigration policy until 1973 and still has one that is considered racist, that keeps the remnants of the Aboriginal peoples the British didn't kill in squalid camps in the wasteland no one else wants and then blames Aboriginal people for the outcomes of such treatment and then following a "remedy" to those problems by further punishing Aboriginal people and treating them as untermensch, all of which was imposed by the Australian military is Racist but there you go. I aim to shock.
In this fun and happy read one learns about the conditions of Aboriginal people, the indifference of white Australians to institutionalised racism and how a town was happy at the lenient punishment for a group of young white men who killed an Aboriginal man who stood up them driving their 4x4 at and otherwise harassing Aboriginal people. To be honest it makes me violently angry but thats not the way, the racists are always better armed and far far better at inhuman violence, a more community based solution is required. Though first white Australians need to acknowledge there is a problem to start with.
The legacy of the British Empire is quite a thing.
i have nothing to add really, because, seriously, what can you say? i however, would recommend reading the works of Jack Davis - i read a couple of his plays for a course i did about postcolonialism and settler colony literatures as an undergrad and they present a throughly real and fascinating picture of the life of aborigines in, if not [resent day Australia, at least the Australia of a few decades ago. not much i think has changed since then anyway.
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ReplyDeleteLet it be known I wasn't censoring, it was just a double post that I failed to remove properly.
ReplyDeleteOh damn and I can't even edit my own posts, this is working great. Anyway I will look into Jack Davis's work.
ReplyDeleteah, okay - i thought back then something went wrong with posting that comment! i have read kullark and the dreamers - both of which i recommend!
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