Pay up or leave: our duty to the Aboriginal people

[Permoderator]

(Posted Image)

We European Australians often claim that one of the strengths of the Australian character is caring for the underdog. That claim is rank and blatant hypocrisy. We do not act with justice, let alone care.

What might recompense require of us who arrived since 1788?

We would recognise that recompense is based on our duty, not the needs of indigenous people, and that no recompense could ever be satisfactory because what was done was so vile, so immense, so universal, so pervasive, so destructive, so devastating, and so irreparable.

We would ask the indigenous people if they wanted those of us who have arrived since 1788 to leave, or to provide an equivalent recompense. Leaving would be a drastic and complicated action, but it has happened in India, Africa, and Indonesia in the past 60 years.

If we do not leave, then we would need to ask each of the indigenous peoples of this land what kind of recompense would be appropriate for them. This would be an extremely complicated and extensive task, but must be done.

We would need to be prepared to give costly recompense, lest it trivialise what has happened. We would then need to adopt a national recompense policy, in the form of a treaty, implemented locally, according to the wishes of each indigenous tribe.

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[Sally Anne Jakes]

We have the same shameful history in the US. Ward Churchill is an American writer and political activist. Churchill has written on American Indian history and culture, and is particularly outspoken about what he describes as the genocide inflicted on the indigenous people of North America by European settlers and the repression of native peoples that continues to this day. Here's a link to his site Ward Churchill

[Jandamarra]

thankyou for putting this on here maybe we can hope for some real justice for aboriginal people in the future