This dispatch arrived on our desk this week.
Bonjour mes amies,
From Wikipedia:
In medieval England, Jews were alleged to hunt for children to murder before Passover so that they could use their blood to make the unleavened matzah. This and other allegations culminated in the ‘Edict of Expulsion’, a royal decree issued by King Edward I in 1290, expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England.
The allegations were subsequently found to be unfounded and gratuitous.
On 6 December 1938, several weeks after Kristallnacht in Germany, William Cooper led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League to the German Consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition which condemned the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany.” The protest has been referred to as “the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht “Subsequent to this an allegation that the Nazis and Aborigines were in league gained traction and the German Lutheran missionaries and residents of Hermannsburg (Ntaria) were consequently treated rather shabbily. The allegation was subsequently found to be unfounded and gratuitous.
In 1982 Geoff MacDonald’s ‘Red Over Black (behind the Aboriginal Land Rights)’ was published. I was told a certain “communist geologist” made a cameo appearance in this book in which it is alleged Aboriginal Land Rights are a communist plot. The allegation was subsequently found to be unfounded and gratuitous as was the implied allegation that a certain geologist was a communist.
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) (1987–1991) was a Royal Commission appointed by the Australian Government in October 1987 to study and report upon the underlying social, cultural and legal issues behind the deaths in custody of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders.
That was 1991
Incarceration of Indigenous Australians is happening at a greater rate than the time covered by the Royal Commission.
From Wikipedia: “The report on the enquiry ‘Bringing Them Home’ is the Australia Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations.”
That was 1997…. ‘Controversy’? More like ‘Iniquity’ or ‘abomination’. And yes, it has been alleged by some that the Stolen Generations never happened. That it was all consensual and in the best interests of the children. Allegations subsequently found to be unfounded and gratuitous.
Archie Roach- Took the Children away… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo
And then there was Kevin Rudd’s famous Apology to the Stolen Generations:
“We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again…”
That was 2008.
Kevin Rudd, whose Government took over ownership of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (the ‘Intervention’) whose Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, that great Bureaucratic Empire builder Jenny Macklin, subsequently extended the Intervention by a decade under the euphemistically named Stronger Futures legislation.
The Intervention which was based on allegations that remote communities were dysfunctional dens of iniquity. Allegations subsequently found to be unfounded and gratuitous.
As someone who lives at the Frontline of the assimilationist assault, I can assure you that there has been no let up and our trials are far from over.
Joan Baez- all my trials….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi_zzDrZu6c
Removal of children is happening at a greater rate than at the time of the ‘Stolen Generations’
Which brings us to:
‘Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory’
That is 2017 (maintenant- jalangu- right now)
On occasions I catch an episode of ABC programme ‘The Drum’ in which a presenter and three invited guests discuss current affairs.
On this particular occasion Warren Mundine, Government appointed spokesperson for Aboriginal Australia, was one of the guests. When the subject of the Royal Commission came up, Warren (from memory) alleged that most Aboriginal youth who ended up in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre had been sexually abused as children. This was the first I heard such mentioned in relation to this Royal Commission and I suspect it has aspects in common with The Gulf of Tonkin incident, the Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Children Overboard, the People Smuggler’s Business Plan and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, not to mention the mistreatment of the Sudeten Germans. All gratuitous allegations these. Found to be unfounded.
Incidentally Warren has a sense of humour. He thought it very funny, when he heard that long time Aboriginal activist/academic/tomato grower Gary Foley had labelled him ‘The White Sheep of the Family’
Subsequently an episode of the ABC’s Q&A emanated out of Alice Springs. Dylon Voller (the youth whose appearance on the ABC’s Four Corners programme, triggered the Royal Commission), asked a question. A lively discussion ensued regarding what should be done to prevent Aboriginal youth from getting into trouble.
A classic case of blaming the victims- “they can only blame themselves for ending up in detention.”
Not a word about the sadistic racist guards, not a word about Aboriginal youth being targeted by the three times the National average more police per population we have in the Northern Territory. On Youtube I saw Warren Mundine justifying the use of the “spit-hood” on the basis that Dylon Voller undoubtedly would have spit on the guards. How would Warren then justify the pulling down of Dylon’s trousers?
No one alleged that these guards and over-zealous police, behave as they do, because they have been sexually abused as children. No such gratuitous allegation should be made- not against anyone. Such allegations may well be found to be unfounded.
I am told that an Aboriginal youth was recently approached by a policeman and asked if he was stealing goods off the shelves at one of Yuendumu’s shops. The shop manager had to come to the youth’s aid by explaining the youth was employed to stack the shelves. The implied allegation was found to be unfounded and gratuitous.
Apologies for a rather depressing Dispatch- Below an antidote- some lovely music: