Essalamu aleikum,
A friend has sent me a book- ‘Los Mapuche’, which it goes without saying deals with the Mapuche people of southern Chile and Argentina. It outlines the history of Colonization, the wars of attrition, the massacres, the expropriation of their lands and so forth. It also outlines the Mapuche struggles to maintain their ethnic and linguistic identity and to self-determination.
It didn’t surprise me but the analogies to the situation vis a vis Australian Aborigines is striking.
If in the book I’d replaced ‘Mapuche’ with ‘Warlpiri’ few further changes would have been needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m2oRRI-1KY
In 1944 Rafael Lemkin, whose extended family had been virtually exterminated during the Shoah, coined the word ‘genocide’.
American President Biden’s acknowledgement that what happened to the Armenians in Anatolia was a ‘genocide’ reminded me of a documentary I saw years ago which discussed the Israeli authorities’ Armenian Holocaust denial. I also remember that throughout the world if you were a Turkish ambassador or consul, it was impossible for you to obtain life insurance (Australia’s Turkish Consul-General was assassinated in 1980, he was one of many).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LajSL2Odsz8
Apart from April Fool’s Day, the month of April has some very significant anniversaries:
April 20th– Adolf Hitler’s birthday
April 24th– Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
April 25th– Anzac Day
Australia celebrates glorious defeats such as the Gallipoli battle. The Eureka Stockade and Ned Kelly’s last stand at Glenrowan come to mind, let alone the song that nearly (came second in a referendum) became our National Anthem, a song about a sheep thief who committed suicide rather than be apprehended by the fuzz.
The Mapuche book included some details on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide promoted by the aforementioned Raphael Lemkin.
Article II defines ‘genocide’
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(and lists five such acts, including: )
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
So where does that leave Australian authorities with its past and ongoing Stolen Generations?
Phew! They’re off the hook- they claim they didn’t and don’t ‘intend to destroy’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlSchfmtzQk
Incidentally Yuendumu isn’t immune to the taking of children- “for their own good”.
The sun gonna shine- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqaKf-Um5F8
Cheers,
Frank
PS- Efforts to have My Yuendumu Story printed are continuing and I can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel.