Australia Recolonised

June 21, 2007 at 6:43 pm (Aboriginal affairs, colonisation, environment, imperialism, land rights, race and racism, the state)

I want to scream. I want to cry.

The Indigenous Land Council has announced that it will set up a system of boarding houses to give Indigenous children an education… This article is so disgustingly racist that I need to make fun of it to make sense of the fact that the things it’s reporting on are deathly serious.

“Think of the children!” has been uttered before in Australian history. It produced the Stolen Generation.

Prime Minister John Howard has just announced a series of extremely repressive measures for Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, including taking control of Indigenous townships through a system of leases and increased police intervention into Aboriginal communities.

Did I mention that there have already been proposals for nuclear waste dumps on Indigenous lands in the Northern Territory despite the PM’s assurances there never would be?

And oh gods, I need a rest so I’ll just offer you these two terms for consideration:
“divide-and-rule”
“comprador”
Seriously, they explain a lot more than you’d imagine.

8 Comments

  1. Women of Color Blog » abusing into goodness said,

    June 22, 2007 at 6:28 am

    [...] UPDATE: FireFly hints at what the real purpose these laws may actually be [...]

  2. Buria q said,

    June 23, 2007 at 3:56 am

    I just clicked on the article link. What??? Hello, that’s been done already, and is a source of the problems today! It completely glossed over the nightmare of the Stolen Generation and the sexual abuse prevalent in those boarding schools they were forced to attend. How utterly perverse.

  3. outfox said,

    June 24, 2007 at 3:21 am

    It’s a nightmare.
    It’s so calculated to appeal to racists who want to imagine that Aborigines get “special treatment”.
    That electoral vein aren’t going to question intrusive/abusive measures for Indigenous kids despite white males being reported as major predators.

  4. Clif said,

    June 24, 2007 at 7:16 am

    It makes me puke. Why people aren’t rallying in the streets demanding Howard’s head for this has got me beat.

    VERY inspiring blog btw.

  5. Fire Fly said,

    June 24, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Clif, I’m pretty sure there will be rallies in the streets in the coming week. There will be if I have anything to do with it.

    BTW, come along to the NT Indigenous Owners speaking tour on Monday at 6 in Redfern. We can start organising with NT Indigenous activists ASAP.

  6. Indigenous Australians threaten to shut down Uluru « Vox ex Machina said,

    June 30, 2007 at 6:47 pm

    [...] Fire Fly reported that Australia is attempting to reestablish boarding schools for Aboriginal children, because that [...]

  7. Tourist Boycott of Australia « Automatic Preference said,

    July 13, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    [...] She Who Stumbles Australia Recolonised [...]

  8. influxus » Norm & Emergency said,

    April 3, 2008 at 10:33 am

    [...] territory [mp3], which Howard seems to be internationally against. In short the genuine equates to recolonisation of the internal postcolony. A recolonialisation that internalises the militarised frontier with the [...]

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