In the late 1960's John Pilger was given an unusual assignment by the Mirror Editor In Chief Hugh Cudlipp. I was to return to my homeland of Australia and discover what lies behind the sunny face . The Mirror has been an indefatigable campaigner against apartheid in South Africa where John has reported from behind that "Sunny Face ". As John was an Australian he has been welcome into this bastion of White Supremacy." We admire you Aussie" You know how to deal with your Blacks:
John was offended of course, but he also knew that only the Indian Ocean separated the racial attitudes of the two Colonial Nations. What John was not aware of was how the similarity caused such suffering among the original people of my own country : Growing up, my school books had made clear, to quote one historian, " We are civilized and they are not "
I remembered how a few talented Black Australian Rugby League Players were allowed their glory as long as they never mentioned their People. Eddie Gilbert the great Black Australian cricketer the man who bowled Don Bradman for a duck, was to be stopped from playing again. That was not untypical.
In 1969 John flew to Alice Springs in the red heart of Australia and meet Charlie Perkins. At the time when Black Australian people were not even counted in the census ( unlike the sheep) Charlie was only the second Black Australian to get a University Degree. He made good use of this distinction by leading " Freedom Rides " into racially segregated towns in the out backs of New South Wales.
John hired an old Ford picked up Charlie mother Hetti, an elder of the Aranda People and headed for what Charlie called "Hell". This was Jay Creek, " a Native Reserve" where hundreds of people were corralled in conditions i had seen in Africa and India. One ouside tap trickled brown, there was no sanitation, the food, or rations was starch and sugar> The children had stick-thin legs and the distended bellies of malnutrition.
What struck John was the number of grieving mothers and grandmothers - bereft at the theft of children by the Police and Welfare authorities who for years had taken away infants with lighter skin. The policy was "assimilation. Today this has changed only in name and methods : In other words Australia has maintained a very very racist policy against his Black Population :
The boys were sent to work on white run farms, the girls as servants in middle class homes. This was undeclared slave labour. They are known as " The Stolen Generation " Hetti Perkins told John that when Charlie was an infant, she kept him tied to her back and hid whenever she heard the hooves of police horses. " They didn't get him " she said with pride .
In 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for this crime against humanity. Older Black Australian People were grateful, they believe they believe that Australia's first people - the most enduring human presence on earth. - might finally get the justice and recognition denied them for 220 years. There will be no compensation: That 100.000 people deeply wronged and scarred by vicious Racism - the product of a form of fascism - would get no opportunity to materially restore their lives was shocking, though not surprising
To be continued :
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