Cultural Genocide continues in Victoria : Melbourne Indymedia

Camp Sovereignty supporters today gathered in King's Domain in Melbourne to celebrate the anniversary of the successful 60 day occupation held there in 2006. A fire ceremony was held prompting a visit from Police and Fire authorities. After friendly negotiations, it was agreed the fire could stay there until 8pm in line with the agreement between MFB and Aboriginal People about the use of and respect towards sacred fire.

About an hour later during a peaceful family picnic a different group of police arrived and pushed through the crowd, including women and small children, and extinguished the fire. The people present proudly stood up to this blatant colonial oppression, both physically and verbally. A human wall was formed to protect the fire and shouts of "shame" drowned out any attempts by police to try and justify their bullying behaviour.

After the police left the fire was re-lit to the delight of supporters.

Police returned and the fire was extinguished again.

The fire was re-lit again.

Police returned and, you guessed it, the fire was extinguished again.

Despite agreeing to allow the ceremony to take place earlier in the day there was an obvious order from another authority to extinguish the fire.

Victoria is now covered by human rights legislation which protects the right of religious expression. This right was violently obstructed by Victorian Police today in yet another display of racist colonialist policing.

Short footage of first extinguishing attempt

http://kangaroocourtaustralia.com/

Its time for the Aborigines unite with other "minorities" to find the common ground that is the Bill of RIghts for ALL Australians.

Choice to see all the mob around the fire today, practicing our religion around our sacred fire again.

Stay Strong People
Always Was
Always Will Be
Aboriginal Land

there will always be support from me although i left at 3 pm

Excuse me, friend. You described the initial interaction with police as "friendly negotiations". Hardly the actions of a "racist colonial" police force.

You are full of shit, as are the dickheads who want the world to lok at them lighting a fire.

Get over it, friend.

200 Deaths in Custody since 1990.....they are murdering racist colonial pigs.

the reality is that armed, uniformed thugs have been enforcing the rule of white law in Australia since invasion. From 1990 until today there have been 200 Aboriginal deaths in custody, Australian police are part of an organization that condones the systemic criminalization & murder of Aboriginal peoples and that is shameful, that is genocide.

"Today we are remembering our eldest elders, those who initiated the long struggle of resistance against the arrogance of Authority and the violence of money. They, our ancestors, taught us that a people with pride are a people who do not surrender, who resist, who have dignity."
Our Word Is Our Weapon

Good effort in the usual bad situation.
See youse all at Mabo Day in June eh ! ?

Is any mob doing a commemoration for the 2007 anniversary of the May 27th referendum ?

TUNNERMINNERWAIT & PEEVAY Commemoration Committee
START DATE: 19/3/2007
START TIME: 8:00 PM
Duration: 1 Hours
Location: Melb: City
Location Details:
21 Smith Street
Event Topic: Anti-Racism
Event Type: Meeting

DESCRIPTION:
TUNNERMINNERWAIT & PEEVAY
COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 5035, Alphington, 3078, VICTORIA
Email: anarchistage@yahoo.com

10th February 2007,

Dear Friends,

If you are interested in forming a group to commemorate the execution of the indigenous resistance freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay in Melbourne on the 21st of January 1842. Then join us.

The Anarchist Media Institute has held commemorations in 2006 and 2007 and now wants to help establish an independent Commemoration Committee to organise further events.

The inaugural meeting of people who attended the 2007 commemoration, who are interested in forming a Commemoration Committee, will be held at the upstairs meeting room at 3CR – Community Radio Federation between 6pm to 8pm on Monday the 19th of March at 21 Smith Street, Fitzroy.

NOTE:- If any of the participants are not able to use the stairs, we will hold the meeting in a smaller space downstairs.

Rascism here and in many other countries has been firmly institutionalised by Mining and Resource industries.
Point the finger, or a big stick if you wish at them.
Get into the understanding that we're all in it now in 2007, and unite in solidarity with other movements against corporate rascism, and many other corporate sins.
m.

When are ingenious people who create stunts like this nonsense going to actually do something about the endemic domestic violence and sexual abuse of children in indigenous communities bot urban and remote?

It is time you guys stopped playing the victim card all of the time and addressed the plight of your women and children that is entirely the fault of the dysfunctional mindset of so many indigenous men.
Until then you can expect nothing but disdain from the majority of Australians.

The majority of settler Australians think nothing of being the silent beneficiaries of Aboriginal genocide. You are an ignorant prick, ignorant of the history of these lands, ignorant of the massacres, ignorant about dispossession, ignorant about culture and ignorant about genocide.

"It is a blame-the-victim mentality.

Seeing Aborigines as a social issue conveniently ignores historical events that would scar any people. Name a people on this earth that have lost a whole country, and with it their ability to decide their own fate, and prospered despite it all.

It is no accident that the greatest breakdown in Aboriginal family relationships occurs among the most dispossessed. With loss of land comes breakdown in homogeneity- the group gets geographically scattered, the relationships with each other change and there is no common purpose other than survival. Retention of land, or return of lands, in itself will not solve the problem. But it helps.

This is where the bigger issues become imperatives. A land base can lead to some form of community stability. Roots to that land gives the group a common ground, literally, and the social and political organization can grow from there. There is nothing wrong with outside influences- don't we all suffer that- but planning and decision making rests with the people themselves. It is true self determination. "
Mike Mansell

Aboriginal peoples are standing up and fighting back, more power to them.

Iain, this type of event is about addressing those problems. If you attend one of these events and talk to people you will find out how it is intended to address those problems. After you have done that you may want to return here and discuss the issues in an informed way.

The cop pictured above is Superintendent Steve Leane of Victoria Police (as per his name tag). He is a trained lawyer and an urbane gentleman. He was very polite when speaking to these imbeciles. And unarmed.

Go out and buy yourself a perspective. They were putting out an illegal fire, dickhead, not killing anyone. And since when was wearing a Nike T-shirt part of Aboriginal 'culture'?

Hypocritical fuckwit.

its pretty obvious Fuckwits a Pig

Yes, I 'm inclined to agree, young Master Fuckwit has given a bit away here. File it for future reference my lovelies. One day we will have our vengeance for the years of puerile abuse from this delusional miscreant.

Mike Mansel said The majority of settler Australians think nothing of being the silent beneficiaries of Aboriginal genocide. You are an ignorant prick, ignorant of the history of these lands, ignorant of the massacres, ignorant about dispossession, ignorant about culture and ignorant about genocide. You see this is the part of the problem activists like you Mr Mansel ignore the long standing social structures within indigenous culture that are the foundations of the wide spread violence and sexual abuse and take the widely held belief that indigenous culture was an a perfect example of noble saveragy when the reality ,as recorded in numerous first contact reports was that indigenous culture was always rather brutal, and the brutality has continued into the post colonization Australia rather than have been created by it. "It is a blame-the-victim mentality. Mr Mansel I say simply that blame is not the issue and that were you and your ilk to expend more energy at addressing the social problems in your own communities (rather than into stupid stunts like this fire protest) then the lives of your people would be greatly improved and mainstream Australia would have more respect for the indigenous people and more sympathy for their cause. Seeing Aborigines as a social issue conveniently ignores historical events that would scar any people. Name a people on this earth that have lost a whole country, and with it their ability to decide their own fate, and prospered despite it all. There could be no better example of as people dispossessed who have made good that the Jews, despite not only being dispossessed of the ownership of their land but also expelled from it they have been able to retain their culture but prosper over the last two millennia. It is no accident that the greatest breakdown in Aboriginal family relationships occurs among the most dispossessed. With loss of land comes breakdown in homogeneity- the group gets geographically scattered, the relationships with each other change and there is no common purpose other than survival. Retention of land, or return of lands, in itself will not solve the problem. But it helps. This is just mealy mouthed blame shifting on your part, make all the excuses you want but it is members of the communities in question who are doing the bashing , the raping and the abusing of children and in the minds most Australians that sort of behavior is despicable no matter what colour the perpetrators skin may be. There comes a time when excuses don’t cut it any more; and that time has come. This is where the bigger issues become imperatives. A land base can lead to some form of community stability. Roots to that land gives the group a common ground, literally, and the social and political organization can grow from there. There is nothing wrong with outside influences- don't we all suffer that- but planning and decision making rests with the people themselves. It is true self determination. " Mike Mansell This is all well and good but despite many concessions to the sort of thing you claim as a panacea to the problem there have been no improvement in the social circumstances of this countries indigenous people If a prescription is clearly not working it is time to try a different treatment. Breathe in, Breathe out by Smoker Tuesday March 13, 2007 at 03:42 PM Iain, this type of event is about addressing those problems. If you attend one of these events and talk to people you will find out how it is intended to address those problems. After you have done that you may want to return here and discuss the issues in an informed way. Smoker I would suggest that as well intentioned as many who attend such events are that we should be ever mindful that the road to hell is paved with just these types of good intentions

Make a effort to talk to Aboriginal peoples and understand their struggles, challenge white privilege and racism in your own community or fuck off.

"Aboriginal children—unlike disenchanted, dislocated and disaffected non- Aboriginal youth—are socialised from birth to an endemic and all-pervasive racism.Racism means that Aborigines are perceived as different because of their ‘physical’ attributes, such as colour. These differences are equated with social characteristics,
such as culture or lifestyle. These physical-social characteristics are considered socially
significant. And then, most importantly, the perceiver believes he is therefore justified either in having negative attitudes towards people with those physically-based social attributes, or in taking some action against them.
Racism is more than prejudice. The latter is a mind-set, a
mere predisposition. In the thirteenth century, St Thomas Aquinas phrased it as ‘thinking ill of others without
sufficient warrant’. Racism is prejudice which is acted upon.
In a hostile world, every racial or ethnic minority, every marginalised group in society, learns to cope with an all-pervasive discrimination if they are to survive and
flourish. Many racially discriminatory attitudes and practices are passively accepted,
absorbed and, in effect, tolerated by the defined group. Other attitudes and practices are more direct and hurtful, and cannot readily be handled or shrugged off as ‘a fact of
life’."

http://www.aic.gov.au/crc/reports/tatz/ch8.pdf

"Make a effort to talk to Aboriginal peoples and understand their struggles, challenge white privilege and racism in your own community or fuck off. " When ever I see the invocation of "White Privilage " as a response to the valid critisism of the domestic and sexual violence in indegenious comunities I know that the author must be in serious denial of the truth. and they need to undertake some serious introspection.

Theres a whole heap of sexual violence and abuse in your community as well, are you highlighting and fighting that. Are you supporting grassroots organization that are offering support to victims, or are you just blow-arsing about your our prejudice's and racism.

"Aboriginal women

Whilst evidence shows that all Aboriginal people experienced extremely high levels of racial violence, Aboriginal women were further disadvantaged because of their gender. An 1899 South Australian Royal Commission noted there were stations “where every hand on the place had a gin” (Reynolds 1990, p.207 as cited in Thomas 2004). (A gin is a derogatory term that non-indigenous men use towards Aboriginal women). “Aboriginal women were preyed on by any and every white man whose whim it was to have a piece of ‘black velvet’ wherever and whenever they pleased” (ibid, p.75). This legacy founded on racial and sexual discrimination affects Aboriginal women’s experiences and responses to sexual abuse today (Thomas 2004).

Aboriginal women have identified sexual abuse issues and barriers which specifically relate to them (Thomas 2004). Generally, Aboriginal women are not reporting sexual assaults and some factors that contribute to this are police attitudes and responses. The court system, lack of culturally-appropriate counselling and support services and the whole general social lack of understanding of the socio-historical impact of violence on Aboriginal people all contributed to reasons why help was not sought (ibid). The Violence in Indigenous Communities Report (Memmott et al 2001 as cited in Thomas 2004) lists multi-causal factors such as the loss of land and traditional culture, the disempowerment of traditional elders, breakdown of community kinship systems and Aboriginal law, and entrenched poverty and racism.

When institutional structures of dominance intersect with intimate forms of violence, the result is one of compounding oppression (Yeatman 1995). Aboriginal women have the legacy of colonisation, poverty, devaluation as women and lack of access to services, and the recognition of their basic human right to be safe from abuse and violence (Mugford 1989).

Aboriginal Children

Stanley (2003) reports that figures for Aboriginal children who experienced some ‘substantiated’ form of abuse in 2000-2001 were disproportionately higher than non-Aboriginal children (4.3 times on average) with Victoria and Queensland reaching figures up to 8 times higher. The Gordon Report (2002) as cited in Stanley (2003, p.3) states that the rate of child sexual abuse of indigenous children is significantly greater than non-indigenous children. Western Australian Police reports confirmed that although the rates of sexual assault reports of indigenous girls was double that of non indigenous girls only 10% of sexual assaults were formally reported (ibid). Fear of racism, shame, reprisals, police response, legal system and terminology and a general lack of trust of the ‘white system’ were all factors contributing to low reporting rates of indigenous child sexual abuse (ibid).

Social, economic and cultural factors contribute to high rates of child sexual abuse. Stanley (2003) purports that the level of violence is so high and common in some indigenous communities that it is not treated seriously. The legacy of the 'stolen generation' has impacted on both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in that people fear responding and are confused about the right response (ibid). Rural communities are much smaller than their urban counterparts and lack of anonymity, appropriate culturally-determined and appropriate child protection responses and community services all contribute to the high rates of family violence and sexual abuse in indigenous communities (ibid)."

You are in complete denial about Aboriginal Genocide Iain

Child porn swoop nets 50 in Victoria

March 14, 2007 - 9:23AM

Victoria's biggest child pornography swoop has jailed 50 people.

A further six have committed suicide since Operation Auxin, a nationwide crackdown on internet perverts, began, according to a News Limited report today.

The investigation identified more than 180 Australian suspects who had amassed up to 12,000 images each.

Victoria yielded the highest number of suspects, all men.

Thirty-six of them are yet to face court.

Among the suspects netted by Operation Auxin were a policeman, principal, childcare centre director, youth worker, a prison guard and a priest.

All were buying images off a foreign porn site in Belarus, but were otherwise unconnected.

Detective Senior Sergeant Chris O'Connor, of the sexual crimes squad, said the suicides stemming from the investigation were tragic but showed the extent to which someone's life could be ruined by being caught with child porn.

The men who had killed themselves would have agonised over their secret being exposed, he said.

"The majority were people of good social standing," Sgt O'Connor said.

"They don't think about what they'll be giving up (if caught)."

AAP

Wether I accept the claims of genocide or not is not the issue, and in fact to bring it up is just another attempt to blame shift.
The bone of contention is the endemic violence and abuse in indigenous communities and no amount of neo-Marxist analysis is going to absolve the perpetrators of that violence of their crimes.
Instead of venting at me go and put some that piss and vinegar into solving that problem.
And may I suggest that if you are addressing a comment at me that you refer to me by my full name in future because unlike either you or the other ”iain” I am willing to own my words.

"Theres a whole heap of sexual violence and abuse in your community as well, are you highlighting and fighting that. Are you supporting grassroots organization that are offering support to victims, or are you just blow-arsing about your our prejudice's and racism."

The truth of the matter is that percapita the situation in indigenous communities makes abuse in the mainstream communities seem very insignificant indeed.
You are in serious denial if you try to claim otherwise. I write a blog and you will find no excuse making for any kind of criminality there.
I am part of my own community and I ensure that my children are safe can you say the same?
Oh and put away the race card; this is not about race this is about violence and abuse and those who turn a blind eye or make excuses for it are part of the problem.

David I have already said that cause and blame are not the issues If you have any thing like a solution instead of demonstrating an example of the problem please feel free to share.

?
can see why you might not want to consider cause and effect on this issue,

given that Australia is the cause and the effects are appalling.

but you can't just exorcise lines of argument or reasoning you don't like from an issue because you don't like them.

I'd defy you even to use words without relying on a whole chain of previous causal relationships that make the english language functional, for example..

Request to conveniently quarantine TIME and CONSEQUENCE from the issue DENIED.

Dedicated to all those round the Sacred Fire of healing & Justice. Stand proud & Strong. Love to all the mobs.

"It’s our job to test it. It is our job to push it further so never be afraid to pick up the chalk and say, well western law you’re a little bit too narrow for my Indigenous peoples. Never be afraid to put your own spirituality there.
If we don’t walk in the path of the spiritual foundations of our culture, then there’s no reason for us to work on sovereignty. First make strong the path to our creator, then sovereignty after."

"The greatest myth that we need to debunk, is the myth that that we hear every day. The myth that they¹re teaching our children in school. We look at our own culture and sometimes we see more the loss than what we have preserved.

We know well our histories. We are no longer the great nations we once were. Those times are gone. But they would have us believe that they have defeated, us?
That they have slain the greatest of our warriors on the field of battle? What a ridiculous myth. We know the truth.
We are the children of mother nature. Mother nature has her way, generation after generation she will select the sons and daughters that are the strongest of the species. And it is the way of mother nature that those who are the strongest will survive.

We who are here in this room, we, and our grandmothers, and their grandmothers before them, we have survived the most inhumane of campaigns against us.
Slavery of our people, murder, genocide, starvation. The colonisers have thrown everything that they can at us. They have tried in every way to render us extinct.

But we have not gone anywhere, those of us who are here. Because mother nature selected the strongest of her children to survive to the next generation.

Let us remember that that myth is false. We are great warriors, we have battle to do."

you're all abusive males, god help anybody of any ethnicity if you can't get your arguments across without slandering/swearing at/accusing your fellow debaters. no wonder there are problems in australia, it's full of stupid aggressive men shouting at each other. Congratulations and salutations to all those aboriginal women doing things in their own communities and standing up to violent men/men in parliament etc!

Good, its about time the police started doing their jobs.

The 60 days those squatters were allowed to flaunt majority opinion were insane.

The police should have gone in on day two with batons and horses like they would have if it was any other ethnic group.

Time for aboriginals to stop being a protected species and start working for a living like the rest of us.