Ladies and gentlemen, as a former member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, I would like to express my views on the treatment of the indigenous population of Australia, both in the past and present. As you are all aware of, the Aborigines have been the most racially prejudiced group in Australia. This statement can be backed up by the existence of ill-intentioned policies put in place against Aborigines, which are now considered inhumane and to a degree, genocidal. A typical example of a mistreated Aborigine by the white society is Jimmie Blacksmith. Jimmie was one of the thousands of "half-caste- children living in a black community. He chose to step into the white society, but was ostracized from living and working like a white man. Like all Aborigines living at that time, Jimmie faced atrocious injustice from the white society. Despite efforts to mend the attitudes of whites towards the blacks, racial discrimination still occurs in Australia today. Today, I will talk to you about the generational effects of inequitable wages, lack of voting rights for Aborigines prior to the 1960s, and also the effects of miscegenation and assimilation policies, racial prejudice and discrimination against the Aborigines. .
It is fair to say that the Australian government over the past century has done very little to ensure the equilibrium of the society. During the 1800s, the Government set in "Protection polices- for the Aborigines. This was, in my opinion, a robbery of a group of peoples' freedom. The government claimed, I quote "that for Aborigines to come in contact with European, there will result harmful effects-. This virtually meant that Aborigines were banned from entering the white society. It automatically drew the line between the whites and blacks. The blacks could not enter the white society through There were a minority of ambitious Aborigines who weren't willing to accept their fate in the hovels of Aboriginal camps, and set, or tried to set, their foot in the white society.
While complaints cover a range of alleged abuses from discourtesy to deaths in custody, the largest proportion (1,670 complaints) were for excessive force"(ATSIC). The New York police spent so much money in order to increase the size of the NYPD and increased their staff by 39.5 percent, as the SDPD only increased their size by 6.8 percent and the effectiveness was a lot greater. ...
