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Voices against racism: Australia's Aborigines

By Elizabeth Blunt in Durban

5 September 2001 - Amid the diplomatic posturing and the haggling over language at the World Conference against Racism it is easy to lose sight of the reality of racism.

Each day during the meeting in South Africa some of those who have suffered discrimination have been telling their personal stories.

Among them is Monica Morgan, from the Aboriginal Yorta Yorta people of south-eastern Australia.

There were 20,000 Yorta Yorta people in that region before the British - what Monica Morgan calls the "first boat people" - came in 1788.

By the end of the 19th century, fewer than 100 were left.

Now their population has recovered to 4,000, but she told the conference how the survivors had been traumatised by the collective effects of two centuries of racism.

Her own generation has been marked by the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, the so-called "stolen generation".

Some 100,000 children were taken from Aboriginal families throughout Australia - including Monica Morgan's own family.

She described the impact on her family.

"The removal of children from their families affects every member of the indigenous community in Australia today.

"Every one of our families has been directly involved, or has people who have returned home after being removed.

"In my own family, the father of my children was removed from school at 10 years of age. He and seven of his brothers and sisters - five at school, one who was in hospital, two who were in camp with their family members - were removed and placed in a jail cell and transported to places known as detention centres or homes, where they were trained to be domestics, brainwashed to be assimilated, and violated.

"In every one of our communities now we are having our people return to us, broken, feeling rejected, hopeless and without any justice."

Monica Morgan - and the other Aboriginal people of Australia - are calling for an apology and compensation for the years of suffering.

Source: The BBC

related links:

• Britain blocks protection for indigenous people
  September 7, 2001- The Independent (UK) - Britain is blocking an attempt by the world's 300 million indigenous peoples ­ including Maoris, Aboriginals and Native Americans ­ to have their rights protected under international law, The Independent has learnt.
• Discrimination against Aborigines in Australia is racially motivated
  August 31, 2001 - Society for Threatened Peoples International - .. are seeking to raise at the World Conference against Racism in Durban. They also aim to call attention to the issue of racial discrimination suffered by Aborigines in Australia.
• Indigenous groups accuse Govt of conspiracy at CHOGM
  Indigenous groups from Commonwealth countries claim the Australian Government has conspired to keep their issues from being discussed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
• United Nations Draft Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People (An Analysis of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be found at ATSIC)
• International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples 1994-2003
• The Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples
• The Special Rapporteur on Indigenous issues
• The Voluntary Fund for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People

Further information: human rights issues page - includes news index and external links

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