Images from Greens NSW and Western Slope Now
By Situation Theatre 31/5/2020
A nation-state founded on the violent dispossession of close to a million Indigenous people finds the appalling treatment of black people in the United States unfathomable.
A country which spent the first 150 years of its white history committing genocide on the Aboriginal population through disease, policy, and as many as 500 massacres has been shocked to see racial tension boil to the surface for our closest ally.
A federation where no police officers have been held criminally responsible for the more than 400 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the Royal Commission’s 339 recommendations in 1991 has been aghast to see footage of a country where black people are policed with impunity.
Dear Native Americans and Black Americans, I am sorry for the ignorant Australian press who fronts up to your rallies not knowing a thing about their own country's history so they can feign superiority. Solidarity. #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloydProtests https://t.co/3kZ5bNKBZG
— Celeste Liddle (@Utopiana) May 31, 2020
Thank you for your strong words, @amymcquire. Always standing up and saying what needs to be said. So grateful for your voice. https://t.co/RMP1nIFz4I
— Larissa Behrendt (@LarissaBehrendt) May 30, 2020
A commonwealth which celebrates Reconciliation Week by sending a multi-national mining company to blow up a 46,000 year-old sacred site is feeling pretty smug about its comparatively healthy race relations.
A territory led by a right-wing authoritarian who describes people of colour fleeing war-torn nations as murderers, rapists, and gang members is horrified by Trump’s divisive language.
Oh America, you’ve so much to learn from Australia.