Incarceration & Abuse of Australia's Aborigines

[rowan]

There has been footage recently of prison guards in Australia torturing Aboriginal youths in detention centers, but in fact this was first reported two years ago and received little attention from the media and public. According to John Pilger in his 2013 documentary film 'Utopia' Aborigines are being incarcerated at a rate 8 times higher than blacks in South Africa were during the Apartheid era. & of course suicide rates are very high, as are deaths from beatings and medical neglect.

But the vast majority of Australians just aren't interested. This is a country where Australians are considered to be blonde and blue-eyed, even if they were born in Britain or elsewhere in northern Europe, while third and fourth generation Greeks & Italians, among others, are still referred to as 'New Australians' or just plain old 'Wogs.' Where does that leave the indigenous peoples? As 'Abos' or 'Black Fellas' that aren't really considered human at all, basically.


Quarter of a century ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made numerous recommendations to wipe out the abuse of Aboriginal peoples in prison, including the suggestion that incarceration should only be a last resort. But this has been largely ignored. Aborigines comprise 2 percent of Australia's population but more than a quarter of its prisoners (27% in 2015). In other words, they are incarcerated at a rate 18 times higher than non-indigenous Australians. And roughly a quarter of Aboriginal prisoners are youths under the age of 24.

Forms of prisoner abuse which have come to light include gassing, hooding, arbitrary stripping, physical and verbal abuse reminiscent of that suffered by Palestinian youths in Israeli prisons. Indeed, this is increasingly regarded as no less than an extension of the colonial period.

Upon their arrival on the continent the British immediately began to hunt the Aborigine down for sport. They enslaved them and tortured them with glee, hacking off men's genitals and watching them writhing about in agony for entertainment, for example, because they simply didn't regard them as human. The Aborigine were instead classified as Flora and Fauna until the late 1960s. Only then were the laws changed to recognise them as human beings and citizens of Australia. Thus, in 1967, they were finally given the vote, but as a 2% minority that was merely academic and remains so.

[kk67]

It's bizarre how indigenous people are so quiet when it comes to Imperialist facism.
You'd almost think they were being deliberately oppressed.

[rowan]

Yes, and while much is being made of African-American disproportionately high incarceration rates (& rightly so), Native American incarceration rates are even higher. Meanwhile, Maori comprise around 12% of New Zealand's population but just over half of its prisoners.

[kk67]

Yes, and while much is being made of African-American disproportionately high incarceration rates (& rightly so), Native American incarceration rates are even higher. Meanwhile, Maori comprise around 12% of New Zealand's population but just over half of its prisoners.

You want to make democracy a cheap vote........democracy doesn't work that way. It actually does.

[rowan]

Yes, and while much is being made of African-American disproportionately high incarceration rates (& rightly so), Native American incarceration rates are even higher. Meanwhile, Maori comprise around 12% of New Zealand's population but just over half of its prisoners.

You want to make democracy a cheap vote........democracy doesn't work that way. It actually does.

Not quite with you there, sorry. Can you elaborate a little on that comment?

[kk67]

Yes, and while much is being made of African-American disproportionately high incarceration rates (& rightly so), Native American incarceration rates are even higher. Meanwhile, Maori comprise around 12% of New Zealand's population but just over half of its prisoners.

You want to make democracy a cheap vote........democracy doesn't work that way. It actually does.

Not quite with you there, sorry. Can you elaborate a little on that comment?

To coment on Imperialism would be a massive......shit.

[UGagain]

And now they're being robbed of the few gains they made back in the 90s under the auspices of 'stamping out child abuse'. And both major parties are in on the big scam.

[rowan]

As recently as 2005 the Australian government sent police into the Northern Territories to break up Aboriginal communities under the pretence of 'stopping rampant, alcohol-fueled child abuse.' In fact, there was no such abuse going on. In a stunt reminiscent of Nurse Nayirah's false testimony to the Human Rights Congression, the individual at the center of the allegations turned out to be an Australian youth worker. The government simply wanted to remove these communities to make way for mining projects. No treaty has ever been signed between the Aborigines and the Australian government, but the one area where the natives do have comprehensive land rights is the Northern Territories. This also happens to be the home of one of the world's major uranium deposits.

[UGagain]

As recently as 2005 the Australian government sent police into the Northern Territories to break up Aboriginal communities under the pretence of 'stopping rampant, alcohol-fueled child abuse.' In fact, there was no such abuse going on. In a stunt reminiscent of Nurse Nayirah's false testimony to the Human Rights Congression, the individual at the center of the allegations turned out to be an Australian youth worker. The government simply wanted to remove these communities to make way for mining projects. No treaty has ever been signed between the Aborigines and the Australian government, but the one area where the natives do have comprehensive land rights is the Northern Territories. This also happens to be the home of one of the world's major uranium deposits.

It's also home to several US military facilities and a planned nuclear waste site.

The 'intervention' was completely manufactured. And done so with cooperation and collusion with the media, especially the ABC.

[Len]

Didn't the British nuke a tribe some time back when they were testing nuclear weapons in the outback?

Aparently tried to find them, couldn't, dropped the bomb anyway.

[rowan]

Didn't the British nuke a tribe some time back when they were testing nuclear weapons in the outback?

Aparently tried to find them, couldn't, dropped the bomb anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised. For certain, the British conducted many nuclear bomb tests in Austrlaia, leading directly to a number of deaths (indirectly, god only knows...); just as the French used the South Pacific for theirs. Charming people, doing their testing on the opposite side of the planet, regardless the presence of native communities.

[Len]

Didn't the British nuke a tribe some time back when they were testing nuclear weapons in the outback?

Aparently tried to find them, couldn't, dropped the bomb anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised. For certain, the British conducted many nuclear bomb tests in Austrlaia, leading directly to a number of deaths (indirectly, god only knows...); just as the French used the South Pacific for theirs. Charming people, doing their testing on the opposite side of the planet, regardless the presence of native communities.

Fucking wankers aren't they?

[UGagain]

Didn't the British nuke a tribe some time back when they were testing nuclear weapons in the outback?

Aparently tried to find them, couldn't, dropped the bomb anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised. For certain, the British conducted many nuclear bomb tests in Austrlaia, leading directly to a number of deaths (indirectly, god only knows...); just as the French used the South Pacific for theirs. Charming people, doing their testing on the opposite side of the planet, regardless the presence of native communities.

And won't even pay to clean up the radioactive mess they left.