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Massacres & Trophies

Undeclared "Wars" defined by Michael Anderson

The bone collectors: a brutal chapter in Australia's past

The remains of hundreds of First Nations people, dug up from sacred ground and once displayed in museums all over the world, are now stored in a Canberra warehouse. When will they be given an appropriate resting place? Some were passed off as victims of frontier violence between tribesmen – but mostly were defending traditional lands on the pastoral frontier – and colonial troops, paramilitary police forces, settler militia and raiding parties. Their bodies were cut up for parts that became sought-after antiquities across Australia and in cultural, medical and educational institutions globally. [node:read-more:link]

Tasmania's Black War: a tragic case of lest we remember?

Nowhere was resistance to white colonisers greater than from Tasmanian Aborigines, but within a generation only a few had survived the Black War.

Historian shines a light on the dark heart of Australia's nationhood

Henry Reynolds says the frontier war - his term for the violent dispossession of First Nations peoples - raises questions of global importance about the ownership of an entire continent

Victoria's silent shame

The Rufus River Massacre - Lake Victoria South West NSW

See: Fighting for land nothing new for First Nations elder pdf
Murra Wurra Paakintji elder Dorothy Lawson says her grandparent's rights as "squatters" were over-looked when authorities built a water storage basin at Lake Victoria in 1922

Taking a look at the war waged against First Nations Peoples

It is now 33 years since the Australian War Memorial (AWM) was first asked to consider recognising the "frontier wars". The suggestion came from an historian and consultant to the memorial, none other than Geoffrey Blainey.

Blainey's case is straightforward. It has now been established beyond doubt that armed conflict between black and white occurred across the continent over a long period of time, and was routinely referred to by participants and observers as a "war"; those conflicts were similar to other irregular warfare already commemorated by the memorial; so, the "frontier wars" should be commemorated also. [node:read-more:link]

26th January - A national day of shame

Invasion Day
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Australia Day stands as a reminder of massacres so why should Australia's First Nations People celebrate it?

This is not some John Howard "black armband" view of history, rather a white man's whitewash. You can shuttle history, but you cannot shuttle facts. It would be a great Australia Day if it faced honesty, historical facts, abandonment, hypocrisy, shelved superiority and embarked upon an exercise of spiritual empathy rather than religious hubris ...

In the light of the news about Australia's seat at the United Nations, it is sanguine to recollect what John Pilger said in 2012; "No country since apartheid South Africa has been more condemned by the UN for its racism than Australia."

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