Aboriginal-led inquiry calls for redress for genocide of Indigenous Australians
An inquiry has found that British settlers in Australia did commit genocide against the Indigenous people.
Picture: Pixabay.com
John Maytham (in for Lester Kiewit on CapeTalk) speaks with Katie MacDonald for the Pacific Dispatch.
Listen below:
When the state of Victoria in Australia was colonised in the late 1830s, the Indigenous population was decimated.
Within 20 years the population was reduced by three quarters due to violence and disease - from 60,000 to just 15,000.
This was uncovered in an Aboriginal-led inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which is investigating systemic injustices again Indigenous Australians.
The report declared that this was a genocide after two months of public hearings, and put forward recommendations for redress.
“The government has not been so quick to jump onto those.”
- Katie MacDonald, Freelance News Correspondent
According to MacDonald, the head of the Aboriginal health body in Victoria stated that they do not blame any person alive, but they all need to accept and reconcile with the findings.
“It is a start, and they have to move from there.”
- Katie MacDonald, Freelance News Correspondent
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