Australian Aboriginal Genocide

On Wednesday 13 February 2008 the newly elected Labor Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made a historic speech to the Australian Federal Parliament  and publicly said “Sorry” for the Stolen Generations, the 19th -20th century policy of forcible removal of as many as 0.1 million Australian Aboriginal children from their mothers and an evil, racist part of the overall Aboriginal Genocide that commenced in 1788 and is still continuing in 2008.

PM Rudd’s speech was outstanding and the historic Apology was important in its healing implications for the victims and Indigenous Australians in general. It moved us (we heard it mostly standing in our living room) and evidently moved millions of fellow Australians – and I dare say most Australians. It represents an historic turn-around, a new start, a new page, a new chapter in Australia’s history.

However the harsh reality is that on 13 February 2008 0.5 million Indigenous Australians were still mostly living in Third World conditions and the Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 Aboriginal excess deaths annually, 90,000 Aboriginal excess deaths in the 11 years of the previous Bush-ite Coalition Government) is continuing. Indeed it took an ultra-conservative commentator to point out that the term “genocide” was not even used by PM Rudd or the Leader of the Opposition in their “Sorry” speeches.

Further,  just a few hours after the "Sorry" vote in the Australian Parliament, the Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown moved  to amend the historic "Sorry Motion" by adding a commitment to offer "just compensation to all those who suffered loss"- but this was voted out by all the non-Green Australian Senators  in a 65 to 4 vote (see: HERE). It took 220 YEARS for the White Australians to finally say "Sorry" - not for  the Aboriginal Genocide which they don't Acknowledge or don't talk about  but for the "collateral" White abuse of Aboriginal  Children. However  it only took them several hours to show the world that they didn't actually mean it.

Now it may seem churlish to carp about these deficiencies after such a joyous and important event in Australia’s history – perhaps one of the most important events in Australian history. However the horrendous, continuing realities of the mostly Third World existence of Indigenous Australians demand urgent social responses in addition to words. 

Such practical responses to an acutely serious, deadly situation must properly derive from scientific Rational Risk Management  that successively involves (a) getting accurate data, the facts, (b) scientific analysis (involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change to minimize human risk. Unfortunately, as outlined below, this protocol was ignored on Apology Day by (a) politicians and media ignoring realities, (b) anti-scientific spin and (c) no requisite, immediate systemic change to stop the current  9,000 annual avoidable Indigenous Australian deaths).

It is useful to see how other societies have dealt with the aftermath of Genocide. Thus in 1945 the Germans adopted a post-Holocaust protocol that can be summarized by the acronym C4A (CAAAA), this involving Cessation of the killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology, Amends (reparations, compensation) and Assertion “never again” (or more properly, “never again to anyone”).
 
How has Australia – represented by the Labor PM Rudd and the National-Liberal Party Coalition Leader of the Opposition Dr Brendan Nelson  responded now at this historic moment,  after  220 years of remorseless, ongoing Aboriginal Genocide in terms of (A) Rational Risk Management and (B) post-Holocaust C4A (CAAAA)?

A. Rational Risk Management

a. Data, the facts.

Neither PM Rudd (Lab) nor Dr Nelson (Lib) even mentioned the Aboriginal Genocide or the even the word “Genocide” in their speeches – an extraordinary omission in the face of the horrendous reality. Instead they concentrated on their versions of the Stolen Generations atrocity and otherwise studiously ignored Aboriginal History.  Indigenous Australians have evolved rich, highly-varied cultures over Australia over 60,000 years. In 1788 Australia was invaded by the British and the Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million over the next century through disempowerment, dispossession, deprivation, disease and massacre (the last massacres occurring in the 1920s). However in the 20th century, the Aboriginal Genocide largely continued  due to egregious deprivation, “captive”  labor (paid in flour, tea and sugar) and a racist policy of forced removal of children from their mothers (the so-called Stolen Generations). This shocking, large-scale, genocidal practice was only terminated in the 1970s. However the Aboriginal genocide continues (9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year out of an Aboriginal population of about 0.5 million).