HOLOCAUST(greek-english): killing of a great number of people,

                                              especially of Jews during the time of National Socialism
 

ETHNOCIDE(greek-latin): willingly organized extermination of the cultural identity of people

                                        of a certain ethnic origin by forced assimilation of the culture of the rulers
 

GENOCIDE(greek): organized mass-extermination of national or ethnic or religious groups
 

OUTHUMANACT: genocide and discrimination of the original australian inhabitants (Aborigines)
 

At the end of the 18th century, european settlers began to colonize Australia. They saw the country as "Terra Nullius",(no man´s land), and the aborigines as a race of primitive nomads becoming extinct. They referred to them as "wild animals", "vermin", "barely human", "horror for mankind", "disgusting", and "a nuisance", so they were soon declared as fair game for the white hunters.

At first they were pushed with force to the inhospitable parts of the country, so that their economic living-conditions worsened.
In 1806 the killing began in great measures. Women were raped, tortured and poisoned, children seperated from their parents, men were shot.
In 1824 the settlers got the official permission to shoot Aborigines
In 1828 the governor announced the conventions of war. Militant groups of settlers got organized for the arresting and killing of Aborigines. Guard troops avenged the acts of retaliation of the Aborigines through mass-killings of men, women and children. Rewards were offered all over the country for the killing of Aborigines, and the men of the high society arranged battues as sports and entertainment.
Between 1803 and 1825 almost the entire tasmanians had been killed by the colonists, one of the most brutal chapters in the history of european colonial times.
Between 1824 and 1908 -10.000 Aborigines were killed in the colony Queensland.
In the Kimberly-region many killings remained unknown. Only the infamous massacre at Forest River in 1926 aroused so much public indignation, that the worst excesses of brutality were stopped.
The british colonization of Australia almost led to the complete extinction of the Aborigines.
The submission and wiping out of the Aborigines were ideologically legitimized through racistic and socialdarwinistic theories. This genocide resulted of politics, that all australian governments from the days of the early settlers in 1718 to this very day justified and implemented. To the physical destruction was added the destruction of cultural identity, because without access to the sacred places of their dreamtime-mythology, the philosophy of the Aborigines, that is based on continuous ritual renewal, dies, without any compareable replacement.

1993 The "Mabo-law puts an end to the legal position of "Terra Nullius". The Aborigines receive the right of "native titles", the reclaiming of their own land, on the condition that they can prove a permanent, constant relation over centuries. Aborigine-tribes have claimed almost 40% of the Australian territory. The former users can stay, but have to give the Aborigines transit-rights, the right to hunt wild animals and carrieing out of religious actions(see: Wik-laws of 1998).
1996 The new liberal-conservative government of Australia decided to cut back the means for the umbrella-organization of Aborigines(ATSIC) drastically. Prominent civil rights-campaigners estimate that about 2000 institutions for Aborigines have to close down and therefor call it "institutionalized murder".
1998 The "Wik-law" reduces the demands of the Aborigines: land-rights to areas, that were given to farmers or mining-companies on lease by the state, cannot be claimed. Only financial compensation can be claimed, which shall be financed out of public funds and will cost several billion dollars.
1999 A preambel to the constitution, that recognizes the Aborigines as the first population of Australia, was turned down.
Unfortunately the past has not been overcome. It is still a fact, that Australia is the only Commonwealth-Country and one of the very few countries in the world, that has no agreement with their native population and thereby recognizes them in their constitution.

Furthermore Australia is the first western country with a democratic constitution that was asked by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to explain the nature of its politics towards Aborigines.
Poll results showed, that 62% of the australian people think that an official apology to the indigenuous population by the government is not necessary.
When it seems on the surface as if the government would support the integration of Aborigines, the profit-seeking still dominates, which is incompatible with thew fundamental right of the Aborigines to justice, equality and human dignity.
artalfa is of the opinion, that it is time to give this madness, which has been lasting for 200 years, a name. By this, we at least avoid that what has happened remains unspoken as if it had never happened  :

OUTHUMANACT

Text :

Enzyklopädie (Microsoft, Encarta 2001)

„Eine Viertelmillion Menschen demonstrieren für die australische Gesellschaft“ (Linda Tenebaum, wsws);

„Der ungleiche Wettkampf“ (Colin Tatz, taz) ;

„Bericht detailliert Verbrechen gegen die Ureinwohner Australiens“ (Brett Stone, wsws);

„Aborigines in Australien“ (Theodor Rathgeber, GfbV- Deutschland);

“Bilanz des Rates zur Versöhnung mit den Aborigines“  Katharina Lorenz, GfbV – Deutschland)

„Die gestohlenen Kinder“ (Antonella Romeo,  Weltwoche)

„Geschichte“ (www.australien-info.de)

„Rassismus in Australien“ (GfbV–index)