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Coercive reconciliation.

Article Excerpt
This has been a significant year for Aboriginal communities throughout Australia. It has seen many important anniversaries for Aboriginal and Islander communities: a celebration of past stories which we would have hoped marked a positive turning point in our relationship to our colonised environment.

We have had the tenth anniversary of the release of the Bringing Them Home report, which told the stories of the Stolen Generations; the fiftieth anniversary of NAIDOC, which celebrates Aboriginal and Islander cultures in Australia; and the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, which gave de facto recognition to the citizenship of Aboriginal and Islander people.

But this year also marks the beginning of a dangerous time for Aboriginal people. The bi-partisan approach of the major parties of the 1970s and 1980s in relation to acknowledging the self-determining rights of Aboriginal people was abandoned with the coming of the Howard Government.

But worse, with the passing of the NT Emergency Bills, it looks as though there is a new bipartisan approach based on the need to mainstream us.

Once again we are being threatened with assimilation.

Once again our culture is being denigrated.

Once again our land is being taken away.

Once again we are being told that our future lies in being subservient to white authorities.

And once again we are being told that this intervention is for the protection of our children.

Well we know only too well what that means. We have been the victims of colonial protectors before. We have had the experience of authorities deciding what is in the best interests of our children before. But we know that taking away land,...

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