Aboriginal
Australians boast the longest continual cultural history in the world, with origins
dating from the last Ice Age.Then
the white man came.
Aborigines
were slaughtered and their lands stolen. As recently as 1970 policemen were used
to find and steal Aborigine children away from their parents, they were "re-educated"
and put to work on sheep farms.
Amongst
other atrocities, Aborigine women were forcibly given hysterectomies as the white
man unashamedly attempted to wipe out all traces of Aboriginal culture, religion,
education and language.
In
1997, the President of the Human Rights Commission, Sir Ronald Wilson, announced:
"What was done over the last 400 years meets the international definition of genocide."
Politics: Australia is divided into eight states, each with its own laws,
controlled by the Federal Government in Canberra
