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The Frontier Wars

Michael Anderson: "In 2011 we started 'Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars' by joining on behind the Anzac Day march in Canberra and we received enormous support from the public at this time.

We have commenced a process to highlight the wars fought on Australian soil since 1788, when our country was taken by superior force, at gunpoint, and those who stood in the way were shot.

We need to keep identifying that there has been warfare; that blood has been spilt on the wattle; and there is an ongoing war of attrition against Aboriginal Peoples to this day.

Our people are dying in custody for crimes white people don't usually go to jail for, minor driving offences.

The 2012 Nyoongar Embassy on Heirisson Island, Perth, WA, is a classic example, where the authorities are using superior force for no reason at all, but to intimidate the occupants and suppress them, so they leave, even though the Embassy site was carefully chosen as 'Crown Land' under the colonial system of land tenure.

We are subject to continued war of attrition, including urban warfare. That's what's occurring here in this country.

To march on Anzac Day and identify all this present aggression and past aggression, like we did last year, is an absolute imperative for us as no-one is going to know what is going on unless we put it out there.

We all have had family who have participated in one war or another in the modern era, so it shows our own people are prepared to defend this country, even offshore to ward off any attempts to invade our country, or threaten our future generations.

All the Aboriginal diggers marching around the country on Anzac Day can also remember the Kalkadoon wars, Pinjara massacre, the Wiradjuri wars, Myall Creek, just to name a few. In 1788 Governor Phillip came here 'under the rules and disciplines of war' and in 1836 Britain concluded a Select Committee inquiry into their military operations against Aboriginal Peoples.

We cannot forget this, because too many of our people lost their lives in defence of their country and people's lives continue to be lost.

There is a lack of the authority of leadership in this country that speaks to the real issues. Now we have a proposed Constitutional reform process that says the Aboriginal Sovereignty is too hard to deal with, let's forget about it! We don't need that patronising leadership, but instead we need forth right leadership that asserts our rights so that we take our rightful place in society.

The oppression that Aboriginal Peoples are subjected to is now being internalised by our youth, many of whom don't see a future as Aboriginal people but they don't want to assimilate, so they pay the ultimate price in the protest, by taking their own lives - 'turning off the sun'.

The so-called 'Closing the Gap' through Basic cards and a dictatorship about how we should conduct our lives and live is social engineering at its best and genocidal in its intent, through assimilation.

This is why we should march independently on Anzac day to identify this war that we have suffered and continue to suffer. Joining the Anzac march is NOT a protest. It is a remembering of the wars and the losses of those who suffered.

If Australians can remember those who have fallen in defence of our country offshore, then they must accept to silent war that strikes on the mainland today and the losses that result from that and this is some thing we will not forget ... Read Nore