Gross Abuse

While repatriation has been happening in Australia for decades, Mr Sullivan says it is something that can't be truly quantified, nor something that can shed value over time. "That don't mean nothing, being common, it'll still have the same effect as it will for the first time and for the hundredth time." The reality of the task became clear to Mr Quayle when, years ago, he visited the Australian Museum as part of his work with the culture and heritage division in the NSW government. He found his ancestor's remains stacked on shelves and collecting dust in the museum's basement. [node:read-more:link]

Ghillar Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples said from Goodooga today that he has just sent an Open Letter to all UN Ambassadors in New York to highlight Australia's questionable legitimacy on the UN Security Council and to draw attention to Australia's return to the 1920s white colonial Aryan rule. 
Australia is now a country where there are no judicial reviews possible against a form of military rule over its own population and in particular First Nations Peoples. [node:read-more:link]

A campaigner for compensation has discovered that the 'Agent Orange' used to spray weeds in the Kimberley was fire damaged and deemed to be more toxic than the cocktail used in the Vietnam War, with possibly up to 200 times higher dioxin than normal Agent Orange.

This highly toxic chemical 245T (Agent Orange) was supplied by the Dept of Agriculture (Now APB) in the Kimberley to employees in damaged, second-hand and unmarked drums. [node:read-more:link]

In April 1789, a sudden, unusual, epidemic of smallpox was reported amongst the Port Jackson Aboriginal tribes who were actively resisting settlers from the First Fleet.

This outbreak may have killed over 90 per cent of nearby native families and maybe three quarters or half of those between the Hawkesbury River and Port Hacking. It also killed an unknown number at Jervis Bay and west of the Blue Mountains [node:read-more:link]

A First Nations author from Western Queensland has launched her memoir, 'The Power of Bones', which tells of her seven-year struggle to have the bones of her ancestors returned to her people. It's a slow process, trying to pry the remains of First Nations people away from governments, dithering scientists and privileged museum curators, but after much begging, arguing and pressure some are being returned to country a few at a time. The pussyfooting only ceases when the holders have their arms tied behind their backs. [node:read-more:link]