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Racism endemic, Aborigines warn
BRISBANE – Australia would always be a racist society and attempts at reconciliation should be abandoned, an Aborigine leader said yesterday, following the weekend desecration of the grave of land rights pioneer Eddie Mabo.
Politicians from all parties supported a call by federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Robert Tickner for a public fund to establish a Mabo memorial.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Paul Keating said people “on the fringes” who promoted hatred, fear and vilification of minorities would not succeed in turning back the clock on the process of reconciliation.
But delegates to a conference on native title in Townsville, where Mr Mabo died and was buried, described the vandalism as an act of terrorism and racial vilification that typified the violence done to indigenous people every day by an endemically racist society. “This type of violence is common in all of our lives and we must stop pretending that the events of the past 24 hours are anything other than the tip of the racist iceberg,” a conference statement said.
Mr Mabo’s grave was painted with swastika and the word “abo” on Saturday night, prompting Mr Mabo’s widow, Bonita, to have the headstone removed and make plans to move her husband’s remains to Murray Island, in Torres Strait.
Eric Kyle, former president of the statewide Murri Action Group, said the vandalism proved there should never be reconciliation between black and white Australians because Australia would always be a racist society. “If there is to be true reconciliation, the people doing the damage – the white invaders – should apologise for stealing our land,” he said. –AAP
The Evening Post, 6/6/95
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