Genocide in the Wildflower State screens at Parliament House, Canberra
Documentary Screening highlights Genocide in Australia
2 July 2024
At a time when claims of Genocide are being made around the world, a Documentary Screening in Parliament House today highlights the reality that there were clear breaches of the International Convention on Genocide in Australia as Commonwealth and State Governments put in place policies to “breed out the colour” and eliminate our First Nations Peoples.
“We have produced this documentary as part of a campaign to educate Parliamentarians and the broader community about past genocidal policies in Western Australia and around Australia, in which Aboriginal children were arbitrarily removed from their families and their culture as part of a plan to create a White Australia”, according to Jim Morrison, Chair of the West Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation.
One of the major advocates of these eugenics policies was the Chief Protector in Western Australia, A.O. Neville, who asked the question in 1937 “Are we going to have a population of one million blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia”
“The 1997 Bringing Them Home Report confirmed that these policies were genocidal and that reparations should be made to those Aboriginal People, like me, who suffered under these policies” according to Tony Hansen, Co-Chair of Bringing Them Home WA and a Stolen Generations Survivor who was removed from his family in 1970.
“It is time that all Parliamentarians in Australia understood the widespread impact of these policies and the ongoing trauma and put in place proper reparations for the Stolen Generations Survivors. Compensation schemes have been put in place in all States except WA and Queensland – it is time for action!”, Mr Hansen concluded.
For further comment:
Jim Morrison: 0408 917 133 or Tony Hansen: 0417 610 412
Note: There will be a Screening of “Genocide in the Wildflower State” at Parliament House in Canberra at 4pm on Tuesday 2nd July 2024. A delegation of Stolen Generations Survivors who appear in the documentary will be present.