Lex Wotton on Palm Island

Invited by the Indigenous Social Justice Association on August 10th 2008 Lex Wotton spoke in Melbourne prior to his trial relating to the riots in Palm Island. He was charged with inciting a riot and describes in his own words the events that day.

See Also:

Day three of Wotton trial begins with a splutter NATIONAL October 8, 2008: Day three of the trial of Lex Wotton - the accused ringleader of the Palm Island riots - has begun with a splutter. Most of the morning has been taken up with legal argument about several aspects of the trial. When a witness finally did take the stand shortly before lunch, she only lasted several minutes before she was stood down for more legal argument, and amid concerns for her health.

Wotton trial underway; court watches videos of rallying cries from Palm Islanders NATIONAL, October 8, 2008: The trial of Lex Wotton, the alleged ringleader of the 2004 Palm Island riots, has begun in Brisbane with jurors played video footage of a community grieving the loss of of one of its own.

Stealing Children is Genocide

Reg Edwards is comforted by family members after Kevin Rudd's apology on the grounds of Federation Mall

THEY were taken from their parents more than 40 years ago, a group of frightened children from Balranald, NSW, who were bundled into the back of a police car and driven away.

Memories of the "kidnapping", as Mick Edwards refers to it, returned for his family yesterday, as seven of his brothers and sisters gathered to hear the Prime Minister's apology.

Standing on the lawns outside Parliament House clutching a black-and-white photo of her late father, Nugget Edwards, Maria Edwards bowed her head as Kevin Rudd repeated the word "sorry" from a TV screen. Her sister, Alice, held her shoulders.

" 'Bout f…in' time!" yelled Mick, a football coach who has spent his life trying to control his anger about the past and a broken childhood in boys' homes. His brother Reg Edwards, who is a dialysis patient, stood quietly in the crowd — breaking down only later as he looked at a photo of his dead son.

Singer-songwriter Kutcha Edwards said the family came to accept the apology for all their relatives damaged by the removal — including their late mother, Mary, their father and a brother, Wally, who died from alcoholism at the age of 43.

"They went to their graves without hearing it," said an emotional Kutcha, before singing with the musician John Butler.

"We could have been different if we were left alone," said Arthur, the eldest of the Edwards, who remembers the removal clearly, and being interned at Swan Hill police station before being taken to institutions.

"Phone calls were made to social welfare about Mum not looking after us well. That was totally untrue, we were all loved," he said. "We used to walk to school every day on the riverbank holding hands. All of a sudden it wasn't to be.

"They thought they were doing the right thing taking us. They destroyed us."

	The "senior" denialists of Australian history, do not see, nor do they wish to see, the causal chains that begin with the incursions of settlers, the destruction of environments, the "rough work", the genocidal impulses of the squatters, the segregation-protection era of reserves, settlements and missions, the legislation which always proclaimed itself to be for "the physical, mental and social welfare" of the people, the dismissal of Aboriginal values and their evaluation as less than human, the creation of chronic dependency, and the (continuing) practice of institutionalisation, something which even Neville, a pioneer of forced assimilation, for once correctly saw all too clearly - "that coloured races all over the world detest". It is that very premeditated institutionalisation - whether on Christian missions, cattle stations, government settlements and reserves, assimilation homes, dormitories, juvenile facilities and prisons - that helps explain the degradation, disease and premature dying over these past two hundred years. http://blackgst.revolt.org/tatz.html gotta to agree that this 'apology' is sickening white liberalism and political spin at its worse. Justice for Aboriginal First Nations Now. Check out: http://ridwanlaher.blogspot.com/2008/02/sorry-is-not-enough.html http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/74909/index.php Harawira: Saying sorry is not enough

English Quartet Oppose UN Declaration

September 14, 2007 by Rudolph Ryser.

The year was 1986. The United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations settled into its fifth year of operation meeting in Geneva; and its Chairman announced that it would draft a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. It was supposed at the time that just as the UN had created the climate for the protection of human rights with its December 10, 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the five member working group decided it was time to create the climate for the protection of indigenous peoples. As an early participant in this process I can say the decision to develop a Declaration for the United Nations General Assembly was met with cheers and fears. Four main principles would become the key to indigenous peoples’ acceptance of a Declaration and ultimately the central points of controversy: recognition of indigenous peoples’ territories, the right of self-determination (in social, economic, political and cultural terms), identification of indigenous peoples as peoples, and a recognition of the collective ownership of culture, intellectual property and territories. Without these basic principles included, the Declaration, it was agreed would be empty and meaningless.

On September 13, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted with a 143 member majority out of 192 possible votes to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A victory for those who want the United Nations and the international community to recognize the obvious–indigenous nations and communities are “peoples,” they have territories, they have collective ownership and they have the right of self-determination–the Declaration sets the stage for a generation of controversy over how the principles of the Declaration become enforced law inside existing states.

There is a sour note delivered by the settler states (United States of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and the new state of Namibia). They flat out rejected the Declaration. Despite the generation long and prodigious effort by human rights specialists and thousands of representatives from indigenous nations and representatives of states’ governments the often touted advocates of Human Rights–the English Speaking Quartet plus one–voted against the Declaration in part because “it contained language that would undermine our economy.”

In the case of the English Speaking Quartet, the states that came into being by stealing land from the original occupants, express their “grave concern” over this Declaration because they worry that indigenous nations may want their land back. Land and control over land and the economic and power benefits that go with the land is at the center of English Quartet opposition.

In Canada’s case to recognize the right of self-determination and the territorial rights of indigenous nations would mean that Canada’s claims over millions of hectares of land–they call “Crown land”– are potentially null and void. Canada might have to respect the original owner’s and their right to freely use and dispose of their land and resources according to THEIR wants and needs–not Canada’s wants and needs. Canada is attempting to “legally steal” First Nation territories through a bogus “treaty process” with First Nations it started more than fifteen years ago. First Nations leaders have begun to see through Canada’s treaty charade and balk at giving away their land for Canadian dollars (called Loonies strangely enough). More than two-thirds of what Canada claims as its territory actually belongs to the original owners–the First Nations.

The United States of America is in a similar condition as Canada. They claim lands stolen from many different nations–more, as some have calculated, than two-thirds of US claimed territory. The United States government has violated virtually every treaty negotiated with Indian nations since the first agreements were struck in the 1620s by predecessor colonies. Even though the United States government announced its “Self-determination Policy” in 1971, this policy is seriously restricted to economic and social rights recognized for Indian nations. Political rights to self-determination are frowned on and generally not recognized. Economic and social rights are recognized as long as they conform to what US leaders consider desirable and acceptable practices consistent with US goals. If Indian nations deviate from US goals they are soundly punished–though not publicly.

Australia and New Zealand are English settler states that claimed the homes and territories of Aboriginal peoples and Maoris and to this day treat the original occupants of these territories as outsiders. The controllers of each of these states pretend to recognize the original owners of these countries, but persistently take lands and resources for their own wellbeing and power and leaving the original owners mostly destitute.

Namibia is frightened to death that the indigenous peoples living in the Caprivi Strip (northeast of Namibia) will self-determine themselves into a separate country or join another state. Namibia’s opposition to the Declaration is directly connected to their desire to deny the peoples of the Caprivi Strip their right to freely decide their own social, economic, political and cultural future without external interference. This principle is the same one the leaders of Nambia used to justify their declaration of independence not so long ago. Now they deny that same right to people who never wanted to be part of Nambia.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a major achievement in a world that allows its member states to cynically and lawlessly claim other peoples lands, property and right of decision so pervasively–oddly by the members of the English Speaking Quartet that so noisily claim to lead the Human Rights band wagon. Now the struggle for indigenous peoples’ territorial rights, identity as people, collective rights and the ability to freely exercise the right of self-determination begins in earnest. Many states that voted for the Declaration will silently obstruct the creation of new domestic laws that implement the Declaration–they will say they are working on that implementation, but they will prevent the realization of its principles in the life of indigenous peoples. Many states that voted against the Declaration will say they already have laws that implement the Declaration, but they will lie. There laws are simply fictive symbols to ward off criticism by others who would demand their acceptance of the official policy of most of the world.

The struggle for the power to freely exercise the right of self-determination now takes on a new dimension–indigenous peoples themselves will now come to believe they not only have the right, but they have the duty to freely choose their own social, economic, political and cultural future. Fourth World nations will have to develop some of their own new international laws to define how the world operates. They are at least tentatively now, a part of the international community as peoples. When they act of their own volition, those who opposed the Declaration and those who will obstruct its implementation will face increasingly determined nations seeking to be free. The struggle begins!

http://fwe.cwis.org/2007/09/14/english-quartet-oppose-un-declaration/

APEC protests - A symbol of Terra Nullius, foreign occupation and colonisation

this is from the choice Paradigm Oz blog, which would echo alot of my sentiments regarding the 'protests' at apec.Bout time to decolonise this country aye.

The blogosphere is now full of self congratulatory reports of the great success of the Sydney anti-APEC protests.

I am not impressed though.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was camped at Victoria Park for the duration of APEC but there appears to have been no connection to it or to Aboriginal Australia in any of the protest propaganda before the event or the glowing reviews since the event.

Here are some of my comments around the blogosphere…..

On Leftwrites

“I am astounded that in the context of Howard’s NT emergency and the existence of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Victoria Park the protest movement ignored Aboriginal Australia and Aboriginal issues.

I have asked around other places too, and there seems to have been no connection.

This was a perfect opportunity to embarrass both the govt. and the ALP internationally for their racist and genocidal policies.

It was not that long ago that Chris Hurley’s aquittal for the death of Mulrunji was big international news.

Yet the protest seems to have stayed within the shell of colonial Australia – identifying as part of the global anti-bush movement while remaining blind to the real war, oppression and resistance that is occuring right here in Australia.

There has been a great outrage at the denial of civil liberties to white middle class people but the daily police harrasment and persecution that occurs in Aboriginal communities or to Aboriginal individuals in the streets of any town, plus the constant fear and threat of death in custody, does not seem to be a key issue for the proponents of civil liberty.

It is not just Iraq that has been subjected to war and foreign domination. This is the history of our country too – and none of it has been rectified, resulting in the massive problems today in Aboriginal society.

If the protests were just about the morality and sensibilities of white society then they stand alongside Bush and Howard as symbols of global white supremacy, imperialism and colonisation.”

On Richard Neville’s blog

“There is nothing new about the brutality of the police at this demonstration.

Aboriginal communities around Australia experience the jackboot as everyday policing.

The above article speaks of a “war against history”. There is a war against the history of this country also, a denial and a sugar coating that conforms to the great Australian mode of white superiority, or at least a Terra Nullius consciousness that is blind to Aboriginal people, their history and their contemporary circumstance.

It seems to me that the protests also were a part of this Terra Nullius perspective.

At present the government has waged war against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. In their term of government they have wound back all of the Aboriginal gains of the 20th century including land rights, an independent representative body, the reccomendations of the royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and even the Racial Discrimination Act.

APEC was a prime opportunity to put these issues on the world stage, especially since the ALP has not raised even a whimper in opposition to Howard’s Aboriginal agenda.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was camped in Victoria Park, also protesting against APEC but the protests seem to have failed to connect with them or incorporated any of their demands into the protest.

It is not surprising when the civil liberties of middle class white folk are denied there is a huge fuss kicked up.

But the daily repression of Aboriginal communities including racist and thuggish policing manages to stay under the radar of even the protest movement.”

And on Left Click

“So I take it that there was no link up with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy?

I suggest this is because the protest movement shares the same colonial consciousness as mainstream Australia. Aboriginal people, actions and demands are ignored unless they have some relevance to our own campaigns and issues.

We reduce Aboriginal struggle to meaningless dot points on our own propaganda - although it seems even this didn’t happen at the APEC protest. Please correct me if I am wrong but I saw nothing in the many statements about the protest.

Some communiques refered to inspiring quotes from Aboriginal spokespeople to rev up a sense of militancy, but nobody decided to include Aboriginal demands, let alone connect to the Tent Embassy protesting at the same time and same place.

This is a crucial time in Australian history as we face the possiblity of finally getting rid of Howard. He and Brough have picked a fight about protecting Aboriginal children, in so doing he is provoking the worst of Australian racism in the hope that such negativity will get him over the line just as children overboard did.

But children overboard had a massive reaction - a whole refugee rights movement developed with protests across the country continuing until the present.

But who has built any similar campaign in support of Aboriginal Australia? The ALP has supported the intervention and “the left” or the militant protest movement has done little else than pass polite commentary on the matter in their other campaigns.

As long as Aboriginal demands, political organisation and ways of doing things are ignored by our protest movements, we remain as just another branch of a diverse invader colonial matrix.

We may have our arguments with other sectors of the invader society such as Howard but we are all united in our blindness to Aboriginality and our own responsibilities and opportunities in this Aboriginal country.

It is time to transcend tokenism and white consciousness and join the longest running resistance movement in Australia’s history.”
http://paradigmoz.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/apec-protests-a-symbol-of-terra-nullius-foreign-occupation-and-colonisation/

"We were babies"

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images of deceased persons.

The truth about The Stolen Generation. These laws were the cause to our pain our suffering as a nation, as a people we too suffer with them in the fight for retribution. Thank you Larissa

Community says no to kkkanberra

Russell Skelton, Amoonguna, Northern Territory
July 3, 2007


THE Howard Government's assessment of indigenous communities met its
first setback yesterday when a team of police, soldiers and social
workers were refused entry to the Amoonguna community south of Alice
Springs.

Community chief executive Barry Byerley told organisers the team was
not welcome until appropriate consultation had been made with the
community's 350 residents and the purpose of the visit fully explained.

"It was a ridiculous situation. We didn't want the team just barging
in without the people being properly briefed on why they were coming
and what was involved. It was the height of arrogance," he said.

Mr Byerley said the community, which recently won a local government
award for good governance, had been angered by the Federal
Government's decision to cut off funding for community development
employment programs (CDEP), which had forced more than 30 residents
back on the dole.

"They treat the community with contempt by failing to adequately
explain the loss of CDEP after just nine months and then they give us
only 24 hours' notice that they want to come into the community.
People are genuinely worried."

Mr Byerley said he had been told of the visit on Sunday, but had
objected strongly. A spokesman for the assessment team said he hoped
they would visit the community later in the week.

Amoonguna is the first community to refuse entry. Assessment teams
have visited six communities so far.

Marie Ellis, a traditional owner, endorsed Mr Byerley's stand, saying
a community meeting would decide whether the assessment team would be
welcomed on Thursday. "I don't know what will happen, it is up to the
people," she said.

Health centre manager David Evans said the community had taken a
strong stand on sexual abuse and had recently banned a convicted
pedophile from entering. "We also have one of the lowest rates for
sexually transmitted disease in the territory, it's around 3 per cent."

Meanwhile, a team visited Docker River and the tiny community of
Wallace Rockhole, west of Alice Springs, the first of eight expected
to be surveyed this week. A number of people expressed concern about
the lack of Aboriginal leaders in the assessment team and asked for
more details.

AFP officers are now being trained in NT law enforcement and cultural
considerations before they take up duties in the communities. The
first of them are expected to be deployed in Mutitjulu on Friday.

It is still unclear if the Federal Government's planned health checks
will be mandatory for children under 16. Both federal Health Minister
Tony Abbott and the chair of the Government's new task force, Dr Sue
Gordon, hoped they would be voluntary.

"That it's an across-the-board health check, to check eyes, ears,
nose, and if there is any thought that there may be some sexual
(abuse), then it has got to be done properly," Dr Gordon said.

www.theage.com.au

GENOCIDE

http://blackgst.revolt.org/genocide.html

A live spoken work piece by Black GST Elder, Robbie Thorpe at the
Elevlyn Hotel, Melbounre, Australia, January, 2006. Big ups to Kakariki Films 4 this:

http://www.archive.org/details/RobbieThorpeLiveontheBlackGST

MNN - AUSSIES IMPOSE MARTIAL LAW ON ABORGINES

–
MNN. June 24, 2007. In the 1920's there was a failed artist who was bitter about his lack of success in Vienna Austria. He had visions of gaining control over the whole human race. He came up with a scheme and put it into a book called "Main Kampf".

One procedure in Adolph Hitler's plan was to find a "scapegoat" that he could victimize. He planned to wreak havoc upon these people with such brutality and force that it would frighten everyone else in society who would then succumb to his schemes. It worked for a time.

He set up a plan of attack against the Jews, Gypsies and others to frighten Germans into not resisting him. He confiscated their property, took away children from their parents and intimidated them publicly before the German population. The majority of the people dared not oppose him. They allowed themselves to be swallowed up by his delusions. They imagined they were part of a superior race. The more brutal he was to his victims the more the majority of the people idolized him.

Canada is using a new version of this old weapon. We are being branded as sexual perverts or pedophiles or deviants of some sort. By doing this government control mechanisms are being set in place. The social networks such as the Children's Aid Society, police and even the military are becoming involved. We have been seeing the military in the outskirts of Six Nations during the reclamation of our land. The social services are being given more and more power to abduct, grab and remove our children from their families based on the claim that this is "in the best interests of the children".

In Canada there are two frightening aspects. Television shows payouts to Indigenous people almost daily. It gives the general public the impression that natives are always winning the lottery. The public is told that huge amounts are being paid out for having been molested in the past. Sociologists and doctors propagate a myth that anyone who has been molested also becomes a molester.

At the same time they have branded the entire Indigenous population as molesters. Why? Because they are giving money for abuse that happened in the past to our children by church run residential schools. Once Indigenous declare they have been molested and divulge their past, they are put on a computer list where they are branded as "deviants" and encouraged not to have any children. This is really "Genocide Plan B". They will use any pretext to go into Indigenous communities and take away children from parents because that community "has been contaminated by what [what they did to us] happened in the residential schools"!

There is so much assault on Indigenous cultures in Canada. Some indigenous people feel it's a big accomplishment just to keep our children.

Presently there is a public inquiry going on in Cornwall Ontario regarding sexual abuse from the past. The main focus is to show how police and children's protection agencies did not do their job protecting children from the pedophiles. As a result the law is going to be changed.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently sent some of its workers to Cornwall to observe the inquiry. They are going to draft the laws to empower the child welfare agencies, the police and army with the necessary legal power to prevent this kind of holocaust ever happening again. They are going to take children away from families and place them into communal state run agencies like they did in Russia and Germany. These were complete disasters for those societies just like the residential schools were a disaster for us.

We are seeing the implementation of a gigantic totalitarian regime upon Canada. We are the initial scapegoats. They want to so frighten the public that no one will dare stand up to this take over by the totalitarian regime. All of Canadian society should be frightened by this.

In Australia the Howard government is going to implement martial law on the Aborigines to confiscate their lands and property. They also plan to attack those in vulnerable positions like the welfare recipients. The Australians are many steps ahead of Canada in implementing this kind of scheme.

Some of the band council and government established "leadership" among our people are residues from the residential schools molestation program. Some of them are selling out our people.

Another aspect is how all the public inquiries in Canada in the last few years involve Indigenous people. J.J. Harper in Winnipeg, Ipperwash, Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, Saskatchewan police murders of native youth, and the Betty Osborn murder and others. Canadians have spent a fortune studying us without allowing us our jurisdiction. During these inquiries that go on for years, statistics and information are gathered and put into huge documents. They are then dissected and studied to find out the inner workings of our communities.

Prior to the holocaust in Germany, the Gestapo and other secret services gathered information about the blood lines of all Jews, Gypsies and other minorities and the workings of their societies. When the Germans came for these people, they knew who to locate, arrest and send to the concentration camps.

To control a group of people or society the despots take the most vulnerable people. They abuse and mistreat them so badly in front of the public that the entire society becomes frightened. The public becomes paralyzed with fear and can't do anything. It's like the "Stockholm Syndrome", where an abused person gravitates towards their abuser believing they are going to be protected. This is happening on a larger scale. Colonial states are publicly committing atrocities and televising them daily. The victims gravitate towards their abusers thinking they are going to be protected. Actually, the despots will destroy everybody. There is no protection in a totalitarian state. If anyone knows about this, it's those of us who survived.

Is Canada repeating its own history? Are they starting with us and then ending with Canada becoming a totalitarian state? They're going to do this by branding us first as deviants. They will demonize us and then try to destroy us.

These totalitarian schemes are doomed to failure. They have been tried repeatedly throughout history and they always fail. The trouble is that there is huge suffering and loss of life in the process. If Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper does not object to this violation of aboriginal rights and international law, then we will know that he's going their way. We need our friends and allies to object to this immediately.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News

See: Australian government imposes military-police regime on Aborigines


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Terrorist Attack on Aborigines The Act Of Terror That Initiated The Aboriginal Holocaust

dont forget to check out Tyson Yunkaporta's excellent and elucidate site:

http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/


© Tyson Yunkaporta

May 29, 2006
Was Australia's first Governor, by empirical definition and his own admission, a terrorist? And how does our current government compare?

Acknowledging The Thin Ice

Firstly I should say that I am not making arbitrary judgements and opinionated claims here. I am aware that painting the "early settlers" and "brave old pioneers" of colonial mythology as terrorists - the ultimate 21st century bogeyman - is tantamount to treason and strikes at the heart of dominant cultural identity. I really don't need to be lynched right now, so I will just stick to the facts, quotes and definitions. I apologise for any offense, but I am not changing history here - merely quoting it as it is recorded.

"Universal Terror" Statement

The quote (1790) from Governor Phillip that drew my attention and inspired this article is as follows:
"...strike a decisive blow, in order, at once to convince them of our superiority, and to infuse an universal terror."

Now, if I hadn't already situated this quote in an historical context, you may have imagined the words to be from some stereotypical fanatical Middle Eastern despot hiding out in a cave. You may have felt outrage, and immediately felt protective or supportive towards the intended victims of this "universal terror". But if you know that this quote is from the first British Governor of Australia, and is referring to the first planned military attack on Aboriginal people, do you still feel the same way? Surely you must.

Terrorism, By Definition

Keeping this feeling in mind, consider also that terrorism is generally accepted as the use of violence, or the threat of violence, in a civilian community to force political or religious change. Could Governor Phillip's statement and actions fit this definition? Could his orders to capture two Aborigines and decapitate ten more randomly from a targeted tribe be construed as an act of violence against a civilian community to force political change? Arguably, yes.

British Humanitarian Guidelines

But wasn't he just following orders? Not necessarily. The British Government repeatedly insisted that the colony be founded based on mutual agreement between natives and settlers as to areas of settlement, and continually stressed that force was not to be used. Even Captain Cook's first voyage included the following guidelines:

* "To have it still in view that shedding the blood of those (Aboriginal) people is a crime of the highest nature."
* "They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several Regions they inhabit."
* "No European nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent."
* "Conquest over such people can never give just title..."
* "They may naturally and justly attempt to repel intruders..."

If this was indeed the attitude of the British administration that sent the colonists to Australian shores, then why the subsequent genocide? Why the Governor's blatant refusal to follow policy and instead decide to "infuse an universal terror"? Well, I don't speak for these people, so it's not my place to answer these questions.

But the fact remains that, as the systematic annihilation of Indigenous peoples on this continent was not sanctioned by the invaders' Government, then by definition the colony was built on, at worst, murder, or at best, war crimes.

Australian Survival

It is possible that, at some level, everybody is aware of this. This might explain the fanatical and often violent opposition that still occurs towards any suggestion of Aboriginal Rights and Native Title. The stain of guilt is there, just below the surface, and to reveal it would be to destroy the nation's identity. Opposing Indigenous rights is therefore seen as a matter of ethnic survival for the dominant culture, and as such, violent or fanatical opposition is to be expected. But does any of this opposition these days still take the form of terrorism?

Scenarios For Discussion

We would have to examine individual cases of political actions in Indigenous communities to discover that. I will give a sample scenario below, for you to practise on. Compare the scenario to the definition of terrorism in the 5th paragraph, or even substitute an alternative definition. Please feel free to post your analysis or opinion in the discussion section below. Also feel free to post other scenarios for analysis, from anywhere around the world where suspected acts of terrorism are being committed against Indigenous people.

Scenario One

An Indigenous community is pressured by Australian government representatives to give approval for a tavern to be built in what is currently a dry town. Three referendums are held on the question, and the unanimous community response each time is "no!", despite a lot of pro-alcohol campaigning. Eventually the tavern is built anyway, against the wishes of the community. A few years later the government decides to take what it calls "tough measures" against the same community with regard to welfare and crime, in response to horrific problems caused by chronic alcoholism. Graphic reports of individual cases of child abuse by Indigenous alcoholics are presented in the media to shock the wider community into accepting the "tough measures" as the preferred solution. Could any element of this scenario be described as an act of terror?