Aboriginal rally
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24 April 2015 | Australië, Perth
23th of April 2015
Thor Kerr is doing research on the aboriginals. These are the original residents of Australia. Thor asked to help with a rally, which was organized by aboriginals because of the government who is trying to close the aboriginal community’s by putting their children away to other parents to break their culture and stop funding schools who want to teach half of the time in aboriginal language, so destroying their language.
The rally started approximately 10:35 AM.
Some aboriginal boys opened the rally by dancing. Next to the dance there were a few speeches too, which were full of emotion. As I looked around me I realized that there were only aboriginals who really cared about their land and would do anything to take it back. Still they prefer the non-violent solution that is why they organize rally’s like this. Even though they prefer the non-violent solution you hear the anger in their voices and they still make it very clear that they hate the police and the government. They are doing this by calling the police and government e.g.: “fucking idiots”. They can’t believe that the government is taking their children away and stop giving funds for the schools that try to teach the aboriginal language. I also saw a lot of policemen for such a small group of people (approximately 50-60 police officers by horse, bike and motorcycle for around the 200-300 people).
When the speeches were finished, they moved on in a protest march through downtown Perth. Soon the first little arguments began after the police provoked some of the aboriginals by driving into them with a motorcycle or trying to push them together with horses and bikes and motorcycles. The aboriginal reactions were yelling and shouting offensive language towards the police. Some of them went over to the police and tried to stand in front of the horses or motorcycles just for the protection of the elderly and the children. This is another thing what struck me because the aboriginals had no intention to be violent. This was easy to see because they went in a march with small children and elderly people.
The police keep provoking and eventually a police horse ran over a guy who was walking in the march. He was lucky the horse only stepped on his leg because it could have been a lot worse.
After the hectic march was the arrival from the aboriginals to the parliament building just outside the centre of Perth. There were just like at the Forest Place a lot of police officers. Again the aboriginals had some speeches prepared. a short aboriginal man with dyed blond hair was surrounded and they arrested him because a police officer tripped over a flag and this happened before the final speech was finished. This action caused a lot of commotion and angry aboriginals.
At this moment the cameras of news channels were all over the place but only to film the fights.
After the march in the evening the news channels were discussing the rally. What was a surprise is the fact that they only talked about one aboriginal who “pushed” a police officer to the ground.
Their conclusion was that aboriginals where violent and aggressive. This shows that media plays a big role in how people think about the aboriginals and how people picture them. Still, why would the media show us a twisted view on the aboriginals? An interesting fact about this question is that the sponsor of the biggest news channel is a big mine company who wants the ground of the aboriginals because of their valuable resources like gold or other metals. Yet isn’t this an answer to the question and for now the answer will be unknown for now.
If you want more information the aboriginals I observed where from the nyoongar tent embassy and they have their own Facebook page.
Thor Kerr is doing research on the aboriginals. These are the original residents of Australia. Thor asked to help with a rally, which was organized by aboriginals because of the government who is trying to close the aboriginal community’s by putting their children away to other parents to break their culture and stop funding schools who want to teach half of the time in aboriginal language, so destroying their language.
The rally started approximately 10:35 AM.
Some aboriginal boys opened the rally by dancing. Next to the dance there were a few speeches too, which were full of emotion. As I looked around me I realized that there were only aboriginals who really cared about their land and would do anything to take it back. Still they prefer the non-violent solution that is why they organize rally’s like this. Even though they prefer the non-violent solution you hear the anger in their voices and they still make it very clear that they hate the police and the government. They are doing this by calling the police and government e.g.: “fucking idiots”. They can’t believe that the government is taking their children away and stop giving funds for the schools that try to teach the aboriginal language. I also saw a lot of policemen for such a small group of people (approximately 50-60 police officers by horse, bike and motorcycle for around the 200-300 people).
When the speeches were finished, they moved on in a protest march through downtown Perth. Soon the first little arguments began after the police provoked some of the aboriginals by driving into them with a motorcycle or trying to push them together with horses and bikes and motorcycles. The aboriginal reactions were yelling and shouting offensive language towards the police. Some of them went over to the police and tried to stand in front of the horses or motorcycles just for the protection of the elderly and the children. This is another thing what struck me because the aboriginals had no intention to be violent. This was easy to see because they went in a march with small children and elderly people.
The police keep provoking and eventually a police horse ran over a guy who was walking in the march. He was lucky the horse only stepped on his leg because it could have been a lot worse.
After the hectic march was the arrival from the aboriginals to the parliament building just outside the centre of Perth. There were just like at the Forest Place a lot of police officers. Again the aboriginals had some speeches prepared. a short aboriginal man with dyed blond hair was surrounded and they arrested him because a police officer tripped over a flag and this happened before the final speech was finished. This action caused a lot of commotion and angry aboriginals.
At this moment the cameras of news channels were all over the place but only to film the fights.
After the march in the evening the news channels were discussing the rally. What was a surprise is the fact that they only talked about one aboriginal who “pushed” a police officer to the ground.
Their conclusion was that aboriginals where violent and aggressive. This shows that media plays a big role in how people think about the aboriginals and how people picture them. Still, why would the media show us a twisted view on the aboriginals? An interesting fact about this question is that the sponsor of the biggest news channel is a big mine company who wants the ground of the aboriginals because of their valuable resources like gold or other metals. Yet isn’t this an answer to the question and for now the answer will be unknown for now.
If you want more information the aboriginals I observed where from the nyoongar tent embassy and they have their own Facebook page.
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