Natalie Cromb // The case for treaty | The Saturday Paper

13.2.18

The case for treaty | The Saturday Paper: Indigenous people are viewed as a problem in this country. We are a problem that is met by the powerful with “solutions” brandished like weapons to beat us down – from historical solutions such as murder, massacre, sexualised violence and slavery, to the historical and continuing practice of child removal, to the contemporary policies of intervention, work for the dole and cashless welfare. The past 230 years has seen systematic annihilation of a population undeserving of the abhorrence of dispersal, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of the essence of our culture – land, language and lore.

Yet it is Indigenous people who are viewed as the problem, and this rhetoric resonates in the media, in policies and in the administration of the “justice” system. The cognitive dissonance is all too apparent.