Blog 2 - Rabbit-Proof Fence

1. In chapter 3, the Aborigine people face many injustices as the European settlers come in and begin to take over. Three major injustices suffered include:
     1) Brothers who were caught spearing a sheep were taken in to be sentenced by the Englishmen, who had claimed the sheep and the hunting ground as their own. The brothers were unfairly tried and then "shoved roughly, their legs in irons, into a boat and sailed down the river, out to the open sea. They were never seen again. Hundreds of others followed them, bound in chains, across the waters into the unknown."
     This quote demonstrates the violation of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights point number nine, the freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile. The brothers were taken away from their homes, sent off to sea never to be seen again, solely because the white men did not want to share their hunting ground; hunting ground that was never theirs to begin with. The English settlers simply came in, took their land, and then exiled the Aborigine people for hypocritical reasons, unfairly exiling them for acting in a way in which they always had, by hunting to stay alive in an area that had previously been fair game.
     2) "[T]hey were forbidden to dance and sing, unless commanded by government officials...The important dates on their seasonal calendars would be forgotten."
     This instance violates point number eighteen, freedom of belief and religion. The English settlers came in and suppressed Aborigine culture. They were forbidden to perform rituals and ceremonies unless told to do so. Their religious and cultural holidays were taken away, and they were expected to forget their old beliefs and ways of life and to conform into a part of white society.
     3) "'Black servants, I find...are very serviceable in this colony; on them we eventually depend for labour, as we can never afford to pay English servants the high wages they expect, besides feeding them so well. The black fellows receive little more than rice -- their simple diet.'"
     I believe that this is a violation of point number two, freedom from discrimination, as well as number six, right to recognition as a person before the law. "Blacks" were discriminated against and categorized as lower than white men. They were not treated fairly as human beings and were treated like animals. They were brought in as servants to white men because in the eyes of these men, blacks did not need to be paid as much or fed as well. They were treated as lesser human beings and expected to do the work of the English settlers without complaints.

2. The "civilizing" of Australia mirrors that of the United States in many ways. The first and most obvious example would have to be colonization of both territories, with Europeans moving in and attempting to either drive natives off of their land and/or to spread their own cultural values on to the natives in order to wipe out traditional values of the area. Another example comes from the idea of "Manifest Destiny" that was common among most Europeans moving into colonies in the United States. They felt that eventual conquest of territory spanning across the entire North American continent by European settlers was inevitable, and as a result the settlers continued to drive westward. This also related to Australian "civilization" because in both circumstances, settlers moved in and continued to push natives out of their homes in order to establish their own colonial empires. Natives in both countries were abused and treated as lesser human beings, simply because they were viewed by "civilized" settlers as barbaric and uneducated, when in reality, they were just different.

3. I believe that the actions of the government were absolutely not justified in relocating children of mixed descent. Not only were several of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights points violated, but the extremes taken to do so were also incredibly harsh. The relocation tore families apart and deprived mixed descent children of their native culture and of the right to learn about their heritage. They were placed into families who did not necessarily love them and may have abused them. These families typically sought only to "civilize" the children in order to breed the Aborigine gene out of them. The government program forever scarred these children and has made it difficult for them to live their lives normally to this day. Visions of the past haunt them into adulthood, and that can never be taken back. Everyone deserves a chance to live their lives according to their own beliefs and wants, and for that the government has zero justification in depriving the Lost Generation of these rights.