Thursday, October 25, 2007

Colonialism is the human race's greatest crime

I believe one of the greatest crimes in modern history have been the effects colonialism and imperialism have had on Indigenous populations around the world.

These acts, sometimes partly driven by the white "civilising" mission of Christianity, continue to place Indigenous peoples at risk generations after first contact.

World War One and World War Two were horrendous. The Holocaust was absolutely disgusting. But when placed against the atrocities committed everywhere against First Peoples - well, they almost pale in comparison.

I know. I am biased. I am the product of colonialism, as are many other Australians. We would not have the country we have today if it weren't for the First Fleet. But we would also not have the crippling crisis affecting our Indigenous population if Captain Cook had stayed the hell away.

People who's ancestors were the perpetrators tell people who's ancestors were the victims to get over it, failing to realize that it is hard to forget when there has been no apologies, when there is continual racism, when you and your brothers and sisters continue to be disadvantaged in a country that hypocritically advocates for the "fair go".

But it isn't just Australia.

My reasoning for this post is primarily because I have been reading a lot about Uncontacted Tribes, who strenuously avoid the outside world. And with good reason.

A recent report by Survival International, Progress Can Kill found that "current notions of progress date from the colonial era, when the taking of resources and labour was supposedly justified by the giving of 'civilization'.”

Basically they say that even now, when the word 'progress' is strenuously separated from the word 'colonialisation', the measures wrought upon Indigenous peoples is just as life threatening.

Forcing 'progress' on them never brings a longer, happier life, but a shorter, bleaker existence only escaped in death. It has destroyed many peoples and threatens many more. There are tribes who are aware of this and choose to remain isolated. Others have a closer relationship with outsiders - some of these receive healthcare intended to mitigate the devastation they face.

But in a dangerous catch-22, the 'modern' healthcare available to tribal peoples - even in the richest nations - is never enough to counter the effects of introduced diseases and the devastation caused by losing their land.


The report goes on to further link progress with things that are crippling Indigenous societies today, things such as: HIV AIDS, obesity, starvation, suicide, addiction and general health problems.

It's easy for people to advocate for assimilation, sugar coating it as a way to integrate Indigenous Peoples into the world.

But for Indigenous Peoples, who have their own separate believes and ways of living forged over thousands of years, it is simply not that simple.

Can you imagine if an alien population came to our shores believing the human race and our technologies were inferior and then tried to exert their ways of life on us, despite being on Earth for a total of five minutes?

We would, quite simply speaking, be up in arms.

But this is what is happening on a daily basis, especially for uncontacted tribes, who are continually being threatened by large corporations bent on making money out of the resources.

There are many examples of Indigenous people, contacted and non-contacted, who are victims of this: The Penans in Malaysia, Nukak Indians in Colombia, Papuans in West Papua, the Jummus in Pakistan, the Mbororo of West Africa....the list goes on and on.

Then you've got the Indigenous peoples who live as second class citizens in supposed "first world" nations.

Aboriginal people in Australia, First Nations in Canada, American Indians, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians in America, Maori in New Zealand....God it's like the list never ends!

I think it would have just been so easier if we had all gone our separate ways - if colonialism had never happened.

Here is a video of possibly the most isolated tribe on earth - the Sentinelese
of the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.

As Survival International says:

Perhaps no people on Earth remain more genuinely isolated than the Sentinelese. They are thought to be directly descended from the first human populations to emerge from Africa, and have probably lived in the Andaman Islands for up to 60,000 years. The fact that their language is so different even from other Andaman islanders suggests that they have had little contact with other people for thousands of years.


Here is the video, forget the fact that the people throwing coconuts are arguably acting like idiots and that the person who posted the video describe them as “Stone Age”. They are not stone age- they live in the same bloody age we are in. People are still so ignorant.


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