The story of a genocide: the Australian aborigines were considered animals up to 1970-ies

U.S. 70-ies of the last century, racial segregation have almost ceased to remind myself. Dark-skinned artists, actors and scientists are already surprised nobody, and people with racist attitudes squinted. But very different was the case in Australia — there are still indigenous people were not considered people.

Best characterizes the attitude to the natives a statement of the municipal councillor of the city of Port Adelaide, made public in 1977. City officials are not the lowest level of said

For the aboriginal population of the Australian continent Roland Barragem Dixon in 1923, was created a special term "proto-Australoid". This definition caught on, and in 1962, Australoid mentioned as one of the races, along with the Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and congoing katodnoi.

Scientist Carleton Coon, published in 1962 treatise "the Origin of races," wrote about the aboriginal people of Australia as the most primitive race, based on morphology of the teeth and bones of the skull. Imagine, at this time, the space had already been conquered by man, and scientists made discovery after discovery in atomic physics.

In 1770 a British expedition of captain James cook aboard the "endeavour" was surveyed and mapped the East coast of Australia. Landed the British on 29 April in the Gulf Tasman sea, which is called botany, or Botanical.

From that moment began a black stripe in the life of the indigenous population of the continent that was to be expected. The British actively explored Australia and one of the other established cities. As the mushrooms appeared on a desolate coast, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and dozens of settlements and FORTS.

This is not an excerpt from the drunken fantasies of an escaped convict, and a quote from the scientific work of the British scientist Robert Knox, philosopher and humanist. The natives believed a dead end, a freak of nature. It was believed that because of the tendency to vagrancy and of low intelligence they are not able to adapt to life in civilized society.

I must say that the natives — desperate guys and agile, so their lives were sold expensive, even without modern weapons. Several times rebuffed, and after suffering considerable losses, the colonial government allowed the murder of the indigenous inhabitants of the continent legally. This is how hunting accidents, on the island of Tasmania, historian Alan Moorhead:

Used more sophisticated and sneaky ways of killing. Himself Heinrich Himmler admired the resourcefulness of the British, who under the guise of helping the natives were handing out meat poisoned with strychnine. The owner of the ranch long Lagoon who are not lucky enough to live near one of the tribes, poisoned thus in just one day 100 people, among whom were both adults and children.

In Queensland, in the North of Australia, in the late 19th century was a popular pastime of local families herded by dogs and forced to climb into a river full of crocodiles. Was a lost human form citizens who demanded criminal punishment for the fanatics, but their appeals remained unanswered.

Marriages between whites and natives was strictly prohibited and the law was equivalent to bestiality. Progressive 20th century did not bring much relief to indigenous Australians. The British decided to deal with the assimilation of the natives and began to withdraw their children to give to education in white families. It was practiced from 1909 to 1969.

Until the mid 20th century aboriginal people were the main exhibits of the disgusting human zoos popular in Europe and the United States. We can say that people officially recognized only in 1967. Aboriginal people issued passports, made them citizens of his native country, as well as formally equal rights with whites.

But this does not mean that these people are equal to white aliens. In the 70 years they were treated more like animals — disgust, arrogance, and often with aggression. In our days, the Australian aboriginal struggle for their rights continues. They achieved a lot — in the country every year open new schools with teaching in local languages, and in parts of the continent even operates a National aboriginal TV.