Cousins

A Brewarrina Tribe member, Terry Crawford, shares his knowledge in the Aboriginal Heritage Tour at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. He first gives us a small history of the Australian Aboriginals that I find to be so similar to the Canadian Indigenous history that I have outlined some of the main similarities:

• There is just over 200 known Aboriginal tribes and languages in Australia
• In Canada there is approximately 600 different Indian bands and over all around 150 different languages.
• On June 11, 2008 Prime Minister Harper gave an apology on behalf of Canada to the First Nation People for the Indian Residential School System that was forced upon them.
• On February 13, 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for the Stolen Generation ..."for the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants, and for their families left behind we say sorry......must never happen again."
• A fight for justice for Aboriginal women who go missing in Australia: " there are no names, no follow up reports about the case, and usually no arrests were reported to the media . . .The reports made it seem she was responsible for her own death . . . had been drinking the day she was killed . . .died in police custody . . .(cops) were saying all this horrible stuff to her . . .police called because of domestic violence . . .but, instead of assisting her, the police chose to run her name, found she had a few unpaid fines for traffic misdemeanors and then locked her up . . . When it happens to Indigenous women we see how the media adds on another stereotypes they have about us, such as alcohol or drug abuse."(greenleft.org.au ; September 16, 2017 retrieved on October 13, 2017).
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous women involving the Highway of Tears and First Nation prostitutes. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada asks for a public inquiry into the victimization of Indigenous women and girls in 2015.

Then we proceeded with our walk through the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.