Our Generation

In the name of “protecting children,” the Australian Government’s so-called “emergency intervention” into Aboriginal communities in the remote Northern Territory, has taken away all existing Aboriginal land rights, suspended racial discrimination laws and placed over 70 communities under compulsory government control with subsequent measures of course having very little to do with “protecting children.” Instead, the outcome has been the disempowerment of traditional land owners, the further theft of Aboriginal land, the theft of resources, with the intent being to forcibly assimilate Aboriginal culture. Even as the then-prime minister Kevin Rudd made a well-publicised national apology for previous injustices brought upon Australia’s first indigenous peoples, the government continued to further remove and undermine the human and cultural rights of indigenous people. As no people living in these communities had any say in the decisions being made about their lives, their lands, their future and while the mainstream media continues to ignore their voices and this story, Our Generation is a well needed presentation of Australia’s true indigenous relations, from colonisation until the present day. Looking at Australia’s ongoing policies of paternalism and assimilation, Our Generation upholds the right of First Australians to dignity, culture and empowerment in their own country.