The Forum > Article Comments > Top End travels: the Tiwi Islands, the Catholic Church and King Joe of Melville Island > Comments
Top End travels: the Tiwi Islands, the Catholic Church and King Joe of Melville Island : Comments
By Binoy Kampmark, published 30/7/2019He had all the attributes of the ruthless frontiersman: patriarchy, a tendency to sow his not-so-royal oats, a capacity for a certain work regimen, a firm disciplinarian.
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He implies that aboriginal lives prior to white colonisation was all sweetness and light with aborigines living hobbit like existences in their island paradises, before the cruel, white overseers forced them into social and religious slavery.
He mentions the sexual exploitation of aboriginal children, without mentioning the fact that sexual exploitation of women and children was the norm among the tribal tyrannies headed by the Old Men, with female babies being assigned as future wives and concubines after birth to males already a generation or two (or three) older.
He notes the removal of half caste aboriginal children from tribal societies without mentioning that as half caste "yeller fellers" they would have probably been murdered if they were males, or bashed and beaten sex slaves to the tribe if they had been females. And the half castes were probably removed because the whites at the time considered them smarter and probably worth educating. The pure breds were considered hopeless. Which could have been right when you consider that even today, 66% of the NT education budget goes to aboriginals with a 90% failure rate in NASPLAN examinations.
One gets the impression that Binoy simply went on a tourist excursion to Melville Island, was not impressed by the place or it's aboriginal inhabitants, learned a little of the local history, and figured out a way to use it to sneer at white people. If you don't like Australians, Binoy, why the hell are you still here?