During the Black Lives Matter protests Scott Morrison said there had never been slavery in Australia. Some days later he said his statement was wrong and apologized in parliament. However, he was badly advised, and had been right the first time, as this second installment of Quadrant's three-part historical series shows

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During the Black Lives Matter protests Scott Morrison said there had never been slavery in Australia. Some days later he said his statement was wrong and apologized in parliament. However, he was badly advised, and had been right the first time, as this three-part historical series from Quadrant shows

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It is clear the Juukan site held no special cultural significance for the Pilbara Aborigines until a pre-demolition dig, conducted in good faith by Rio Tinto, uncovered what might be charitably described as a midden of unremarkable bones and stones. The site's only memorable aspect is the predictable fuss and fury its destruction has unleashed

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That my own family is where it is today is precisely because systemic racism in this country does not exist. If the Australian government has a case to answer it's of misguided good intentions in giving Aborigines $33 billion dollars every year to underwrite and encourage failure and generational dysfunction

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The first objection to the Gweagal Shield having come from Botany Bay is that it is made of wood not found there. And that is the second objection as well: Joseph Banks specifically refers to a 'bark' artefact, not a wooden one. Thanks to 'indigenous and anti-colonial methodologies', however, that which couldn't be lives on as a revered but laughable myth

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When consultancy PwC was engaged to report on who could speak for Victoria's Aborigines -- a key element in the state's ongoing 'treaty' burlesque -- it arrived at an entirely obvious conclusion: there is no agreed definition of an Elder, no authority to determine Eldership disputes, 'and no obvious existing entity that could take on this role'

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In Dan Andrews' Victoria, where police stitch up cardinals but slink meekly away from Labor hacks caught red-shirted and red-handed pilfering the public purse, few things other than the stench on Spring Street are as they seem. That is especially the case in regard to the hugely inflated ledger of 'stolen generations'

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Later this year the ABC will screen a two-part adaptation of 'Dark Emu'. The project is funded by Screen Australia, in other words by Australia's taxpayers, who will get farrago of a lies, half-truths and misrepresentations for their money. Why has no one stepped in to scuttle this monumental assault on truth?

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History, of its very nature, is subjective to some extent, with different writers putting different interpretations on events. But my quarrel with 'Dark Emu' is not a disagreement with Pascoe’s interpretation of history. It is with his shameless distortion of facts and sources. Here are yet more examples

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Bruce Pascoe has tapped a receptive audience and lucrative market in those who see a revised perception of indigenous society as enhancing the push for sovereignty and changes to the Constitution. Those who rank cause above truth and choose to remain diplomatically schtum do neither scholarship nor Aborigines any favours

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