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There are few countries in the world that have clean hands when it comes to the rights of indigenous peoples. From our own treatment of Native Americans to the behavior of the Chinese in Tibet and beyond, there too often has been and too often remains an us-and-them mentality on both sides that is harmful for all involved. Australia is no exception. Despite Kevin Rudd's official apology to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for their treatment at the hands of the Australian government, his government continues to support and fund the previous government's Northern Territory Intervention, which puts troops on the streets of Aboriginal towns (among other seemingly repressive measures) to combat the well-documented widespread epidemic of domestic and child abuse. That said, feminist Germaine Greer's response to it is nearly as shocking. She suggests that domestic violence is an understandable outlet of rage against oppression and thus argues that we shouldn't ask them to stop. What?! More »
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A group of aboriginal men have issued an apology to aboriginal women for the "pain, hurt and suffering" they've caused. John Liddle of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress issued the collective apology via a statement yesterday: "We the Aboriginal males from Central Australia and our brothers from around Australia ... acknowledge and say sorry for the hurt, pain and suffering caused by Aboriginal males." As you'll recall, earlier this year Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as one of his first acts in office apologized to native Australians for years of institutionalized cruelty from the Australian government. [Australian Associated Press] More »
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When a 10-year-old aboriginal girl was gang-raped by 9 men in Northeastern Australia and her assailants were given zero jail time, it was clear that the indigenous aboriginals, who had been treated so brutally by the Australian government, were in need of major help. Yesterday, new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took steps to repair what has been years of institutionalized cruelty towards the Aboriginal people: "As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry. I offer you this apology without qualification." What Rudd did not mention, though, was cash reparations. Lowitja O'Donohue, an Aboriginal activist, told the IHT of Rudd's speech, "I was overjoyed and I think he delivered it in very genuine way...(but) I don't forgive them for my mother's grief and for the 30 years of not even having met her, and for the fact that they took our language and culture away." O'Donohue is one of the "lost generation" of Aborigines who were taken away from their families and placed with white Australians or in orphanages. [IHT, Times of London] More »
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Last month we told you about a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl who was gang raped by nine men, none of whom were given jail time. Today's Brisbane Courier Mail has additional information about the girl, known only as "K". "Since being raped by nine males at age 10," according to the Mail, "She has racked up 70 criminal charges including violent assault, and has been diagnosed as having the mental age of a six-year-old." If you can stomach more heartbreaking details about this child, click here. [The Courier Mail] More »
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More information has come to light regarding the sexual abuse of a fifteen-year-old Brazilian girl who, in October, was placed in a jail cell with 30 some-odd men in the northeastern Brazilian state of Para. For those not familiar with the case, the teenager (pictured and flanked by family members) was arrested on suspicion of petty theft and then incarcerated for 26 days, during which time she was raped, tortured, and forced to barter sex for food. The police officers at the jail were complicit in her torture, and went so far as to shave her head with a knife to make her look like a boy. (The girl is under five feet tall and weighs about 80 pounds). Federal human rights official and lawyer Márcia Soares has taken on the young woman's case, and she tells the New York Times: "When I first saw her I thought she was 12, not 15." More »
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The story of the ten-year-old Aboriginal girl who was gang raped by nine assailants in the Australian province of Queensland becomes more and more appalling with each new fragment of information. As reported yesterday, Queensland judge Sarah Bradley (pictured), who said the ten-year old "probably agreed" to the rapes, did not hand out a single day of jail time to any of the nine perpetrators, all of whom pled guilty. (Some of the assailants, who were minors, came from some of Queensland's most prominent Aboriginal families, and even 26-year-old Raymond Woolla, who had a prior rap sheet of child-sex offenses, was given a six-month suspended sentence. Bradley told Woolla in her sentencing statement, "If you get into any more trouble in the next year, you could end up in jail.") More »
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• Is a bridal line in Kate Moss's future? Her boyfriend, supposedly sober Pete Doherty, says that if he can stay clean, he hopes to marry Moss this summer. We say there's as good a chance of that happening as there is our voting for Giuliani in 2008. [Yahoo News]

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