The Plight of the Aboriginal Peoples

As Robyn travels throughout Australia, she witnesses countless examples of the way the Aboriginal peoples of Australia are victimized by the Australian government, and the prevalent racism against the black Aborigines. The treatment of the various tribes is reminiscent of the treatment of North American Indians by the United States government. The Aborigines are forced onto smaller and smaller reservations, where they live like homeless people or prisoners, and often they must live side by side with their traditional tribal enemies. Not only that, but the government also has a policy called assimilation, which basically amounts to taking away their land. As Robyn declares in Chapter 3, " . . . the [Australian] Prime Minister can speak out against apartheid in South Africa, maintain a clean international reputation, and still carry out a policy which appears on the surface to be antithetical to apartheid but which, on closer...