NZ Protestors Take Over Embassy

Earlier this month, activists in New Zealand showed their support for Aboriginal Australia in a protest against Howard Government moves to take over Indigenous communities under the pretext of child protection.

Fifty protesters took part in a militant occupation of the Australian consulate in New Zealand. One activist, Tane Feary, was arrested and charged with assulting a police officer.

These Kiwi activists see beyond the emotive calls to "save the children", viewing the government's action within a bigger picture, a wider colonial agenda to occupy Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, where most of Australia's native title lands lie. The militant occupation of the New Zealand embassy by protestors was a show of solidarity with Australian Aboriginal resistance to this new wave of oppression.

They assert that John Howard's actions back a move to force Aborigines to sign up to 99-year leases on their land, under the cynical guise of protecting indigenous children from sexual abuse.

The government insists its actions are benign, and it has the support of two thirds of the Australian public. However, Indigenous activists and community members in Australia and New Zealand are seeing this as an imposition of martial law conditions.

The protestors see that "A series of direct and chilling parallels exists between the Howard government's police-military takeover of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia and its military interventions in the Solomon Islands and other neighbouring South Pacific states."