"There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one's native land." - Euripides 431 B.C.


Dodson attacks government's intervention in NT

AAP- Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson has described the Howard government's intervention in the Northern Territory as a sinister attempt to extinguish indigenous culture.

In a book dealing with the intervention three months ago Mr Dodson also takes aim at Aboriginal leaders who have supported the plan, calling them recklessly naive, The Australian newspaper reports.

In the book entitled Coercive reconciliation - stabilise, normalise, exit aboriginal Australia, Mr Dodson writes: "Some indigenous voices in this debate, motivated by the urgency of ending the suffering in indigenous communities, have been recklessly naive in aiding and abetting the Howard government's agenda."

Mr Dodson does not name Noel Pearson or other aboriginal leaders.

"Indigenous advocates, campaigning for structural change in government relationships that aim to liberate their people from the tyranny of welfare dependency and control, have misread the indigenous political struggle."

In an essay titled "Whatever happened to reconciliation? " Mr Dodson says the government is bent on a radical agenda of "deconstructing and denying the abilities of indigenous people to live in their settlements on traditional country" and has set out to "remodel them into mine labourers, small business people and private entrepreneurs.

AAP

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