[Announce-DAN] Australian Aborigines reclaim Cockatoo Island

[Doc Rosen <drdrdoc@dr.com>]

> Remember the Alcatraz Occupation ?
> Aborigines reclaim Cockatoo Island
>
> Date: 21/11/2000
>
> A group of Aborigines say they have reclaimed the
deserted Cockatoo
> Island at the mouth of Sydney's Parramatta River.
>
> Aboriginal activist Isabell Coe said a group of ten
Aborigines,
> including herself, had moved onto the island, near
Iron Cove Bridge in
> Drummoyne, yesterday afternoon.
>
> "We will stay here indefinitely," said Ms Coe.
>
> "The people who have taken this island from us have
desecrated,
> destroyed and deserted it and we are claiming it
back."
>
> She said the Aborigines were claiming it under the
term "Terra Nullius",
> which means empty land, and which she said was the
term
> under which the early Europeans settlers claimed
Australia.
>
> Ms Coe said the island had been the scene of genocide
after the settlers
> arrived.
>
> She said two ceremonial fires had been lit on the
island to begin the
> healing process.
>
> Cockatoo Island, a sandstone island of about 16
hectares in the mouth of
> the river, was used as a prison in the early days of
settlement.
>
> It became a major centre of shipping and
ship-refitting in Australia
> until the Federal Government decided not to renew its
lease in 1992.
>
> Ms Coe said the island had been deserted since the
early 1990s and
> claimed it had been polluted.
>
> The 49-year-old, who is an avid Aboriginal
campaigner, said what had
> happened to Cockatoo Island typified what was
happening to
> Australia as a whole.
>
> "We want to try and heal the island," said Ms Coe.
"We're looking for an
> end to this genocide war. "What's happened on this
island
> typifies what's happened on the mainland."
>
> Ms Coe said she didn't know whether any of the
descendants of the
> original Aboriginal owners were still alive.
>
> However, she said once their claim was publicised she
hoped any
> descendants, as well as members of other Aboriginal
groups would join
> them on the island.
>
> Senior Constable Scott Abbott from the water division
of New South Wales
> Police said he was aware that Aborigines had moved
onto
> the island yesterday but had no idea why.
>
> He said security guards patrolling the island had
contacted their
> employers to find out what to do.
>
> Constable Abbott said he believed the island had
recently been sold to a
> private owner.
>
> "I've spoken to the security guards....they are
waiting on confirmation
> from the owners about what to do," he told AAP.
>
> A spokesman for NSW National Parks and Wildlife
Service said Cockatoo
> Island was not one of its properties.
>
> He said he was unsure who owned it at present.
>


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