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Why isn’t bombing of First Nations people newsworthy? by Jack Andrew Wilkie-Jans ever before have we seen violence committed in our communities by the use of home crafted explosive devices- it is shocking and it is unprecedented. Not only should this incident warrant a domestic terror labelled investigation but once the police find the attackers, they need to scrutinise not only how and why they used a bomb in their attack, but also what their influences were for selecting the most hateful and dangerous of weapons. Terrorism or violence of any kind or of any standard comes into a person’s heart and mind externally and what worries me is that the “know how” of how to create and willingness to use explosive devices in attacks may well not be isolated to those who perpetrated yesterday’s attack. First Australians are not a coward race and neither are our fellow Australians, we have all seen dark days in this nation’s history and have triumphed together and we now live in a country which has never before seen such an accepting society. This is why we must forgive those who attacked innocent civilians in Broome, because the kind of people who are unable to forgive and who harbour hate are the kind who are so callously willing to harness it in such a heinous fashion. Were an incident of this kind to have taken place in any other residential part of Australia, or suburban Australia, we can be assured that we would have seen mainstream and mass reportage of this crime at a phenomenal scaleand a response by authorities to
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Police have confirmed a projectile was shot from a car towards a group of people at the One Mile community at Broome earlier this week. A 43-year-old woman who picked up the object suffered hand and leg injuries when it exploded. She has been flown to Perth for emergency surgery. Amongst the group, two other members, including a 13-year-old girl, suffered various injuries including injuries to their hearing and eyesight. A third victim suffered spinal injuries when she was attempting to flee from the explosion.” Image: Natalie Jones - ABC News
match. Aboriginal townships have suffered a long history of violence and due to the mainstream media reportage of that violence, the violence (along with substance abuse and misuse) has become damagingly synonymous with Aboriginal people and Aboriginal townships. The damage that such lopsided and mainstream journalism causes has ingrained in the wider Australian society that Aboriginal towns are rampant with violence and violent people. Due to this mentality, why should the incident of a bomb attack but also a serious and targeted arson attack in Broome stir wide spread shock? City based communities and suburbs which are prevalent in one or more cultural group seem not to receive the same slant on stereotyping their areas, when in fact most of the reports of violence that we see in the media come from highly populated, suburban areas. I’m sure I speak on behalf of
everybody when I wish the victims of the bomb attack a swift and successful recovery as well as wishing the authorities all the best in undergoing a decisive, unbiased and conclusive investigation into, not only who, but why and furthermore how this attack was able to have been designed and perpetrated without prior discovery. This is a serious set of affairs, which requires a brave society to address not only the attack, but also the nature of the attacks and the influences behind them. When the use of explosive devices or any similar weapon designed for mass carnage and effect is used in any community, it should be received by the whole nation with sympathy and with great condemnation. I pray that throughout the course of the investigation and future media coverage, that the seriousness of the attack is not side tracked by what is only a minor detail, which is that it took place in an Aboriginal town.
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