Australia Day Graffiti At Site Of First Landing

[icyfroth]

Ahead of Australia Day celebrations, graffiti vandals have sprayed offensive slogans at historic sites in Sydney and Melbourne.

An eight kilometre stretch along Botany Bay has been targeted, including a park where dozens will become Australian citizens on Sunday.

It is Australia Day attacked at a place where white Australians first sailed into Sydney more than two centuries ago.

Today it was covered with angry messages directed at their descendants.

Graffiti was sprayed along the shoreline of Botany Bay two days before the country's national day of celebration.

Local families who've planned Australian Day parties here are outraged.

Rockdale mayor Shane O’Brien said: “To attack public and private property does nothing for the cause of Aboriginal people.”

The trail of graffiti stretched kilometres from Brighton Le Sands, through Cook Park to Dolls Point.

Council workers have spent the day scrubbing off and spraying over the offensive messages.

Political stickers and posters were also left on signs, toilet blocks, seawall and businesses.

Link to Article And Video

An 8 km stretch from Brighton-Le-Sands to Dolls point! Along with Cpt. Cooks Cottage in Melb, It looks like a well orchestrated attack.

 Did Aboriginal groups do it?

[i-need-a-martini]

I doubt if it is indigenous groups. More likely to be some fringe anarchist bunch.

[icyfroth]

But blame it on the indiginous groups?

[bright.ton42]

Just wondering why you doubt it?  Captain Cook's cottage here in  Melbourne has been defaced overnight, and aboriginal groups are being blamed for it.    I don't believe it's racist to say that that is quite possible.  

[poddster]

If you notice the colours of the paint used you might find that there is a subliminal link to the perpetrators.

[boris1gary]

looks grey on my screen,  ????????

[nevynreally]

---

@poddster wrote:

If you notice the colours of the paint used you might find that there is a subliminal link to the perpetrators.

---

And some aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

[spotweldersfriend]

They can spell though,so our education system's in good shape.

[boris1gary]

so does this mean that some literate but maybe a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic grey people did it?

[colic2bullsgirlore]

 The **bleepers** have been at it for 1000's of years

.... I wish they would tell us where all the other sites are so we can get those cleaned up as well.............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_rock_engravings

Sydney rock engravings are a form of Australian Aboriginal Rock Art consisting of carefully drawn images of people, animals, or symbols, in the sandstone around Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Many thousands of such engravings are known to exist in the Sydney region, although the locations of most are not publicised to prevent damage by vandalism, and to retain their sanctity, as they are still regarded as sacred sites by Indigenous Australians.

The Sydney engravings are of a style known as "simple figurative", which conventional archaeology dates to the last 5000 years.

Other engravings show European sailing ships, and so cannot be more than about 200 years old. The dates therefore

range from 5000 to 200 years ago.

It is likely that some of the freshest engravings represent the later part of that time range, whilst the most worn represent

the earliest part.

However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the engravings were sometimes "re-grooved" during ceremonies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_art

Graffiti and other destructive influences

Many culturally significant sites of Aboriginal rock paintings have been gradually desecrated and destroyed by

encroachment of early settlers and modern-day visitors.

This includes the destruction of art by clearing and construction work, erosion caused by excessive touching of sites, and graffiti.

Many sites now belonging to National Parks have to be strictly monitored by rangers, or closed off to the public permanently.

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/why-australias-aboriginal-rock-art-will-disap...

Some non-Indigenous people tried to preserve Aboriginal rock art in painting the grooves with white paint (see image below). This act compares to desecration because rock engravings usually mark spiritual sites of great significance to Aboriginal people. When an engraving near Bondi Beach in Sydney was re-grooved in 1967 the Aboriginal community was divided as to whether this was a rightful act or not.

Grooves of an Aboriginal rock engraving painted in white. This is a weak and disrespectful act by non-Indigenous people trying to make visible and preserve an urban Aboriginal rock engraving.