UN agency removes assertions Tasmanian Aboriginal people are 'extinct' from website
A United Nations Agency has removed a document from its website that incorrectly said Tasmanian Aboriginal people are "extinct". The document was created more than four decades ago, and the local Aboriginal community says it's an example of a "racist myth" that continues to be propagated.
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00:00 Tasmania is home to one of the world's last remaining temperate wilderness areas, a place
00:07 of such unique and pristine value that it was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List
00:13 in 1982. But the declaration was based on an official report that incorrectly said Tasmanian
00:20 Aboriginal people are now an extinct race of humans.
00:24 It's highly offensive, it's a racist myth that's been used against Tasmanian Aboriginal
00:30 people for a long time now.
00:32 UNESCO has now confirmed that it removed the document in May, on the same day a media report
00:37 suggested it had refused to do so despite the concerns of the Tasmanian and Australian
00:43 governments.
00:44 I think it was absolutely vital to remove the document. It really undermines the history
00:50 of survival and resilience that Tasmanian Aboriginal people have shown.
00:55 And it's regrettable that it's taken this long for UNESCO to get with the times.
01:00 The myth of extinction has been propagated since the death of Tasmanian Aboriginal elder
01:05 Truganini in the 1870s.
01:08 It's an attempt to avoid having to deal with the injustices of the past and the invasion
01:13 of Aboriginal lands by falsely claiming that we no longer exist.
01:18 UNESCO is expected to adopt a new Statement of Values for the Tasmanian Wilderness next
01:23 month, one that recognises 40,000 years of Aboriginal connection to country that continues
01:30 to this day.
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