Would Albanese call Pemulwuy a “terrorist”?

Written by: Ned K. on 7 October 2024

Monday 7th October 2024 was the anniversary of the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israeli settlers just north of Gaza. These armed attacks by Hamas were called the acts of a "terrorist organization" by Albanese and his government, echoing the words of the USA President Biden and many other western countries. 

On this same day 7th October 2024, The Australian newspaper headline quoted Israel's Ambassador to Australia as saying "Israel Protecting free world" by the Israeli state's bombing of Gaza and now Lebanon with the thousands of people killed as a result. 

Resistance by the indigenous Palestinian people to the settler state of Israel created by the Zionists backed by British and USA empires has been labelled as "terrorism" by them. The Australian Prime Minister Albanese automatically follows them.

In 2023 the Prime Minister Albanese and his Government put a great amount of time into the Voice for First Nations Indigenous people in Australia. His actions, we are led to believe, were his way to show his support for Indigenous people in Australia.

He prided himself in his support for Indigenous people in Australia.

On this same day 7th October 2024, I was reading "Always Was, Always Will Be" by First Nations person and MUA Assistant National Secretary, Thomas Mayo.

In his book, Mayo talks about the armed resistance by First Nations people to the British colonial settlers in then New South Wales in the late 1700s and 1800s.

One passage from his book showed similarities between the armed resistance of First Nations people in New South Wales at that time and the armed resistance of Indigenous Palestinians against the Israeli Government forces and Israeli settlers in 2023-24. 

Thomas Mayo writes,

"To the west of Sydney in the fertile lands of the Burramattagal clan of the Dharrug nation, the British established their first inland settlement, along with government farms that were vital to supporting a growing population of colonists...From 1792, Pemulwuy led his warriors in guerrilla warfare across Bidigal lands, strategically burning buildings, taking crops and attacking travellers.

At the height of these raids, in March 1797, he and 100 warriors fought in what has become known as the battle of Parramatta against armed soldiers and settlers".

Pemulwuy was shot in the head during this battle, captured by the colonial settlers but escaped to courageously lead his people. Eventually on 2 June 1802 he was shot dead by a colonial settler. He was decapitated and his head sent to the fascist Sir Joseph Banks in England to add to a skull colllection of Indigenous people from lands that became British colonies.

I asked myself, would the Prime Minister call Pemulwuy a "terrorist"? If he would answer yes, then how shallow was his Voice campaign? If he would answer no, Pemulwuy was a fighter against settler colonialism, then how hypocritical to call any Indigenous Palestinian organization, or individual Indigenous Palestinian leader, "terrorist"?
  

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