ABORIGINES IN PEKING

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33062, 1 November 1972, Page 6

ABORIGINES IN PEKING

Pleasure at reception

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter-—Copyright) PEKING, Oct. 31.

A group of nine Australian Aborigines in Peking as guests of the Chinese said that they were being treated like human beings “for the first time in their lives.” The group, who arrived in China for a month’s visit a week ago, said that they had taken every opportunity during their stay to tell their Chinese hosts “about the plight of the Aboriginal people” in Australia.

Miss Cheryl Buchanan, an attractive 18-year-old student from Brisbane, said: “It is all so marvellous. There is just no pressure on us. We are being treated as human beings for the first time in our lives. At home, we are treated like animals or inferior beings.” Another member of the group, Miss Lilia Watson, of Brisbane, said: “This is my first trip out of Australia. It makes you realise what a racist country Australia is.” The leader of the group, Mr Charles Dixon (Sydney) has been asking for Chinese help in forming an international lobby to press the Australian Government into recognising Aborigines’ needs. The group, whose expenses are being met by Chinese hosts, are staying at the plush Peking Hotel, the most comfortable in the capital and reserved for specially honoured guests. The visitors have been riding round in the city in style in a fleet of Chinese-made Shanghai limousines and attending banquets, organised in their honour, at which they have told guests about what they term the “cultural genocide” in Australia.