It's With A Guilty

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday June 19, 2001

according to Chad Watson & Linda Barnier

IT'S with a guilty conscience that we have been following 500 Nations on SBS on Sunday evenings. The eight-part TV series depicts the plight of the Native American before and after European colonisation. 500 Nations, despite the presence of host Kevin `Dances With Wolves' Costner, makes for compulsive viewing. US doco-maker Jack Leustig has pieced together enthralling tales to trace the decline of a proud people once counted in their millions who now number 200,000. Why do we feel guilt? We sit there tut-tutting over revelations of what white man did to the Indians. All the while we remain largely ignorant of names and stories behind the effects `civilisation' had and has on Australia's indigenous population. Maybe we need a Leustig to detail the social, medical, geographical and war crimes against Aborigines.