Protests against racism against indigenous peoples

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has called for more initiatives in the fight against racism against indigenous peoples, stating that members of indigenous communities in Australia, Canada, the United States, Brazil, and other countries are often met with everyday racism because of their ethnic origin. "Arbitrary police assaults are particularly striking, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Generally, racist tendencies are a serious problem concerning society as a whole – not just the extreme examples of excessive police violence," stated Ulrich Delius, the STP's Director, in Göttingen on Saturday, emphasizing the importance of programs to combat prejudice and racism against indigenous people. "It is inacceptable that members of indigenous communities are still more frequently arrested or ostracized because of their ethnic origin. But it is encouraging to see that public protests against racism in Canada and Australia are often joined by thousands of people," Delius stated.

Since a few days, there has been a public debate in Canada focusing on systematic racism by police offers against indigenous people – triggered by a video of the violent arrest of an indigenous leader in the province of Alberta. Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation was treated with undue force when he was arrested on March 10, 2020, and he suffered severe facial injuries. The video shows that he had previously complained about frequent police checks and had demanded the police not to harass and arbitrarily arrest his wife. Following massive public protests, internal police investigations have been conducted on the basis of the video, but Adam is still under investigation for resisting the authorities. His attorney demands the proceedings to be called off.

In Australia, there is massive criticism of the treatment of aboriginal people by the police. On Friday evening, hundreds of people had gathered in Sydney to protest against such racism. A protester stated that it is unacceptable that indigenous people in Australia have a twenty times higher risk of being imprisoned than members of the majority society. Although aboriginal people make up only three percent of the population, they make up 30 percent of the inmates of Australian prisons.