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'Sickening' Vandalism of Australian Aboriginal Graves

Australian officials on Thursday condemned as "disgusting and sickening" the defacing of an Aboriginal burial site with Nazi swastikas and white supremacist slogans.

The Nazi symbol, "KKK" and "white power" were scrawled across the wall and several headstones were vandalised at the Fingal Head cemetery, a burial ground for Aboriginal people between 1864 and 1964 in the north of New South Wales state.

Victor Dominello, NSW Aboriginal affairs minister, labeled it "abhorrent and reprehensible" and vowed heavy punishment for the vandals.

"Any racist attack on a site that is the designated final resting place for people of any culture or heritage is disgusting and sickening," Dominello said.

"I stand with the families concerned and the local Aboriginal community in condemning those who may be responsible for this incident."

Burial sites are deeply sacred places in Aboriginal culture, which has complex rituals and beliefs about death and respect for the dead.

Even uttering a dead person's name is taboo in Aboriginal culture because it is considered disrespectful both to the deceased and their family, and local indigenous man Kevin Slab said the cemetery's desecration was distressing.

"They just had the words 'white power' and a swastika and 'KKK' written on there, and also they destroyed one of the headstones of one of our uncles," Slab told ABC radio.

"There was a photograph which they smashed and left lying there, so that's pretty traumatic for the family."

Local mayor Barry Longland said the racial slurs were "frightening and shocking" for the close-knit Fingal community.

Police are investigating the incident.

Source: Agence France Presse


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