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“limagine people who havea vested interest in distorting the history of Aus- tralia, whoever they might be, won’ t like it,” said Mr Grassby. “It’s designed to help the Bicentennial people by seeing to it they have the facts. “If is going to be a truly national celebration, they’ ve got to understand the truth.” ‘Far from peacefully accepting white occupation of Australia, Aborigines waged a desperate but determined guer- illa war for a century to hold off the invaders, according to anew book to be published in 1988. In Six Australian Battlefields, a school textbook by former Federal Immigration Minister Al Grassby and white co-writers Marji Hill and Alex Barlow (authors of teacher’s guides about Aborigines), Australian history is challenged with accounts of six battles or guerrilla wars which have been ig- nored or misrepresented. Four of the battles involved Aborigi- nal tribes; the Battle of Sydney (1797), the Battle of Parramatta (1797), the Battle of Bathurst (1824) and the Battle of Battle Mountain (1884). Most histori- ans accept that there were one million native inhabitants in Australia when western ‘civilization’ arrived (although some estimates range up to three mil- lion). Now there are less than 200,000. “Australia has to recognise that 800,000 people have gone,” said Mr Grassby. “It’s no use pretending that they all had bad colds - the only way Australia can become a nation is to know the truth about itself.” According to the book, mass slaugh- ter of Aboriginals was not confined to Tasmania, “This was what set up a ele ieee whites and Aborigines in this country from the very beginning, and it has lasted until now" They decided that Aborigines didn’t manage the land and didn’t qualify as human; bounties were paid for dead Aborigines and treaties were unneces- sary. To be released by Angus & Robertson in January, Six Australian Battlefields will also cast new light on wars between the white settlers; the Battle of Vinegar Hill (1804) and the Battle of the Eureka Stockade (1854). CULTURAL IMPERIALISM ABORIGINES FOUGHT BACK the whole conflict between Nexus New Times Two