The Hindu : International / India & World : Arundhati Roy to donate prize money to Australia's aborigines

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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International - India & World

Arundhati Roy to donate prize money to Australia's aborigines

SYDNEY, OCT. 13. Comparing Australia's aborigines to India's "untouchables," author Arundhati Roy has accused Canberra of genocide and said she wanted to donate her $50,000 Sydney Peace Prize to aboriginal political activities to further their work. ``It [untouchability] is one of the most cruel forms of discrimination, but one thing that didn't happen to them was the attempt to genocidally wipe them out, which happened in Australia,'' she told The Bulletin magazine.

``I don't want to give the money to aboriginal communities as some act of charity,'' she said. ``I want to give it to people who are involved with political work there ... there's no complicated reason, it's just a straightforward political fight for survival and for right,'' Ms. Roy said.

Ms. Roy is due to accept the award here on November 4. ``It is funny, I've spent so much time in South Africa recently and the white South Africans have a fascination for Australia. I was talking to some black friends and they laughed and said, `yeah, it's because they think the Australians got it right. They just killed the blacks. The South Africans let us survive,'' she was quoted by the magazine.

PTI

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