What Is The Controversy Among The Wongi People Of The Warburton Ranges?

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The first of these campaigns arose from the 'Warburton Ranges controversy ' when the report of a select committee, which inquired into the state of Aborigines, was tabled in the Western Australian parliament in December 1956. For a month it attracted no attention, but on 9 January 1957 the Sydney Communist Party newspaper, Tribune, described the report as ripping aside 'the screen that has veiled the cruel plight to which our Governments condemn Australian Aborigines '. According to this report, malnutrition, blindness and disease, abortion, infanticide, burns and other injuries were all commonplace among the Wongi people of the Warburton Ranges region. The mainstream newspapers across the country took up the story with headlines such as