ABORIGINAL DELEGATION IN ISRAEL SPARKS BACKLASH

former Senator Nova Peris with the rest of the delgation, posing next to Aboriginal and Israeli Flag. Image: Nova Peris

BY CAMILIA SAMSON AND ASAD KHAN

A delegation of Aboriginal leaders and public figures currently in Israel has sparked strong backlash across Australia.

The group includes former Senator Nova Peris, respected Kimberley elder Ian Trust, and several others from media, health, legal, and education sectors.

Nova Peris meeting the President of Israel

They are reportedly in Israel to promote cultural exchange. But their visit has coincided with a sharp escalation in regional conflict, including retaliatory missile strikes from Iran.

Nova Peris in a bunker after retaliatory missile strikes from Iran. Image: Nova Peris

The delegation is now bunkered in place for safety.

Back home, criticism has grown among Aboriginal communities, many of whom have long expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Nyikina woman and activist Samantha Cook has voiced deep concern about the optics and intent of the visit.

“I assume the film crew that's with her is to document this kind of story, but it's all feeling like propaganda,” Ms Cook told Ngaarda Media.

She said the trip risks misrepresenting Indigenous sentiment.

“It feels like they were kind of using all of us as mob to say Indigenous people do support them,” she said. 

“But for what they've been doing in the Middle East—killing innocent communities—that’s not okay.”

She emphasised that many First Nations people identify more with the oppressed than the oppressors.

First Nations activists use Aboriginal flags alongside the Palestenian one at a protest. Image:ABC/Carli Williams

“Israel is reflecting being the oppressors,” she said.

 “We do see ourselves in the communities that are oppressed, not the oppressors.”

The group has not yet responded publicly to the criticism.

Listen to Ngaarda Media’s Camilia Samson speak with Samantha Cook: