a terrible story, retold

The voice of reason is still struggling, so to help out

imo saying one set of atrocities against an indigenous population is better or worse than another set of atrocities against another indigenous population is not the way indigenous communities think about or remember or frame these things. This is a construct designed by colonisers and their descendants to miminise and justify their actions or maybe just to mitigate guilt. Totally understandable and almost subtle because as people do, they can use this to go to a better/worse dichotomy and this leads to the "what are you moaning about" lines. There are many other reasons too, such as the intensely personal side of the lived knowledge of the past.

To then say stuff like, 'tell that to the victims of genocide' shows an extreme defensive mode where attack is the only alternative. The point I make in the first paragraph is pretty basic but only if you listen.

And please don't think for a second that I am unaware of 'intent', 'the end of empire', 'genocide' and 'atrocities'. I am, and each of them was a blot on us all. The suffering that has occurred is immeasurable , almost unknowable, and it is known.  Indigenous communities around the world, even today, face each and every one of the destructive forces aligned against them. That s why indigenous communities should stick together and work together and build new /old ways of thinking for this troubled world.

The measurement of atrocities is more than numbers although the numbers do tell a terrible story, just not the full story. The comparison of what has happened to indigenous communities through colonisation, compares suffering to suffering, not numbers to numbers imo.