Editing John Pilger (section)

===Australia's Indigenous peoples===
Pilger long criticised aspects of Australian government policy, particularly what he regarded as its inherent racism resulting in the poor treatment of [[Indigenous Australians]]. In 1969, Pilger went with Australian activist [[Charles Perkins (Aboriginal activist)|Charlie Perkins]] on a tour to Jay Creek in Central Australia. He compared what he witnessed in Jay Creek to South African apartheid.<ref>Fieta Page, [http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/john-pilger-hopes-to-open-eyes-to-plight-of-aboriginals-with-utopia-20140226-33irr.html John Pilger hopes to open eyes to plight of Aboriginals with Utopia], ''The Canberra Times'', 27 February 2014.</ref> He saw the appalling conditions that the [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal people]] were living under, with children suffering from malnutrition and grieving mothers and grandmothers having had their lighter-skinned children and grandchildren removed by the police and welfare agencies. Equally, he learned of Aboriginal boys being sent to work on white-run farms, and Aboriginal girls working as servants in middle-class homes as undeclared slave labour.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pilger |first1=John |title=John Pilger goes back to his homeland to investigate Australia's dirtiest secret |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/john-pilger-goes-back-homeland-2941945 |access-date=31 December 2018 |newspaper=The Daily Mirror |date=19 December 2013}}</ref>

Pilger made several documentaries about Indigenous Australians, such as ''[[The Secret Country: The First Australians Fight Back]]'' (1985) and ''[[Welcome to Australia]]'' (1999). His book on the subject, ''A Secret Country'', was first published in 1989. Pilger wrote in 2000 that the 1998 legislation that removed the common-law rights of Indigenous peoples:
<blockquote>is just one of the disgraces that has given Australia the distinction of being the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.<ref>John Pilger, [http://www.newstatesman.com/200010160011 "Australia is the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the United Nations"], ''New Statesman'', 16 October 2000.</ref></blockquote>

Pilger returned to this subject with ''Utopia'', released in 2013 (see below).