Isaac Nellist: 'Killers of the Flower Moon': Murder, deceit and genocide

Isaac Nellist reviews 'Killers of the Flower Moon': Murder, deceit and genocide.

Oil was later discovered on Osage land, making them “the richest people per capita in the world” as they retained “headrights” (communal mineral rights).

However this also made them the target of exploitation as white Americans and the US government sought to take control of the valuable oil-rich lands through murder, manipulation and brutality.

…

Ernest and Mollie’s marriage is central to the film, beginning with a genuine chemistry and spark that is undermined by Ernest’s involvement in her family’s murders.

Ernest and his uncle want to ensure that Mollie’s family’s headrights go to her, and by extension Ernest, so they begin a horrifying plot to murder Mollie’s sisters, their partners and anyone else who threatens their claim to the wealth.

Mollie, her sisters and the other Osage women are well aware that the white men around them are pursuing their wealth. Mollie reads Ernest almost immediately: “Coyote wants money,” she tells her sisters with a smirk.

Emphasis Mine

What struck me about this movie is the line, "It is easier to convict a white man of kicking a dog than for murdering an Indian." This line illustrates the structural racism built into any criminal justice system for a settler colonial state, such as USA, Canada, Australia, and Israel.

The sobering truth is that events portrayed in this film are not confined to the past. The murder of First Nations women continue today as documented in The Highway of Tears in British Columbia, Canada, and here, in Australia, a TV report, "How Many More?", says:

Four Corners can reveal at least 315 First Nations women have either gone missing or been murdered or killed in suspicious circumstances since 2000.

But this is an incomplete picture. We will likely never know the true scale of how many First Nations women have been lost over the decades.

This is because there is no agency in Australia keeping count, and there is no standard way of collecting this important data in each state and territory.

Canada calls it a genocide. The United States considers it an epidemic. But here in Australia, we’re only just waking up to the scale of the crisis.

Emphasis Mine

The reluctance to investigate the murder of First Nations women as depicted in the film continues to this day. The Four Corners report continues:

There is an alarming pattern of what’s known as “under-policing” of Indigenous women who end up dead, says Noongar academic Hannah McGlade, a member of the United Nations permanent forum on Indigenous issues.

Research published by the British Journal of Criminology this month [2022] shows that almost 75 per cent of First Nations women who were killed “experienced police reluctance and inaction following domestic violence”.

Emphasis Mine

References

• Buxton-Namisnyk, E., 2022. Domestic violence policing of first nations women in Australia:‘Settler’frameworks, consequential harms and the promise of meaningful self-determination. The British Journal of Criminology, 62(6), pp.1323-1340.
• Four Corners. 2022. How Many More? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women-four-corners/101546186. Viewed 30 October 2023.
• Nellist, I. 2023. 'Killers of the Flower Moon': Murder, deceit and genocide. GreenLeft Weekly, https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/killers-flower-moon-murder-deceit-and-genocide. Viewed 30 October 2023.
• Wikipedia contributors. (2023, October 21). Highway of Tears. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:23, October 30, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Highway_of_Tears&oldid=1181207154