Azaria: The Dingo Took My Baby

The case of the death of Australian baby Azaria Chamberlain is one of those examples of mob malevolence where the victim is made the criminal. Lindy and Michael Chamberlain's lives were wrecked by first having their baby taken by a dingo, and then being accused and convicted of murdering her themselves. I remember the whole of Australia being in on judging Lindy via television, pronouncing on the way she didn't seem to look sad enough about her daughter's disappearance, and the rumour mill churning out the idea that the name "Azaria" meant "sacrifice in the wilderness" (which it doesn't). What is most annoying about this case is that like chooks crowded together in a cage, people stated to "peck" at the weak one - Lindy - eventually cannibalising her. Why? Why attack the weak one, the one who is already injured. What a good example of a scapegoat. Some even said Lindy was a witch. And the way she was just assumed to be guilty did seem to echo the Witch Hunt methods, the way she was assumed to have done the "female crime" of infanticide, something which comes up again and again in Witch Hunt imagery. An inverted female world, where nurture becomes its opposite. Pictured above are some baby clothes belonging to Azaria, the fact that they are black only confirmed Lindy's weirdness in the public's eyes. And you have to admit, they are unusual, and dare I say, weirdly prophetic? But then again, not.