Firstly, happy birthday to my sister, JI and my nephew, DJ, who both have the privelige of being born on Australia Day. JI and her family are celebrating on a cruise somewhere on the ocean....today she reaches a milestone birthday!
My current subject at uni (I'm only doing one now with 3 part-time jobs!) is to do with women's liberation, history, equality, stuff like that. It seems rather significant that on Australia Day (I'm very behind in my readings) I'm reading about the disparity in the Feminist movement between white Australian women and Aboriginal women. Reading the history of all this has just got me thinking quite a bit about Australia Day, what we (white Australians) celebrate, and how the Aboriginal people might feel about it all.
We celebrate the plonking of the English flag on soil at Sydney Cove in 1788. What I don't ever remember being taught in history lessons at school (but that Wikipedia is quite happy to explain to me) is that the First Fleet tried to settle in Botany Bay but it wasn't suitable, so they looked further north and found Sydney Cove. The 'scouting' boat then went back to Botany Bay to tell the rest of the First Fleet that they would all be moving north. The weather was against them and they couldn't get out of Botany Bay....and while they were trying, the French boats Astrolabe and Bousolle appeared at the entrance - French trying to get in, English trying to get out. So now the race was on - who would plant their flag first? As we know the English won that little battle. Who knew we were so close to being a French nation?! How is it that I'm 40 years old before I know this?
Wikipedia states that between 21-23 January Captain Phillip and a few officers 'also had some contact with the local aborigines' on their scouting mission. What does that mean? Was it a meaningful exchange? Or was that when the stuff-that-we-don't-like-to-talk-about started?
When I read history books that detail what actually happened to the Aboriginal people from that moment on (and some of it is still happening today) I feel very ashamed of my white, English heritage. The early settlers fed information back to the Mother Land that Australia was "terra nullius' - an uninhabited land, so that they could claim everything they found as belonging to England. What bastards!!! No wonder the Aborigines have had such a fight on their hands to get some of their land back!
So, whilst I am fiercely proud to be an Australian, I also realise we have a very dark past that still reaches into the present.
(images are from wikipedia)
2 comments:
This is the first chance I've really had to read this properly..... And yes, why is it that these facts are not taught in schools and that we grow up quite ignorant to the real history of Australia? I'm not sure that I have a politically correct answer to that question so won't go there.
I do wonder whether the barriers to reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities in Australia are still massive because we, the non-indigenous community, still haven't acknowledged the real facts of what actually happened post 1788, because we don't know the truth. If this is the case, how can we say sorry if we don't know what we are saying sorry for? And how can the indigenous community forgive us and move forward if they don't feel that their real story has actually been heard?
Sadly, ignorance and arrogance go hand in hand and is a common trait in western cultures. This may explain why some of our indigenous community still suffer such pain and brokenness more than 200 years later. I also suspect that maybe the indigenous community don't have all the facts either, and that like 'chinese whispers', the history that has been past down to them has also changed over the years to the point where it is not completely accurate either. A very complex situation indeed. BFF
The first flag "plonked" in Australia was not the English flag but the first British flag of England and Scotland.The union flag used today is the 1801 flag which includes the red saltire of Ireland. you should be no more ashamed of your English heritage than the scots irish or welsh are of theirs.
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