Invasion Day

[flexibeast]

So tomorrow is Invasion Day here in Australia. Officially, it's referred to as "Australia Day" - the day on which 'Australia' is considered to have been founded. It's actually the day that the First Fleet from England arrived in Australia with the aim of establishing a penal colony. Unfortunately, however, it turned out that, despite claims of terra nullius - that is, that the continent of Australia was 'unoccupied' when Europeans arrived - which were only overturned relatively recently via the High Court's decision on the Mabo case - Australia was already inhabited, and had been for tens of thousands of years. So, beginning on the 26th of January, 1788, the indigenous people of this continent faced a campaign of genocide, involving, amongst other things, the deliberate poisoning of indigenous people with strychnine and arsenic; the forcible removal of indigenous children from their parents (the 'Stolen Generation', as described in the report Bringing them home, released by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in 1997); the attempted obliteration of the indigenous people of Tasmania; and the display of the skeletal remains of Truganinni, the last indigenous Tasmanian, in the British Museum for 80 years - which is difficult for me to see as anything other than the deliberate disrespecting of the conquered by their conquerors.

Today, Australia's indigenous people have one of the shortest life expectancies in the world - roughly 20 years less than that of the non-indigenous population of Australia. The community faces huge social problems caused by alcoholism - alcohol was the 'currency' used by early Europeans in their 'trade' with indigenous people - and while lots of money has been thrown at this problem, little has been, and is being done, to address the root causes. Racist attitudes towards indigenous people are still common. And Australian Governments have refused to even say 'sorry' for what has happened (although they have expressed "sincere regret" :-/ ).

So really, for the indigenous people of Australia, the 26th of January each year is a day of mourning, and of remembrance. So i, for one, won't be celebrating Australia Day - there's little to celebrate about genocide.

Comments

[naiyah.livejournal.com]

urgh... yet more good reasons for my not celebrating it!

thankyou

[darkmoonspirit.livejournal.com]

thankyou for recognising this and posting about it. As the partner of a proud Australian Aboriginal and hopefully in the future, the mother of Aboriginal children, I am appreciative when other people are socially aware enough to understand the history as it *really* happened and are able to articulate it and raise consciousness as you have here. *claps*

Re: thankyou

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Most welcome! i'm constantly appalled by how people seem to want to ignore what's happened to Australia's indigenous peoples since Europeans arrived, or worse, actively try to deny it (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1292125.htm).