Australia or Invasion Day
PHOTO: There will be lifetimes, even generations, that will keep feeling the long-term effects of what Australia Day represents. (Anoek De Groot file photo: AFP)
This thread is devoted to a discussion on Australia Day, held in 2016. A wide ranges of responses are recorded from whites and non-whites.
Some of my thoughts about Australia Day are in this OP
Post#: 37293748
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-26/dillon-why-january-26-is-a-hard-day-for-our-mob/7112794
Why January 26 is a hard day for our mob
By RodneyDillon: 26 Jan 2016
The invasion of Australia represents the start of much suffering for Indigenous people. We should find a day to celebrate that brings us together rather than tears us apart, writes Rodney Dillon.
Let me start by saying that all Indigenous people have badly suffered the consequences of colonisation,wherever they are in Australia.
That's why January 26 is a hard day for all of our mob.
Aboriginal people always feel sad on Australia Day - it marks the end of freedom for our people.
But colonisation hitT asmanian Aboriginal people pretty hard.
Governor George Arthur declared war on Aboriginal people in the 1820s. A 'Black Line' was made, a human chain of soldiers, and marched across the land killing whoever they could.
They didn't get very many of us, because we're smarter than that.
Still, it shows the attitude they had towards our people. That they could shoot us whenever they liked and there were no consequences. That they could move people from our land and it's okay. That they could rape our women and steal our children. That they were in charge and that they knew what was best for Aboriginal people. People think that these attitudes have changed, but I wonder how much that's true. Most people think there aren't any
Aboriginal people inT asmania left, or they think that those who are left aren't 'real' Aboriginal people. Survival for us is about taking steps to address the consequences of invasion that we still face today.
They say that Trugainini was the last Aboriginal person in Tasmania. She was born on Bruny Island. They locked her up for about 20 years. They were fascinated with her. After she died they took her remains to the Hobart Museum, and our people fought for many years to get her out of there and returned to country to rest where she belonged.
She wasn't the last Aboriginal in Tasmania. Being Aboriginal is more than the colour of your skin.My family - from my parents to my great grandparents to my great great grandparents - have had our identity questioned our whole lives. We're only Aboriginal when it suits them.
There was a long period in our lives that our Aboriginal culture was denied and then ignored.
But finally, in the last 10 years, the Tasmanian Government has started to be proud of, and celebrate, our culture. We still have a long way to go. We need to make our heritage laws stronger so that it's harder for people to destroy our culture. But it's a start.
The colonisers didn't declare war in other parts of Australia, but it was war. We were invaded.Indigenous people suffered, and keep suffering, the same things all over Australia. These times have been hard on our people.
Survival for us is about taking steps to address the consequences of invasion that we still face today. We've got health issues, scars from not healing, substance abuse, too many of our people are in prison, too many of our kids are in care, and not enough of our kids are getting educated.
Governments are still trying to close communities and move people off their land. Invasion was the start of these problems. There will be lifetimes, even generations, that will keep feeling the long-term effects of these things.
I want us all to be able to talk about invasion, rather than settlement, and get to the truth of our history. These issues are the by-product of what Australia Day represents. We can't celebrate on that day because even now, more than 200 years later, the lessons haven't been learned and the same mistakes are still being repeated.
I want to see our culture celebrated at the beginning of sporting games. When our players like Adam Goodes are getting booed for doing an Aboriginal dance, it shows that our country is not in good order. Why do people see us expressing our culture as a threat,rather than an invitation?
I want to see a day when we have a Minister for Indigenous Affairs who is Indigenous. I want to see us come together as one country - not two separate countries with separate issues. Our problems are Australian problems, not Aboriginal ones, and we all need to work together.
I want us all to be able to talk about invasion, rather than settlement, and get to the truth of our history, and for this to be taught in schools and universities across Australia.
So let's find a day to celebrate the Australia that we can be, that we should be. A day that brings us together and doesn't keep tearing us apart.
Responses: The invasion of Australia represents the start of much suffering for Indigenous people. We should find a day to celebrate that brings us together rather than tears us apart, writes Rodney Dillon.
There was a long period in our lives that our Aboriginal culture was denied and then ignored. But finally,in the last 10 years, the Tasmanian Government has started to be proud of, and celebrate, our culture. We still have a long way to go. We need to make our heritage laws stronger so that it's harder for people to destroy our culture.But it's a start.
The colonisers didn't declare war in other parts of Australia, but it was war. We were invaded.Indigenous people suffered, and keep suffering, the same things all over Australia. These times have been hard on our people.
Survival for us is about taking steps to address the consequences of invasion that we still face today. We've got health issues, scars from not healing, substance abuse, too many of our people are in prison, too many of our kids are in care, and not enough of our kids are getting educated. Governments are still trying to close communities and move people off their land.
Invasion was the start of these problems. There will be lifetimes, even generations, that will keep feeling the long-term effects of these things. I want us all to be able to talk about invasion, rather than settlement, and get to the truth of our history.
Rodney Dillon Is Amnesty International's Indigenous Campaigner, Chair of the National Reference Group for Repatriation of Australian Indigenous Remains, former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commissioner for Tasmania, and long-time Indigenous right sactivist. He is also a proud Palawa man.
