Aborigines don’t have a national day of recognition for those who died in the frontier wars. Current Australian society won’t even allow them that. So while there is an Anzac Day there is an inequality.
There is a festering wound that won’t heal because the genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the colonists were swept under the carpet. That same wound won’t heal because of the ongoing treatment of our indigenous people as second class citizens who are continually disrespected and not listened to.
That wound has a chance of healing despite the millions of uneducated and insensitive people who refuse to engage and listen and act. Those blaming the victims for “playing games” and not “moving on”. Those who say they have no responsibility just because they personally did not take part in past events. That’s where truth telling followed by reconciliation and treaty can come in, an ongoing process of education.
Hopefully the uneducated victim blamers and shirkers of responsibility will eventually see that their callous or ignorant behaviour is the reason aborigines and Australian society as a whole can’t move on.
