Reflection on Welcome to Country by Bess Price - Jacinta’s Mum.
Welcome to Country – Bess Price
A former indigenous politician who received a prestigious award from Barack Obama has described Aboriginal' welcome to country' ceremonies as 'bullshit'.
Quote from former indigenous NT minister Bess Price (mother of Jacinta Price). 'All the "Welcome to Country", all the "Smoking Ceremonies" and all the made up bullshit rituals about "pay our respects to elders past and present" is just one big lie.
The 'welcome to country' was adopted into Australia's parliamentary protocols in 2008, after the then prime minister Kevin Rudd delivered his apology to the stolen generation.
However, two years after that decision Aboriginal entertainer Ernie Dingo claimed that he invented the concept in 1976 when Pacific Island dancers demanded they receive a traditional welcome.
The Aboriginals have supposedly been here for at least 30,000 years (some say more like 60,000 years). That’s about 29,750 years before the British arrived.
The fact is, as uncomfortable and as unfashionable as it is, aboriginal Australia had not produced anything resembling a Shakespeare, nothing much in the way of technology, never discovered the wheel and no philosophy to speak of, in the 30,000 years available to it. The English brought the rule of law, the Westminster system, the notion of progress and all the benefits of the science, technology and ingenuity of the modern European tradition.
On 26 January 1788 when the First Fleet ships unloaded their ~1200 convicts, Royal Marine guards and officials, not a shot was fired. As they looked around what's now Circular Quay they saw nothing other than bush. Not a single building, planted field, domesticated plant or animal - nothing at all. It was the same across the continent.
It was "terra nullius" - a vacant land.
There was no indigenous Army to defeat in battle, no Aboriginal flag to lower. There was nothing to claim as the spoils of victory.
There was just wild bush. The few Aborigines who came out to have a look at these strange people were completely illiterate and innumerate and those on the south side of the harbor spoke a language completely unintelligible to those on the north side of the harbor and they'd been constantly at war with each other for as long as anyone can remember. To this day Australian Aboriginal languages consist of around 290-363 dialects belonging to an estimated 28 language families and isolates, spoken by Aboriginal Australians of mainland Australia and a few nearby islands.
Since the arrival of the English, only about 250 years ago, Australia has prospered and developed into a modern first world country, along with all other Western democracies.
Yet for at least 30,000 years (prior to the arrival of the British) the Aboriginals seemed to have not progressed one step.
To put this into perspective, the Egyptian empire came and went between around 1570 BC and 1070 BC.
Aboriginals had inhabited our great land for at least 27,000 years prior to the Egyptian empire.
The Greek empire was at its peak in the period 500 BC to 300 BC and the Roman empire was at its peak around 117 BC.
Each of those empires were highly advanced and contributed enormously to the advancement of the modern world.
It therefore beats me why the Aboriginals are now so revered.
55 years ago, under the Holt Liberal government, that 90.77 per cent of Australians voted to remove race from the constitution, putting ‘indigenous’ Australian people on the same legal footing as all other Australians and allowing them to be counted in the Australian population.
It was a momentous shift towards equality.
Half a decade later, the Albanese Labor government wants to insert ‘race’ back into the constitution!
To enshrine a special place in the constitution based purely on racial grounds is racism pure and simple. Length of time on the continent whether it be 40,000 years, 250 years or 10 years shouldn’t be the determinant for any special consideration to any population cohort in the constitution.
JUST A LITTLE SOMETHING TO CONTEMPLATE BEFORE SIGNING UP TO "THE VOICE” – TAKE CARE - WE ALREADY HAVE A PARLIAMENT THAT REPRESENTS “ALL” AUSTRALIANS!
We are all Australians and should share the same laws and government. Black, brindle or white we voted the government in to act for all Australians irrespective of colour race.
