The Mapping of Massacres In Australia, historians and artists have turned to cartography to record the widespread killing of Indigenous people: By Ceridwen Dovey -
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mapping-massacres
Once again, the Australia Day debate rumbles as people discuss which date we should be celebrating this day. Australia was inhabited by it's First Peoples long before European "Discovery" by William Jansz who landed in Cape York in 1606 or Captain Cook who dropped anchor in Botany Bay in 1770 and claimed it be Terra Nullius (Nobody's Land). Since the European invasion, perpetual massacres of Australian Aboriginal men, women and children ensued. Today, Aboriginal life expectancy is more than 10 years below that of the average non-Aboriginal Australian. Much of this is due to generational oppression and intergenerational trauma, lack of education, diabetes because of western diet and other life style factors which have been introduced into Aboriginal lifestyles in as little as the last three generations.
Australia Day, Jan 26, celebrates 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, loaded with British settlers, British, American and African Convicts who carried with them many bacteria and viruses that were unknown to the Australian regions. It was on the 26th Jan 1788 that the Aboriginal Australians lost possession of land that they have inhabited for 40,000 years, punctuated by the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip.
Change the Date. 26th of January is a day of mourning for our First Peoples. Australia Day should be a day that all Australians can feel proud of. I don't feel proud that the modern Australian population would continue to ignore the distress that this particular date is creating for many of our indigenous people. It is about respecting and honouring our true history, not the history that has been doctored to paint a pretty picture that makes for a nice story. Australian waterways are littered with place names like Murdering, Slaughterhouse, Skull hole and Skeleton Creeks all to commemorate the genocide of Indigenous populations so that lands could be cleared to build homesteads and grazing lands for the lamb chops that we can put on the B.B.Q on Australia Day on our paid Day off work. Are we seriously so shallow as a nation?
Lest We Forget.
Mairead Ashcroft
Once again, the Australia Day debate rumbles as people discuss which date we should be celebrating this day. Australia was inhabited by it's First Peoples long before European "Discovery" by William Jansz who landed in Cape York in 1606 or Captain Cook who dropped anchor in Botany Bay in 1770 and claimed it be Terra Nullius (Nobody's Land). Since the European invasion, perpetual massacres of Australian Aboriginal men, women and children ensued. Today, Aboriginal life expectancy is more than 10 years below that of the average non-Aboriginal Australian. Much of this is due to generational oppression and intergenerational trauma, lack of education, diabetes because of western diet and other life style factors which have been introduced into Aboriginal lifestyles in as little as the last three generations.
Australia Day, Jan 26, celebrates 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, loaded with British settlers, British, American and African Convicts who carried with them many bacteria and viruses that were unknown to the Australian regions. It was on the 26th Jan 1788 that the Aboriginal Australians lost possession of land that they have inhabited for 40,000 years, punctuated by the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip.
Change the Date. 26th of January is a day of mourning for our First Peoples. Australia Day should be a day that all Australians can feel proud of. I don't feel proud that the modern Australian population would continue to ignore the distress that this particular date is creating for many of our indigenous people. It is about respecting and honouring our true history, not the history that has been doctored to paint a pretty picture that makes for a nice story. Australian waterways are littered with place names like Murdering, Slaughterhouse, Skull hole and Skeleton Creeks all to commemorate the genocide of Indigenous populations so that lands could be cleared to build homesteads and grazing lands for the lamb chops that we can put on the B.B.Q on Australia Day on our paid Day off work. Are we seriously so shallow as a nation?
Lest We Forget.
Mairead Ashcroft
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