Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised there are images and names of deceased persons below that may cause sadness or distress.
Sorry it took a while to get to this and my apologies, but this is a long answer.
My icon is in protest of the date that Australia marks to celebrate Australia Day, which is the official National Day of Australia. It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip.
However, it’s not a day of celebration for everyone, namely, the Aboriginal people of Australia.
Our history did not begin with the arrival of the British; we enjoyed thousands of years in this country with our own sovereignty. For many of us, celebrating on the 26th is not respectful because we view it as a day of mourning. It marks the beginning of colonisation and genocide of our peoples. It is celebrating the beginning of oppression for Aboriginal peoples. The dispossession of lands; mass murder; as well as threats of cultural and linguistic extinction.
Many of us refer to it as Invasion Day as it was an act of war against sovereign peoples; others, Survival Day, to recognise our resilience in the face of 200+ years of outright systematic genocide from the British imperialism and Australian colonialism.
We, the First Australians, do want to celebrate a day when we can talk about all of the wonderful things we love about our country. Yet, the 26th is not a day that has EVER felt good for us.
Australia, like many other colonial and post-colonial nations, has a history of denying that there was ever much wrong doing against Aboriginal people. And when there finally is an acknowledgement, others demand that we, as Aboriginal people, ‘get over it’.
Let me illustrate (in a short list) some of the things they want us to ‘get over’:
- Spread of smallpox that killed large numbers of Aboriginal people when the First Fleet arrived
- Arthur Philip calling for the death of Aboriginal warrior Pemulwuy after he responded to violence against local Aboriginal people, namely women and children
- ‘Parties’ sent out to massacre Aboriginal populations for ‘offences’ such as killing livestock to feed their families after many of the native animals were driven out by early graziers.
- Sexual violence against Aboriginal women and children
- Aboriginal people being forced to live on missions and reserves
- Aborigines Protection Board
- Aboriginal children of mixed parentage being forcibly removed from their families
- Exclusion from Education
- Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Here are some famous images of Aboriginal men who were taken prisoner. Images like these were often taken after a massacre had occurred.
Caption: Head chains were sometimes used for a Native’s entire Prison Sentence, up to 3 years or more, 24 hours a day.
The reasons for many of these ‘arrests’ were to dispossess people so that farmers could have their land; or in response to an Aboriginal person killing livestock for food in order to survive.
Below, we see Aboriginal children who were taken from their families and forced to live in ‘Homes’ where they were trained to be domestics and laborers for white families. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse. Many never found their families again.
Caption (which was handwritten by a white woman wanting an Aboriginal child as a domestic): I like the little girl in centre of group, but if taken by anyone else, any of the others would do, as long as they are strong.
The wider Australian community does not like to acknowledge that these abuses occurred in our SHARED HISTORY. Celebrating the official day of our nation when it marks the beginning of imperial rule in our country which led to these government sanctioned atrocities is NOT a happy thing for us. This is why we protest celebrating ‘Australia Day’ on the 26th of January.
These are from my own personal teaching resources; I use them with students to teach them about the History Wars Debate:
Historians engaged in History Wars Debate
Australian Prime Ministers on Australian history.
Discussion topics for students on omission and inclusion in history.
I think most Australians subscribe to Howard’s view that sharing the black armband view of history makes Australia’s colonial narrative look like a ‘disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination…’
If that is the story of Australia, then it should be told. We should be celebrating what we have achieved as a multi-cultural nation with a long history (and prehistory) of Aboriginal occupation, not trying to hide what happened to the First Australians; not denying that the Australian Dream was built at the expense, detriment, and great sorrow of the nation’s Indigenous peoples.
EVERY COLONIAL COUNTRY HAS A VIOLENT HISTORY.
WHITE AUSTRALIA HAS A BLACK HISTORY.
Thank you for asking. If you wanted to know more, here’s some information about Frontier Wars; massacres; human right violations; Aboriginal Resistance; and Invasion Day:
Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians Since 1788 by Bruce Elder
Why Weren’t We Told? by Henry Reynolds
Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle’s Fabrication of Aboriginal History by Robert Manne
Australian Human Rights Commission
Ten Ways to Stand with Indigenous People this Survival Day by Amnesty International
Sovereign Union - First Nations Asserting Sovereignty
A New Generation of Indigenous Children Lost in the System by Allan Clarke
Aboriginal Resistance to Colonisation: Four Case Studies by the National Museum of Australia
A Reference List can be found here for further reading.
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