The original Aussie's

Australia is a multicultural society, consisting of people from all around the world. Australia has always had a mix of cultures and people although not in the same way as it does today. Nowadays of course we are truly multicultural and have many ethnic folk who live here. Colonisation of course ruined the original inhabitants of this vast land sadly. And Kooris as they wish to be known were first of all introduced to alcohol in a similar manner to the indigenous folk of the USA. This action has left scars and a visitor to our country could not be blamed for calling them drunks. Indeed a lot of white Aussies get drunk frequently but nothing is said of that; this usually occurs in larger towns in regional Australia and the big cities It was actually OUR OWN FAULT; we also massacred them especially in Tasmania;I did a post on that some time ago. They were poorly understood by most of the colonists here as all they were interested in was opening this land up to run sheep later cattle was introduced and Aboriginals did not use the land quite like that, they used it for food and their well-being. And of course they were hired by the colonists to help run their sheep and cattle stations (ranches) at a mere pittance IE basic food supplies and a hovel to live in. Their art is quite different to the usual art and some of it whilst looking abstract is not abstract at all it fetches a very high price today as well. And then the shame of the white man as an Aboriginal called Wandjuk tells of how he actually saw his people’s most sacred paintings blithely on display in the national gallery of Victoria; it appears from his account that he is the guardian of the culture of the Rirratjingu tribe charged by his father on his deathbed to look after and care for such sacred objects and this art mob has them. As you can see we have made grievous errors a typical European action I think. The Australian encyclopaedia by Angus and Robertson printed in 1925 refers to areas here being INFESTED with Aborigines what a shocking word to use to a people that fought for this country in the second world war. Nineteenth Century bounty hunters one in particular butchered these normally peaceful people by the thousand while squatters put arsenic in their flour and water holes; a fact I myself did not know until I read it good grief. From the moment European explorers first laid foot on Australian soil, the interactions between new arrivals and traditional owners were volatile; not a surprise really as in fact they were being invaded. This early contact between Europeans and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, resulted in many resultant killings and massacres of Indigenous people. Then we come to the infamous stolen generation of Aborigines who were taken from parents, families were split and lodged in white folks homes and brought up in the way of the British. John Howard PM refused point blank to apologise to our coloured brethren who really owned Australia and had done for 60.000 years give or take a hundred years or so. To date, with the exception of the Northern Territory, apologies have been made by all State and Territory Governments. In the Prime Minister’s speech to the 1997 Reconciliation Convention he expressed his personal sorrow but stated ‘Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies over which they had no control.’ The Commonwealth parliament has not APOLOGISED preferring instead to express its ‘deep and sincere regret’ for past injustices in a Motion of Reconciliation on 26 August 1999. This has not pleased our Aboriginal Australians much; if I could provide a news clip of Howard evading the issue on TV at that time you would know what I mean. Most of these people with a few exceptions are not lazy or drunks at all but they are portrayed that way, many of us white Australians are lazy and drunks as well, We are all one nation split into territories and states and it is about time we started to act like one nation in my opinion. Comments are most welcome and the images are courtesy of Google images.