Long ago self ceased celebrate 26 January.

Instead I celebrate the peaceful creation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1st January 1901 as Australia an independent nation.

The ABC, various political activists, often complain about 26 January, yet rarely express interest in adopting 1st January for celebration of Australia peacefully becoming an independent nation.

Most of them complain for sake of complaining, or to promote treating of Australian's differently using race as their measure

The term “First Nations” derives from twentieth-century American politics and has been transported to Australia, where it does not fit. Aboriginal clans, hordes and tribes, which in most cases were no more than extended families, never attained nationhood either before 1788 or any time after. This was confirmed in 1836 in the seminal judgment of William Burton in the New South Wales Supreme Court and has been repeated several times since by Australian judges, including the High Court’s Harry Gibbs in 1979.

Invaders! Ha, ha! Starved and barely alive, emaciated prisoners in clanking chains would have imposed dread, fear and consternation!

Imagine if Herr Hitler has sent his legions forth in that condition to take Poland from the Poles! Invasion! What a load of smelly, rotten crock!

Those invaders the Author allegorically claims took his land away? Could have been sent packing by a few dozen spear-throwing "first nation" warriors!

And or later by that first nation having a council of war, massing their combined strength and weaponry against the English redcoats who would have been vastly inferior numbers, even at the height of transportation? And could have been hurled back into the sea, BY A NATION!

Except, there was never ever a first nation just a motley collection of permanently warring tribes invading the territories of adjacent tribes in wife hunting expeditions! Moreover, there was a colour code and routine infanticide!

This place first became an actual NATION for the very first time ever with federation! Time to move on and just can the endless monolithic BS and mendacious denials!

Truth and reconciliation and full citizenship in an Australian nation replete with a treaty and a bill of irrevocable rights! Or more of this mendacious muckraking? Choose wisely, given we may never come this way again!?
Alan B.

Alan,

We come back to it time and again, every year - should the British and all other colonial powers (including present-day China) have left, and still leave, the continent of Australia to Aboriginal people, foraging as they had done for tens of thousands of years ?

OR should Aboriginal people have been dragged into touch with the modern world, like almost every other part of the world ?

Should Britain or some other colonial power have patrolled the Australian coast-line to ensure that no other colonial power tried to colonise the continent ? Would the French, Spanish, Dutch, later German, Russian, Japanese, and currently Chinese, perhaps Indian and Indonesian, colonial powers have left Australia alone ? Forever ?

Aboriginal people have always had the right to live traditional lives (cf. article by Reynolds & Dalziel, Uni of NSW law Journal, 1996), foraging - hunting, fishing, gathering, harvesting whatever nature provided. I wonder how many blokes went out hunting - using traditional weapons, and women went out gathering grass-seed - using traditional containers - today ? Or tomorrow ? Is it still a vibrant and active culture ?

Should we, as Germaine Greer declared from her English garden, all pack up and go back to whichever original homeland we fancy (since most of us would have somewhat mixed ancestries) ? Would we be allowed back in ?

So much to think about on Australia Day.

Joe

This one is way off-topic, but might be useful to somebody to file away:

http://www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk/news/national-news/19038072.ancient-settlers-americas-brought-dogs-them/

Being Welsh, this news-site would be completely reliable.

So Native Americans may have had dogs for perhaps ten thousand years or much more, before Aboriginal people here were introduced to them by Austronesian seaman-traders four thousand years ago, all of north-central Asian origin.

So, maybe, in addition to my post immediately above, we could add a belated prohibition on Austronesians, Javanese, Macassans, Timorese and Rotinese from coming anywhere near land here in Australia, and upsetting the delicate cultural 'balance' which had been in place here for tens of thousands of years ?

Joe

Foul-Mouth,

Why would anyone want to file it away?

Is that how you think people in the Arts subjects like history, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, philosophy, etc. do things?

Oh well, if it makes you happy to think that is how things get done then please don't let me distract you from your FILING AWAY.