Noel Pearson continues: We recognise and honour our New Australians. When we renounced the White Australia policy, we made a better Commonwealth. We show that people with different roots can live together, that we can learn to read the image-bank of others, that we can look across the frontiers of our differences without prejudice or illusion.

NOW THEREFORE, with earnest and open hearts and strong desire to fill the lacuna, after more than two centuries, we make this Declaration of Australia and the Australian People, to see our reflections in each other, and recognise one and all:

Our history is replete with shame and pride, failure and achievement, fear and love, cruelty and kindness, conflict and comity, mistake and brilliance, folly and glory. We will not shy from its truth. Our storylines entwine further each generation. We will ever strive to leave our country better for our children.

We will honour the Uluru Statement from the Heart and make good upon it. Whilst English is the shared language of our Commonwealth, mother tongues name the country and sing its song-lines – and we do not want for them to pass from this land. They are part of the cultural and natural wonder of our country that is the campfire of our national soul, and the pledge of care and custody we owe our ancestral dead and unborn descendants.

After the battles of our frontier wars fell silent, diggers from the First Nations joined their Settler and New Australian comrades in the crucibles of Gallipoli, the Western Front and Kokoda, and there distilled the essence of our values:

That our mateship is and will always be our enduring bond.

That freedom and the fair go are our abiding ethic.

That our virtues of egality and irreverence give us courage to have a go.

That we know we can and always will count on each other.

Three stories make us one: Australians.'

Amen to this!

stirring and believe that there was no Aboriginal history until the white man came.
Foxy,
No-one's saying that. It just wasn't like the versions we're being told now. Just like any other race, the Aborigines too evolved over millennia & due to their isolation simply have not been as exposed to the opportunities of "Progress' as the Neanderthals or Hobbits or any other ancients !
Looking at the drug-ridden no-hopers & the indoctrinated gits in Western society, it'd be a good thing for many to revert to short legs & long arms ! At least the Banana farmers would do well.
And, yes I believe Darwin was on the money !

Dear thinkabit,

What a cretinous proposition.

So you want to compare a society with the written word to that with a long tradition of communal oral history?

Out of a thousand Europeans how many would be able to recite your long list of facts. They would really only be derived by the few bothering to delve into the history books.

Here is the Boon Wurrung story regarding the filling of Port Phillip bay:

“This large plain was covered in buath and tarrang biik on which the Boon Wurrung men hunted guyeem and barramaeel. The bagurrk cultivated the murnong. They collected food from the wurneet and the warreeny and harvested the iilk that migrated through there every year.

The Boon Wurrung were the custodians of their biik but traded with and welcomed people from other parts of the Kulin Nation. They obeyed the laws of Bundjil, who travelled as an eagle, and Waang who travelled as a crow.

One day – many, many years ago – there came a time of chaos and crisis. The Boon Wurrung and the other Kulin nations were in conflict. They argued and fought. They neglected their biik. The native murnong was neglected. The animals were over killed and not always eaten. The gurnbak were caught during their spawning season. The iilk were not harvested.

As this chaos grew the warreeny became angry and began to rise. The wurneet became flooded and eventually the whole flat plain was covered in baany. It threatened to flood their whole barerarerungar.

The people became frightened and went to Bundjil, their creator and spiritual leader. They asked Bundjil to stop the warreeny from rising.

Bundjil was angry with his people, and he told them that they would have to change their ways if they wanted to save their land. The people thought about what they had been doing and made a promise to follow Bundjil.

Cont..

Cont..

Bundjil walked out to the warreeny, raised his tjeera and directed the warreeny to stop rising. Bundjil then made the Boon Wurrung promise that they would respect the laws.

The baany never subsided but stayed to create a large bay that the Boon Wurrung called Nairm. Today it is known as Port Phillip Bay. The warreeny took away much of the biik of the Boon Wurrung and much of their barerarerungar was reduced to a narrow strip of coastline.

The Boon Wurrung learnt from their mistakes. They returned to their old values and the laws of Bundjil. They took greater care of the biik of Bundjil and the bubup of Bundjil.”
http://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/aboriginal-culture/nyernila/boon-wurrung-the-filling-of-the-bay-the-time-of-chaos/

The scientific date for this was only recently been pegged to be about 1000 years ago. Stories like these are woven into the culture of the different tribes.

Early ethnographers found Victorian aboriginal children could name over 100 stars and constellations and had stories for most of them.

For you to sneer away with utterly uncharitable derision speaks far more to your agenda rather than acknowledging the power of oral traditions full stop.

Thank you all for your contributions.
STEELE REDUX: I deeply appreciate your comments, including your last two sentences to ‘thinkabit’ above.
Good on you ALAN B.
FOXY: many thanks for the poem and your constructive contributions. I’ll have a new article published at Starts at 60 about having my first grandchild, here: https://startsat60.com/author/andris-heks after 30 July, and on that date, by that evening, on https://www.facebook.com/startsat60au/. People can leave comments at either site and I will answer you Foxy. I am glad that my Hungarian first name Andris is also used in Lithuanian.
THINKABIT: I invite you for a different game:
Please stand in front of the mirror and imagine truly that in the mirror you see yourself as an Aborigine. You, as white thinkabit are now face to face with your alterego, the Aborigine thinkabit. Now looking into the eyes of that Aborigine, please repeat the following comments that you and some others made above: ‘There is next to nothing that we can learn from the aborigines. Western knowledge surpasses traditional aboriginal knowledge in just about every field.’’ Aborigines never invented writing so their own historical knowledge prior to European settlement beyond a few centuries back is extremely scant (basically it is non-existent).’
Please keep looking into your alterego’s eyes and continue: ‘There are two classes of blacks; the good ones that integrate, and the rabble that will never conform.'it is actually the truth!' It’s a class war!’'what's the difference between black and white', the difference being the word 'part'.
Thinkabit, are you still looking into the eyes of the Aborigine thinkabit? Then, please go on:
'And here I am, a poor little white boy speaking in colloquial language unacceptable. Speaking only the truth, in tongue of the commoners. And for that, round condemnation from the screeching classes.''Lying about ancestry to aid stirring up more conflict is not warranted either! Such hypocrisy is what causes history repeating!'

Now, please be the Aborigine thinkabit.
How do you feel on hearing all this?
Uplifted or denigrated?
Now please reply to your white alter ego.
Looking forward to hearing from you thinkabit.

Dear Andris,

I'll look your sites up after 30th July.

Congratulations Grandpa! Great news!
I'm also a Grandmother and know how you must
be feeling. My grandchildren are the joys of
my life.

In Lithuanian the name Andris is - Andrius.
It was my father's name. And is very dear to me.
My father passed away at the age of 52 in
Sydney (I grew up in Sydney) of a massive coronary.
Working double-shifts in a rubber factory eventually
got to him. He was an academic in Lithuania.
I miss him very much.