Hi Alan,

I'm a bit of a mix as well. My Gran was Russian. She
married a Lithuanian. I also have British, Swedish,
German and Ukrainian ancestry. I grew up in rural
Australia and love this country and its diversity.

My brother taught Indigenous kids - and so I got
to know the Indigenous history.

I also catalogued the oral Indigenous history for the
State Library - and found it fascinating listening to
all the experiences recorded.

The bottom line is that all of us must live according to present day community standards.
These are set by law, and also by 'average' behaviour in everyday living.
They are not aligned to the way it was a thousand years ago.
There have been far too many changes between then and now.
Yet, there are those who peddle the idea that nothing has changed.
That standards and ways of the past must be prominent today.
It is clear they have not thought it through.
Or perhaps they are deliberately 'stretching' the truth, to create an alternate reality?
If so, it can only be a false reality.
And falseness will not be accepted by the majority of those who can think.
The recent voice referendum showed that to be true.

.

Dear Ipso Fatso,

.

You wrote :

« I was born here. I am part of this country. I belong here ».
.

That’s interesting, Ipso Fatso. It’s quite exceptional. Only 0.2% of humanity was born in Australia and you are one of them, one of the 18 million, i.e., 0.000005% – and you are 0.000000013% of all the humanity in the world.

Like us all, you are the product of your progenitors: your distant ancestors, grandparents, and parents. You are a unique combination of what they were and are, both biologically and culturally. Your history is a unique combination of their history. You can deny it. You can ignore it, and turn your back on it, but you can’t change it. It is the condition “sine qua non” of your existence.

You can live your life differently from the way they lived theirs. You can change the present. You can forge a different future. But you can’t change the past.

If yours happened to be a glorious and noble legacy of the past I’m sure you would have no hesitation assuming it with pride. But given the deplorable circumstances of our European forefathers' colonisation of the vast pristine land that had been occupied by primitive indigenous peoples for over 65,000 years, it takes a certain amount of courage to assume the backlash of the terrible crimes of the past – particularly those of the not-so-distant past.

As it happens, some present-day “true blue” Australians have that courage. I guess it's what makes them who they are.

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Hi Banjo,

Homo sapiens are one species, originating in Africa. The difference you see in the appearance of people from different parts of the world does not indicative of different species, so are you suggesting that people are somehow different because their ancestors lived in different parts of the world? That strikes me as racism, so a clarification from you would be nice.

History can be represented as you like, although the great nation that Australia is today is quite a turnaround from the genocidal colony that you claim Australia was. The past cannot be altered. The best we can do is to look after the present.

"it takes a certain amount of courage to assume the backlash of the terrible crimes of the past "

I don't fully understand this comment, but I'd suggest that guilt and alleged injustices are not inheritable either individually or collectively. Further, thanks to the Voice being defeated, all Australians are treated equally and without regard to their heritage.

We need to learn the history of our country.
We need to burrow beneath the mythology to
provide an intimate look at where we have been
so that we can understand who we are, what we stand for,
and why things are the way they are.

There's so many Australians who made our nation grand -
There's pioneers such as Charles Kingsford
Smith, whose groundbreaking efforts moved the country forward,
Artists and entertainers such as Joan Sutherland, who shaped
our national cultural identity. Humanitarians such as Mary
MacKillop, and Fred Hollows both of whom dedicated
their lives to others. And many more.

Many of us love watching reality TV these days. And yet we so
often neglect the greatest reality of all. The reality of our
nation and how it came to be.

Hear, hear and well said, Fester.

Yes Foxy, when we work together as a nation, we can achieve almost anything, i.e., the best Olympic games ever.

All that has prevented that at any time, was and remains the ideological imperatives of political idiots serving foreign masters.

Yes, our best have done us proud, no thanks to the ideologs that have and do hold this back as they sell our economic sovereignty at fire sale, bargain basement prices.
Alan B.