We are what we are, and to simply stare back into the past and declare, all is rosy in the garden is delusional. Aboriginal people rightly refer to 26th January 1788 as 'Invasion Day'. For 40 to 60,000 years prior to the arrival Arthur and his fleet of misfits, scallywags and odd bods, the people we doing just fine. Aboriginals without being asked, gave away a lot, a whole continent in fact, in return for the European privileges which in a generally meager way were doled out to them, and in many regards are still being doled out.
Like indigenous people the world over, when the European arrived with his superiors fire power, the Aboriginal had to submit, or be totally exterminated like the Mahicans. In this day of enlightenment, some 227 years later, should we be, to quote Susie "mindless morons cruising the streets in big cars festooned with Australian flags and stickers bearing such tasteful slogans as ' F### off! We're full!". No! We should be looking to the future and those things we can do to make for a better Australia for all, and ultimately a better world tomorrow.

@Paul,

<<Aboriginal people rightly refer to 26th January 1788 as 'Invasion Day>>

Could never have guessed that Paul is a Greenie!

SPQR, are you one of histories revisionists, from an Aboriginal and historical perspective 26th January 1788 can not be seen as anything other than Invasion Day. However to satisfy what might be a rather uncomfortable feeling for you, we will declare 26th January 1788 as the day ice cream was invented in Australia, and from now on 26th January will be refereed to as National Ice Cream Day. Satisfied?

Paul,

The Torres Strait Islanders do have a gripe, 1788 and all that saw the beginning of the end of them hunting mainlanders for sport and a bit of spare tucker.

@Paul

<<SPQR, are you one of histories revisionists...>>

No Paul, you are on the side of the revisionists. There never was ONE aboriginal people. There were a host of different contending tribes who came in widely dispersed migrations. This Aboriginal people this is a modern revisionist lefty invention.

<< ice cream >> Apt you should mention that i saw the climate Greenies handing free ice creams on one of the recent election days ;)

"1788 and all that saw the beginning of the end of them hunting mainlanders for sport and a bit of spare tucker." and it also seen the introduction of public hanging and floggings along with the spread of an assortment of diseases, smallpox, tuberculosis and venereal disease with numerous others. While the European population had a strong resistance to diseases such as bronchitis, measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox and even the common cold – exposure to these diseases was often fatal to Aboriginal populations.
Even before Europeans began arriving in the Melbourne area, up to a third of the population of the eastern Australian tribes had been killed by an epidemic of smallpox that spread down from Sydney. Those ungrateful sods!
The whole invasion thing can be all justified by the words of SPQR "There never was ONE aboriginal people. There were a host of different contending tribes who came in widely dispersed migrations" Yes so what is the point, did it give us the justification to slip in the back door. Australia today is made of of some 179 nationalities, does that make it ripe for invasion by the Chinese on the grounds there is no ONE Australian.

Could never have guessed that SPQR is NOT a Greenie!