Hi Steele,

The Holocaust has been documented in thousands of ways, with the easily-tested testimony of hundreds of thousands of survivors.

Very few massacre sites in Australia have been examined: I believe there is one investigation going on near Mulan, south of the Kimberley, but any reporting on that seems to have gone quiet. Yet there are probably a hundred archaeological (and forensic) digs going on at present across Australia, and have been for many years.

A massacre of Aboriginal people by non-Aboriginal people would be a most dreadful and shameful tragedy. Surely anybody who feels that their own kin might have been killed in this way, would demand that justice can only be served by the thorough exposure of the crimes committed against their own people ? Anything else would surely be intolerable ? Any cover-up, any attempt to block a proper investigation, would only contribute to the original crime ? I know that if any of my loved ones had been murdered, I would move heaven and earth to get at the truth.

I strongly support genuine Reconciliation between Indigenous people and those who may have done them and/or their ancestors any harm. That can come about only with the removal of any doubts about what may have happened, as much as possible, and the coming to terms with that knowledge by all Australians, no lingering doubts that any talk of massacres is nothing more than yet another scam, based on bar-fly talk and hearsay. Surely not ? Surely massacres occurred, and surely forensic scientists and archaeologists would be able to find evidence of them ?

Your reluctance may mistakenly give the impression that you know very well that many of the stories are nothing more than that: stories. But this dilemma cannot be resolved without full and frank investigations of supposed massacre sites. The truth shall set you free, Steele - in fact, it shall set all of us free, good and bad, warts and all :)

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Steele,

We have covered this subject as you rightly point out
so many times on this forum. And as we know it is
now possible to explore the past by means of a vast
amount of material. We can know a great deal about the
history of Indigenous-settler relations. The following
link gives a list of notes and references at the end
of the article that any reader can follow up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians

Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion, says not a single aboriginal has told him that they want the Australia Day date changed. That would include the black activists who would have his ear.

The gormless Greens seem to be the only ones obsessing about it.

Dear Peter6,

What a piece of self-serving, whinging, victim-hood tripe you served up in your last post. Take a good hard look at yourself mate.

How about you stop flapping your bloody gums for a second, drop all the irrelevant crap and focus on the topic at hand. To me it is pretty simple. How do the reasons for keeping the current date of someone like yourself stack up against the reasons of an indigenous person who might be, for very good reason, very uncomfortable with it and would like to see a change.

You just banged on about a whole bunch of nonsense but said not a word of why you feel so invested in the 26th. The reason to me is pretty obvious. It isn't about and special affection for it rather you just don't like the people who are pushing for it. Is there some racism in there? Of course. Is there insecurities about your own sexuality? Obviously.

Look I'm uncomfortable with the Green's taking this up so forcefully. There is a degree of political opportunism about it that threatens to derail it but here's some advice my friend, try and park all the rest and let us hear the best explanation of why the 26th of January is so vitally important to you that it trumps the hurt and distress it causes a significant group of our first Australians.

Dear Foxy,

This is from my neck of this big brown land;

SCARS IN THE LANDSCAPE a register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/2014/IanDClark-Scars_in_the_landscape.pdf.pdf

Foxy & Steele,

It's great to have some sort of guide to possible massacre sites,as you have both provided. Now all that remains is for investigations to be carried out, to back up - or correct - the hearsay and oral story with substance, with all the physical evidence that can be made available. Even an investigation of just one site would be enormously helpful in the causes of justice, truth and closure. I'm sure you would both agree, and would both be clamouring for such an investigation, if you didn't have more important things to worry about.

The truth will out, sooner or later, and, I hope, in my lifetime.

Joe

Why the 26th. should remain as Australia Day. It was the day a civilized people landed in Australia. Yes they were Convicts & Freeman but they brought civilization & a uniqueness to a place where the people were still living in a 80000 year old time loop.

The Aboriginal people landed here in three waved as far as can be ascertained. 80000, 50000 & 30000 years ago. When they landed it was still the early Stone Age. No improvement in Living Conditions or Technology was made from that time to the present, in fact they were slowly going backwards.

Therefore White Australians & Aboriginal Australians should be grateful for the wonderful advanced Country Australia is after only 242 years. Australia is the most unique Country in the World as far as our Culture, Way of Life, Freedoms & our Peaceful Countenance. No other country in the World has these unique qualities. Not even America.

That's why we should celebrate the 26th of January.