Hi Individual,

For 'Reconciliation' to work, we will probably all have to concede the injustice and inevitability of history. I'm sure my ancestors didn't want to come out here as convicts, but they did. Further back, my ancestors didn't want the English barbarians to invade, but they did. Further back still, my ancestors didn't want the Norman barbarians to invade but they did, as did the Angle, Saxon, Jute and, of course, the Roman barbarians ......

And what did any of them do for us ?

Well, I guess we survived .....

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,

Good for a laugh?

Whinging?

This the best reaction you can come up with?
This vindictive adherence to colonial myth.

Coming from someone who claims he's been looking into
"first sources" of this country's past. I'm now wondering
which sources you found relevant? Probably only those
of the colonists, and "protectors."

No wonder you reject everything else.

Makes sense.

And what did any of them do for us ?
Loudmouth,
Well, they gave us aqueducts, roads, education, farming & lately bureaudroids ! :-)

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Dear Loudmouth,

.

You wrote :

« I can't read the copy of Bourke's Proclamation. Does it actually use the term "terra nullius" or is that someone else's gloss ? »
.

Sorry the link doesn’t open, Joe. It works for me. This is basically what it says :

« Collection :
National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, England.

« Object Name :
Proclamation of Governor Bourke, 10 October 1835.

« Object Description :
Two pages paper with black ink. The paper displays some foxing and watermarks.
Dimensions unknown. It is currently held at the National Archives of the United Kingdom.

« When John Batman, one of the pioneers in the founding of Victoria, first settled at Port Phillip, he made an attempt to buy the land from the Aboriginal people through a treaty. New South Wales Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, effectively quashed the treaty with this Proclamation issued by the Colonial Office and sent to the Governor with Dispatch 99 of 10 October 1835. Its publication in the Colony meant that from then, all people found occupying land without the authority of the government would be considered illegal trespassers.

« The Proclamation of Governor Bourke implemented the doctrine of terra nullius upon which British settlement was based, reinforcing the notion that the land belonged to no one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it. Aboriginal people therefore could not sell or assign the land, nor could an individual person acquire it, other than through distribution by the Crown.

« Although many people at the time also recognised that the Aboriginal occupants had rights in the lands (and this was confirmed in a House of Commons report on Aboriginal relations in 1837), the law followed and almost always applied the principles expressed in Bourke’s proclamation. This would not change until the Australian High Court’s decision in the Eddie Mabo Case in 1992. »

Here is a copy of the original handwritten document (I hope this works for you) :

http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw7_doc_1835.pdf

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Hi Joe, I have found the answer "WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS EVER DONE FOR US?" And its FIRST SAUCES, Tomato I think!

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

PFJ Member: Brought peace?

Reg: Oh, peace? SHUT UP!

http://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-brian-quotes/movie-and-tv-quotes

Hi All,

The purpose of my original post was to spark debate about Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia, and it has done that. The acceptance of sovereignty automatically leads to illegal occupation in 1788. The Cook description of a land inhabited by a "weak, timid, cowardly and incurious" people suited Britain in its quest for colonisation of a land that had no strings attached, New South Wales fitted that bill for Britain, so it seemed. Whether that premise of "terra nullius" was enacted by Britain knowing it was untrue, or whether it was a mistaken belief, that's immaterial to today's argument.

What has to be done is recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty, but in a practical way that sovereignty has to be transferred to the modern nation of Australia and all its people. Of course that calls for compromise, and good will by all parties. How best that can be achieved is debatable, some argue for a treaty, some for doing nothing, and some for I don't know what. I think we as a nation are big enough, and man enough, to tackle this problem and come to a good solution, that is fitting for all Australians.