For some, Australia Day means barbeques and beaches, a day to put on funny patriotic thongs and sink a few coldies, have a good time day. For the native Gamilaroi people from around Moree NSW it is a day of sorrow. January 26th 1838 seen officially 40 Gamilaroi men, women and children, some say the number was closer to 200, brutally hunted down and killed at Waterloo Creek. For to many of our indigenous folk, Australia Day, starting in 1788, has come to represent the day that oppression and injustice begun for the native people.

Until recognition of Aboriginal Australia becomes a reality, putting on the funny patriotic thongs (I don't own a pair), standing around the barbie at the beach, sinking a few coldies will be nothing more than a phoney expression of what it should be, to be a true Australian. Why by 2020 we are not a much better society, recognising the injustices of the past, and embracing equality for all, I do not know.

Don't the Aborigines have their own version of a national Day ?
Australia day is celebrated by those who appreciate Australia the Nation ! Whatever there was before should be celebrated also. I'm certain many Australians would participate once they were informed of what there was before Australia so it can be celebrated.

I can't rationally understand how in cases like this the descendants of such a event, even though it is what would be regarded by today's standard an abuse of human rights, can really be that upset about it.

Because rationally* they (as the individual that they are today) simply wouldn't exist if the event DIDN'T happen. In other words they own their very life/existence to the event. So if you value your own life then how could you possiblly not say that the event has been a positive result overall with respect to your individual life.

Also, on a non-rational but an irrational emotional level, I still can't understand it because it is such a long time ago that nobody that they know is directly connected cotemporously to the event. Given that it happened about 9 generations ago (if you give a generation to be 20 years) then: 1)they did not experience the event, 2)nor did anyone currently living experience it, 3)nor indeed did anyone living during the life of anyone currently living experience it. I find it difficult to understand/believe that they really can feel that it personally effects them. In other words, since it was such a LONG time ago how do they still feel personally connected to the event?

*rationally in the sense of accounting for cause and effect.

Just another day.

Paul,

Back in the old days, around the time of the Waterloo Creek massacre, when trouble was brewing, Aboriginal groups would scatter and seek refuge, hopefully temporary, in the bush, which they knew far better than any white fella. So finding a group of more than ten people would have been unusual.

Of course, bar-flies through the years have disagreed, piling on the casualty rate and being rewarded with gasps of wonder, shock and horror and beers. And their recounting of atrocities grew with each telling. After all, who's to know otherwise ?

Of course, a thorough archaeological and forensic investigation would clear up such allegations. But it's so much easier to run with belief than evidence, eh, Paul ?

Yes, at some day of the year, we have to remember Inevitable Invasion Day and ponder over what could have happened to Indigenous people here if the British had sailed past and left the place to some other imperialist power.

Jan 26 is as good a date as any, if we remember that it was, indeed, an invasion - and if we remember that it was, indeed, inevitable.

One forgotten aspect about Phillip's proclamation on that day in 1788 is that it was the first time in history when an authority (and presumably with royal assent) declared that there would never be slavery in New South Wales, i.e. in Australia.

Whether Aboriginal women had lived under slavery here for sixty thousand years already, I will leave up to the feminists. In defence of Aboriginal culture, I have to point out that such devaluation of women was also inevitable in all traditional, pre-class societies. Check out Engels' 'Origin of the Family' for Marxist confirmation.

Joe

Why not just celebrate Australia Day if you want to & those who don't can make it Invasion Day !
As they say, kill two birds with one stone !
Those who simply just want to create more problems could be dealt with by taking them off any benefits !