Here we go again. Joe on one hand you claim the Waterloo Creek massacre is nothing more than the talk of bar-flies trying to garner free beer. A bit like those old soak's down at gods waiting room telling what great hero's they were back in the days of war, all for a free beer, eh Joe! The official record, is it on your web site? It puts the number at 40.

"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."

No one told that to the convicts, and they weren't even there to hear it, the so called proclamation. Did you know, the second fleet in 1790, the convicts were transported by private contractors (50% died). The normal business of these private contractors was transporting black African slaves to the Americas, including British colonies in the Caribbean. The sign above the main gate of Auschwitz, read "Work makes You Free" did Phillip bring one of those sign with him to show the convicts and non persons, the aboriginals.

Joe, you have no idea how Aboriginal women lived pre-colonisation, its all in your minds eye, and what you want to believe. Maybe your website has something from the white honky aboriginal controllers on pre-colonisation conditions for women. They made up lots of other nonsense, so why not something on that?

Joe, you have no idea how Aboriginal women lived pre-colonisation
Paul1405,
From my own experience of 40+ years ago up on Cape York I'd guess they lived a pre-colonial way with a few post-colonial commodities thrown in ! Their work load was apparently pretty much the same as before colonisation.

It's a day that will go down in infamy: the sanctioned dispossession of the land from the Aboriginals by the British.

The joke is that what goes around comes around because the Chinese are doing to the whites what the whites did to the Aboriginals.

Joe,
The problem with the "when trouble's brewing" narrative is that you can't always tell when it is until it has.

The date of Australia Day will change once the old conservatives die off. It's just a matter of when to change it to!

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Paul1405,
What are those funny patriotic thongs you mention?

I have a funny patriotic hat I wear on Australia day, obtained from Aussie Disposals a few years back. The corks aren't real, but at least it looks the part, so I wear it and eat lamingtons.

Paul,

Convicts weren't slaves. Thy had committed offences and were doing their time - definite time, seven or fourteen years, and then they were free. And while they were slaves, they often spent their off-hours living in the community like anybody else. On getting their tickets-of leave, they often were given 'grants' of land, a few of my ancestors included, cheap land which they had to pay off.

Pacific Islander indentured labourers (i.e. people signed up to work, oblivious of the conditions facing them) were employed on the sugar in Qld and NSW; some re-signed at the expiry of their indentures. They didn't strictly 'belong' to anybody, they couldn't be bought and sold.

So no, no slavery in Australia. That seems to have certainly been what Phillip intended, as a friend of Wilberforce's. So, when Britain became the first country/empire in history to ban the slave trade in 1806, it was more than forty years ahead of the revolutionary French (1849) or Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, 1962, officially), Mauretania (yet to be determined).

Any other whinge ?

Joe

Porky,

At it again?

" 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."

We are a much better society, Aboriginal men are not allowed to beat their wives, marry underage girls, nor walk around without clothes, they are treated, by law, the same as the rest of us.

Maybe those people who want to get recognition for "Invasion Day" could compromise a bit and we could all celebrate "Successful Invasion Day".