January 1.
“Australia Day” by Glenn Loughrey
Imperial anticipation of conflict
The Gamaraigal people must have thought they were confronted by barbarians...
'It is now evident that Europeans did not discover Australia. The Aborigines preceded them by well over 50,000 years. However, Europeans did invade Australia to found a gaol on the land the Aborigines had owned since the dreamtime. On 26 January 1788 British ships containing 290 seamen, soldiers and officials and 717 convicts sailed into Port Jackson, to confront the Gamaraigal people of the Sydney area.
The Gamaraigal must have been completely bewildered by the arrival of these strangely clothed, pale-skinned people who travelled in weird water-craft. It was little wonder that they ran to the water's edge, yelling and lifting their spears with mixed feelings of anger, fear and curiosity. The Gamaraigal watched this large body of strangers, almost as numerous as their own tribe, unload their curious supplies. These invaders behaved like savages in the way they attacked the land: they felled trees, cleared the ground, gouged the earth, marked it out and pitched strange canvas shelters on it. The gentle rhythms of life around Sydney were pierced by noise, activity, shouts and parades. When the female convicts were landed, the Aborigines watched as amorous rum-primed men fell upon the women until cooled by a sudden down-pour...
In the succeeding months, the Aborigines bewilderment increased as they saw overseers ordering convicts around, watched floggings take place, and witnessed several hangings. The Europeans even had the gall to dig Aboriginal graves and unearth the bones. The Gamaraigal people must have thought they were confronted by barbarians – which no doubt explains why they largely avoided the Europeans for the first two years.
Acknowledgment: Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians – Black Responses to White Dominance 1788, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994, Second edition, p. 22.
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“…Settler colonialism remains…invisible to those who enjoy its benefits.”
Renowned writer of Aboriginal, West Indian and Irish descent Tony Birch has argued that settler colonial societies are ‘incapable of countenancing either the relinquishment of power, or the contemplation of genuine remorse’. [1]Like most dominant political systems settler colonialism remains pervasive, naturalised and invisible to those who enjoy its benefits. [2]
1. Tony Birch, ‘A change of date will do nothing to shake Australia from its colonial-settler triumphalism’, IndigenousX, 21 January 2018.
https://indigenousx.com.au/tony-birch-a-change-of-date-will-do-nothing-to-shake-australia-from-its-colonial-settler-triumphalism/>
2. Corey Snelgrove, Rita K. Dhamoon & Jeff Corntassel, ‘Unsettling settler colonialism: the discourse and politics of settlers and solidarity with Indigenous nations’, Decolonisation: Indigeneity, Education and Society, vol. 3, no. 2, 2014 p.9. 107
Acknowledgment: Sarah Maddison, The Colonial Fantasy – Why white Australia can’t solve black problems, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2019, p.xxxiii.
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“Decolonising will require…developing relations of accountability…”
Decolonising will require change and it will require of settlers that we give up power and privilege. Being an ally means more than just befriending Indigenous people. It means developing relations of accountability, and it means respecting Indigenous laws and jurisdiction. It means not just advocating the return of ‘remote’ land, land that is ‘over there’, but thinking about what it means to live and work on indigenous territories wherever we are on the continent, and what we may have to give up or this ongoing occupation. This requires considerable ‘unlearning’ on the part of all settlers, that can only happen through action, especially through activism with and the support of indigenous peoples.
Acknowledgment: Sarah Maddison, The Colonial Fantasy – Why white Australia can’t solve black problems, p.xx
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“...dispossession...lay at the heart of the imperial project...”
Heather Burke, Amy Roberts, Mick Morrison, Vanessa Sullivan and the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC) “The space of conflict: Aboriginal/ European interactions and frontier violence on the western Central Murray, South Australia, 1830–41” in Aboriginal History, Vol. 40 (2016) p. 172.