A gentle reminder about - ahem - Australia Day

mccardey

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Less and less is it being looked on a a national day of celebration - so as a PSA for our international friends, I'm just going to link quietly to this article
In the pre-dawn light, Dja Dja Wurrung man Jida Gulpilil begins to sing. He has been tending to a fire, heaping gum leaves on a mound of sandy earth, and the fire is now lit.It is time for the dawn service.This is a different kind of service for Victoria. On Anzac Day in three months, hundreds of thousands of people will gather at cenotaphs and war memorials to commemorate those Australians killed in combat. But this service is for the untold thousands killed in the business of settling Australia, who were massacred or killed in the frontier wars.Hundreds are present at the event, a mix of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people, who have come to mourn and reflect on 26 January, the 231st anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson and the establishment of a British colony.
If a cheery Happy Australia Day! doesn't get the response you expected of it, it's because of this. (And if you didn't know the full history, that's okay too. We haven't talked about the frontier wars all that much - not as much as we could have done.)

ETA: Also - if anyone would like to read about the historical record of settled indigenous villages with permanent housing, agriculture, aquaculture, food storage and trade, seen and reported on by the first European explorers and destroyed in the following years by the first European colonists, I really recommend Bruce Pascoe's excellent 'Dark Emu'. If you want to read it and can't get a copy, I'll happily send one as my Invasion Day gift to you. PM me :)
 
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mccardey

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This story, though.
Driving across a bone-dry riverbed at Walgett, it’s easy to believe the worst predictions of climate disaster are happening as the temperature gauge on the car dashboard hits 49C.Two rivers meet outside Walgett in north-west New South Wales: the Barwon and the Namoi. They are major tributaries in the Murray Darling system.But they’re both empty, and this has never happened before.Gamilaraay and Yuwalaraay elders who have lived on these rivers all their lives cry when they say they have never seen it as bad as this, and they doubt it can ever be recovered.

“This to me is the ultimate destruction of our culture,” Gamilaraay elder Virginia Robinson says, sitting with the Dhariwaa elders group in Walgett.
“All people think about now is there’s no water. Aboriginal people were very close to nature and that’s all unbalanced now. There’s no nature to go back to. We’ve got no water, no special places to go, no animals to hunt. Our totem animals are dead, their bones are everywhere.”
 
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Helix

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What a 'ken mess. The crying emoji seems too facile here.

For non-Aussies, have a look at the top tweets under #InvasionDay if you're interested in the response here.
 

MaeZe

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Thanks. I'll look at some of those resources. I incorporated Palm Island into my book.

The loss of fresh water sources is going to be as big or bigger than the loss of coastline to global warming. A lot of communities are dependent upon glacial melt. That's not going to last.

[insert angry emoji]

Can I say Happy Australia Day? [gives a big smile and a hug to my Aussie friends, I'd send you ice cubes if I could]
 

mccardey

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Can I say Happy Australia Day?

Yes, but not on Jan 26th, which is actually Invasion Day. Best to wait till May 8. (Maaate - get it? ;) )
[gives a big smile and a hug to my Aussie friends, I'd send you ice cubes if I could]
Hugs and ice-cubes gratefully received xx
 

Helix

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Can I say Happy Australia Day? [gives a big smile and a hug to my Aussie friends, I'd send you ice cubes if I could]

well...

Less and less is it being looked on a a national day of celebration - so as a PSA for our international friends, I'm just going to link quietly to this article If a cheery Happy Australia Day! doesn't get the response you expected of it, it's because of this. (And if you didn't know the full history, that's okay too. We haven't talked about the frontier wars all that much - not as much as we could have done.)
 

MontyBurr

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I wish the good people of Australia a happy Australia day or Survival Day as you may prefer.

I noticed that they dug up the grave site of Captain Matthew Flinders near a rail station in London. Quite a fellow. He was first to circumnavigate the Australian continent and chart Tasmania. The link below leads to The Guardian story.

Edit: I did a tinyurl thing out of habit. Sorry about that. Won't happen again etc. Here goes:

The Guardian Article on the discovery.
 
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mccardey

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I noticed that they dug up the grave site of Captain Matthew Flinders near a rail station in London. Quite a fellow. He was first to circumnavigate the Australian continent and chart Tasmania.

*cough* Bungaree *cough.

It's this kind of erasure that causes so much hurt, and is indicative of the kind of thing that stops Australia from being the wonderful place that it really deserves to be.

If you're trolling me, Monty, I'm very annoyed with you.:granny: But if you simply haven't heard of Bungaree, do please follow the link and expand your knowledge of the story beyond the self-servingly European one that has historically prevailed.

ETA: Also - not to be picky, but Survival Day is for Indigenous Australians to use amongst themselves. In discussion with newcomers, they will most often use Invasion Day.
 
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Helix

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Might save a world o' pain if people read beyond the thread title before commenting. I mean, it's not the internet way, but this is AW, where words have meanings.
 

mccardey

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Whenever I get very annoyed, I listen to Gurrumul Yunupingu. I feel like he makes every argument I'd like to make.

ETA: Here's a link.
 
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Helix

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Ari Meermans

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Also - if anyone would like to read about the historical record of settled indigenous villages with permanent housing, agriculture, aquaculture, food storage and trade, seen and reported on by the first European explorers and destroyed in the following years by the first European colonists, I really recommend Bruce Pascoe's excellent 'Dark Emu'. If you want to read it and can't get a copy, I'll happily send one as my Invasion Day gift to you. PM me :)

Just a note that I've seen a lot of recs for "Dark Emu" on Twitter this morning. Thanks to this thread, it's already on my wish list for that day I jokingly refer to as "payday".

Good book recs are the pressies I enjoy the most. Thank you.
 

AW Admin

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Might save a world o' pain if people read beyond the thread title before commenting. I mean, it's not the internet way, but this is AW, where words have meanings.

Yep. Read, Write, and Think.
 

MontyBurr

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I accept the lash

Well, it seems I’ve been flogged around the fleet. I would have responded sooner but I’ve been having trouble getting through to the water cooler, something about an invalid GoDaddy certificate that’s been going on for a few weeks.

My one of my odd branches of the family bush was one Michael Cosgrove who took a cruise courtesy of the crown back in the first part of the 1800’s. He enjoyed the climate and fellowship of the Australian / New Holland continent for a while before finding his way to Singapore with his wife where he did rather well. My link to the continent is that thin.

Normally, I would be content with that incidental link, but the name Flinders caught my eye as I read my news aggregator and noted the article on the Flinders grave site in London. The name struck a note. To explain:

Last year, our Australian neighbor passed away unexpectedly. (She referred to herself as “Your Favorite Ozzie” when she dropped notes in our letter box.) Since we had cared for her pets when she traveled, we adopted them and relieved her Australian kin of the responsibility. I’m told that bringing a pet into Australia is complicated.

At this moment, the cat she named Trim is on my bookshelf, deep asleep. Cat number two, Captain Flinders, is on the back of my chair playing with my hair. Cat number three, Bungaree, is exploring the dead space above the dryer. Bungaree seems the most attached to me and is a fine mouser. Captain Flinders is known as the hairball dispenser. Trim likes to watch me cook and has an appetite for scrambled eggs.

I had no knowledge of the unusual (and ire-raising) combination until the recent article in The Guardian.

So, to recap: The name Flinders appears in an article and trips a cord in my mind. I learn about the origin of our adoptees, and ham-handedly wish residents of another nation a happy bank holiday with a feeble attempt at social media correctness.

No trolling was intended, only good will, however clumsy. Here in Seattle, Washington State, United States of America, we have similar tensions on October 12 (Columbus Day) or (Indigenous Peoples Day) depending on your political stance and heritage. To me, it’s just another day when I can’t go the post office.

Now if anyone is keen on heaping the sins of the G.G.G. Grandfather on the G.G.G. Grandson, feel free. His name was Thomas Ryan of Charleston, South Carolina.

No sig this time,

Monty
 

mccardey

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Just a note that I've seen a lot of recs for "Dark Emu" on Twitter this morning. Thanks to this thread, it's already on my wish list for that day I jokingly refer to as "payday".

Good book recs are the pressies I enjoy the most. Thank you.

Excellent choice :) Bangarra Dance did a ballet based on the book that is on my list of Must Sees. That's actually where I first heard about the book - which should be on the reading lists of every Australian High School. I saw an excerpt of it in a tribute show for one of Bangarra's founders and came home and googled it. I'd never heard of it - which might only be my ignorance, but yanno we often don't know what we don't know - which is where listening and watching and making space to hear other voices becomes so important.
 
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Helix

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Well, it seems I’ve been flogged around the fleet...

I'm not sure which of the responses here could be classified as 'being flogged around the fleet', but everyone has different sensitivities.


I had no knowledge of the unusual (and ire-raising) combination until the recent article in The Guardian.

Knowledge is quite a handy thing.

So, to recap: The name Flinders appears in an article and trips a cord in my mind. I learn about the origin of our adoptees, and ham-handedly wish residents of another nation a happy bank holiday with a feeble attempt at social media correctness.

Even better social media correctness involves switching the set to receive first. The OP is pretty clear.

No trolling was intended, only good will, however clumsy. Here in Seattle, Washington State, United States of America, we have similar tensions on October 12 (Columbus Day) or (Indigenous Peoples Day) depending on your political stance and heritage. To me, it’s just another day when I can’t go the post office.

That's quite a good encapsulation of privilege.