Oh! Gravity

Happy Invasion Day!!

26 January 2006

Today, I can't help but feel joy and pride as I think about the things that I love about Australia. I think of my hometown, Newcastle, and all the many great memories I have had there, with some very great people.

I think of how I'm descended from a convict (no joke!), of how we are a nation lacking class, of how we love the beach and hot weather (except Mexicans!!), or how we're generally pretty laid-back.
I think of red-heads called bluey, and large men called 'tiny'. I think of our sense of irony inherited from the British, and of our beer-guzzling and bbqs. I think of the ABC and JJJ and Industrial Relations law (well, the old stuff) and free public health and education for all, no matter where you're from or how much money you've got (am I revealing my bent toward caring for the less fortunate?). A fair go for all.
I think of Christmas in summer and Jacarandas and Redhead beach and our pool at home. I think of all of the Christians and churches and camps that I've been on that I've loved. I wonder if Jesus would've known about this strange country when he prayed for us in John 17??

Today, let's give great thanks for this country. Thanks to God, thanks to each other. Thanks for glories past and glories present.










But there is a very dark side to our nation. Along with the virtues of old-school Australia came the realities that it was a very Anglo, very monocultural and, let's face it, a racist country.

From when the British landed we have been racist. The more of Australia I see, the more evidence of the harsh mistreatment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. We imprisoned them, stole their land, killed their animals, raped their wives, took their children from them, and infected them with European diseases against which their immune systems could not stand. Today marks the 218th anniversary of the British Fleet claiming Australia as it's own. Terra Nullius, as they say.


But it's not only the indigenous peoples of Australia who have suffered as a result of our racism. It's all of the non-British immigrants who have come to this country since. Back in the 50s and 60s it was all of the Eastern European immigrants who suffered. My Dad was called a wog as a kid because he was Polish, and no-one could
pronounce, let alone spell, his last name. The 70s and 80s saw an expansion of this to other European countries - Greece, Italy, Malta, etc. The 90s was easily the decade of Asian racism. And today we have racism toward those of Middle Eastern origin or appearance.


Australia has a history of being ignorant and hard-hearted toward outsiders.
Sounds a bit depressing for Australia Day, doesn't it? But let's face it. This country has blood on it's hands. We have blood on our hands. I have blood on my hands. Sure, I wasn't directly involved in the sins of my forefathers, yet their burden falls to me and my generation all the same. God forgive us all...

And if we want to see Australia flourish and succeed and become a truly great nation, we need to own up to our wrongs. We need to acknowledge past wrongs and openly condemn present ones. We need to do what a gutless government will not do*, and say sorry. We need to admit defeat in the realm of indigenous health and well-being and learn from other countries, such as Canada, who have an outstanding human rights record in regard to their indigenous peoples.

Let's say sorry this Australia Day. Sorry to God, sorry to each other. Sorry for wrongs past and wrongs present.

This Australia Day, let's give thanks for our nation, and let's mourn for her wrongs.


Phew. That was intense. Sorry for the rant!! As you can tell, I'm quite fired up about some of this stuff...











I'll leave you with some patriotism from one of our predecessors..



My Country
by Dorothea Mackeller. Written in 1904.


The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.




*The Federal Government refuses to publicly and officially apologise to the indigenous peoples of Australia. However, individual members of parliament, including the Prime Minister John Howard, have publicly offered their individual apologies. I suspect that the reason there is no official apology is because the government fears a host of compensation and land-rights claims to be made because of past wrongs committed by the government.




Until next time, stay classy,
Martyman

This entry was posted on 26 January 2006 at 3:25 PM. There are . If you want, you can leave your own response by clicking here. You may also send this post to a friend of yours via email, or bookmark it for yourself by using icons below;