Australia Day

On the 26th of January, Australians will celebrate Australia Day, the country's national day that commemorates the landing of the first fleet of ships from Britain to New South Wales in the year 1788.

Eleven ships transported 1,450 convicts to the east coast of Australia to set up a penal colony.

It's hard for me to believe that the British founded this beautiful and sophisticated city to exile prisoners.

Jethro at Bunnings Hardware Store

Britain's practice of exiling convicts was not new. Before the Revolutionary War, prisoners were sent to America to be banished. After the war, the North American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain and refused to accept any more.

So, the Brits sought out a new continent far from its shores to establish a new settlement.

Australia was ideal, so they claimed it in 1770.

However, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had already been there for over 60,000 years.

The Brits had prior experience "discovering" occupied land and colonizing its natives from America.

They knew they could rationalize an invasion if they denied the sovereignty of the Aborigines.

Aboriginal girls 
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So to assert their claim on Australia's coast and establish a new community, using their prisoner-based workforce, Admiral Arthur Phillip, a Navy Commander, and British Governor, "discovered" it again.

The native (indigenous) Australians didn't cultivate the land. 

They used it only for hunting and campsites. 

It was their practice and principle to live with, not off the land.

Aboriginal Male Actor, David Gulpilil
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They didn't look like the folks from England, with pale skin, narrow noses, and thin lips.

Aborigines have dark skin, deep-set eyes, prominent eyebrow ridges, broad noses, and full lips.

The colonists spoke the King's English, which was very different from the tribal languages of the Aborigines.

British colonists thought the indigenous peoples were uncivilized and felt justified in taking their land, which led to a period of resistance followed by violence.

Aboriginals in NSW prior to the arrival of the British

The native Australians fought for the rights to their land with spears, shields, and boomerangs. However, their primitive weapons were no match for British guns.

Before it was all over, approximately 90% of the natives had died from conflicts, poisonings, and exposure to new diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, and venereal infections.

They were officially colonized in 1818.

However, that was not enough for the British colonists, who viewed the Aborigines as unequal. 

They needed another plan to rid the land of the remaining natives, some of which had begun to have children with British colonists.

Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, half-caste Aboriginal children, the derogatory name for mixed kids, were forced from their homes and put into foster care, orphanages, and church missions until they were old enough to be released into white society.

This act was an attempt by the Australian government to assimilate them into white culture.

 

Cast members from the movie “Rabbit-Proof Fence”

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The plan was to breed out the black gene within three generations.

Eventually, they thought, the small remaining population of full-blooded Aborigines would die out from malnutrition and migration after losing hunting grounds.

This dark period in Australian history is known as, The Stolen Generations.

Evidence that they could breed out the black gene.

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In 1940, NSW repealed the Aborigines Protection Board's actions to remove Aboriginal children - after forcefully taking 100,000 children from their homes.

In 1967, the Australian government formally recognized the indigenous people as Australian citizens.

However, because of their spiritual, physical, social, and cultural relationship with the land, losing it to the British invasion is still a source of deep pain.

Wiradjuri language word meaning 'to cut with a hand-ax behind the knee.'

Today, the two vastly different cultures have assimilated as best they can. 

Many towns, streets, parks, waterways, landmarks, and locations have Aboriginal names.

Aboriginal art is showcased in Aussie homes, museums, and historic buildings and is a large part of Australian society. 

Aboriginal words are a part of the Australian vocabulary.

Patricia Anungurrayi, Artist
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Flags hanging from houses do not seem to be an Australian custom, but on Australia Day, many folks fly the Australian flag.

Although I didn't see any indigenous flags, I read that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags,  recognized under federal legislation, were also raised on that day.

Aboriginal Flag

Torres Strait Islander Flag

Australia National Flag

Australia Day activities are similar to the 4th of July celebrations in the US.

My daughter and her Australian American husband took me to the beach to see how some Aussies celebrate the day. 

Balmoral Beach was packed!

Folks camped out.

Parked car at Balmoral Beach

Kids wearing flag caps and hats climbing a fig tree at Balmoral Beach.

Aussie Beach Ball

Australia Day is a celebration of the day the country was founded.  

But for the indigenous peoples, it was the day the country was invaded, which changed their lives forever. 

If there is any reason for the indigenous peoples to celebrate this day, it's because they survived.

Today they hold the record for having the longest living culture in the world.

Me and my sister with an Aboriginal Australian

Having a national patriotic day of celebration in any country is good for its citizens. 

But to hold it on the same day, the country was violently invaded, and an entire race of people almost wiped out, not so much.

On the 23rd of October, 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, offered a national apology to the Aboriginal people for all past mistreatments. 

It was heard worldwide. There are plenty of, especially right-wing politicians, who disagreed with his apologizing.

Please take a moment to listen.

. . . I am not in Kansas.

UPDATE: MARCH 8, 2017: Linda Burney: Australia's first Aboriginal woman in parliament.