Originally Posted by
Gnadenburg
Dismantling the success and settlement of Australia probably won’t either-though its sure to please many! Not all settlers and convicts were the homicidal killers of Aboriginal Australians. The shameful history deserves better investigation, wider knowledge and perspective. How would a nomadic, diverse and dispersed nation of tribes faired under other European or Asian colonialists? There’s plenty of evidence to map scenarios.
I think one of the biggest issues is the seeming lack of knowledge of what happened to Indigenous Australians upon settlement. "They'd better be grateful it was the British who settled here, if it was anyone else they'd truly have been stuffed!"
Except they were stuffed. Thoroughly. A
substantial proportion of the pre settlement population were killed. Mostly through introduced diseases, but violent conflict also took it's toll. Up to 65,000 Indigenous
killed in conflicts in Queensland alone, more than the number of all Australians killed in WW1, the deadliest post 1901 conflict Australia has been involved in. And barely anyone knows about it, I wasn't really taught about it in school, but you bet your dollar I was given almost weekly lessons on post 1901 Australian military history.
Before getting flags, anthems, heads of state, national days sorted out maybe it should be time to acknowledge our real history. I know it can be hard, I know the vicious debate that was had about the apology to Indigenous children forcibly removed from their families, but 15 years later that culture war debate is over, and those who vehemently deny it's existence have faded into obscurity.