This Is Disgusting

Photo of Wyndham Prison in the Kimberly Region of Western Australia, 1901. 

On this date in 1888, the first European settlers landed in Australia. The British Crown claimed the land as Terra Nullius, meaning “nobody’s land,” as the original inhabitants, the First Nation people, the aborigines who had lived on the land for thousands of years, were considered as merely part of the local flora and fauna; nothing more than animals like kangaroos freely roaming the land.

To this day, no treaty has been signed with the aboriginal descendants and there is no mention of them in the Australian constitution.  Many aboriginals were poisoned or pushed from mountain cliffs.  Many had their children taken away to be raised by white families, destroying aboriginal languages, their culture, their identity, and any sense of community bonding and even humanity. 

January 26 should not be a celebration of nationalism but as Invasion Day, a day of shameful mourning.