Yes, I agree that the twenty sixth of January, 1788 was invasion day for indigenous Australians. Eighteen years earlier, on April 29, 1770, Captain Cook had landed at Botany Bay where he and his crew looked around a bit then sailed north, looked around a bit more, foundered on a reef, repaired their ship, sailed north again and, before waving a not too impressed farewell to Terra Australis on 22nd August, 1770 planted the Union Jack on Possession Island, not even the mainland, to lay claim to it and the mainland in case Britain could come up with a viable use for it.
Indigenous Australians were then left in peace for another eighteen years while Britain made up its mind about what to do with such an apparently barren, far flung continent. It seemed a shame to waste it but it didn't really provide them with the military tactical presence it needed to guard its trading routes and holdings in the Dutch East Indies. Finally, however, some bright spark at the higher levels of the Public Service thought it might be a dandy place for a penal colony.
Never before did a place with such an inauspicious start become such an equitable, fair and successful country. In the beginning and for a long time afterwards the true Australians were not treated at all well, to the extent that there are actually no original Tasmanian aboriginals left. We can assume that not all settlers treated the indigenous people badly as not everyone is a raging, imperialist racist. There are always fair minded people but, in general, indigenous Australians were considered, as were most people of colour around the world in the British Empire, to be not quite human. Some proved themselves useful to the invaders, others were mistreated and still others slaughtered wholesale.
Let us keep in mind that it wasn't just the Aboriginals that the British authorities treated badly. They treated their white prisoners appallingly as well. Some governors of the penal colonies were better than others but the authorities in Britain, not caring for the encouraging letters sent home by released prisoners, wanted to discourage people from committing crimes so they too could, after serving their sentence, start a new life in a sunny, wide land of opportunity so they sent increasingly sadistic governors there.
This nation was once a set of scattered penal settlements run, basically, by upper level Public Servants who couldn't make the grade in Britain. No wonder they were ill tempered. Finally the colonies began to become self-sufficient, nay, to flourish and become self governing. Indeed they no longer wanted to be tarred with the brush of being penal colonies and, on 10th January, 1868 the last boatload of prisoners arrived.
On January 1, 1901 Australia was federated and became a single, self governing nation but it wasn't until 1962 that indigenous Australians were allowed to vote and it wasn't until 1976 that Aboriginal Land Rights came into effect.
The situation was inequitable in the extreme but, over time, the invaders gained maturity and realized their many mistakes in the treatment of indigenous Australians and have been rectifying those mistakes and will continue to do so. Surely now is the time to unite as the single people we should be.
There isn't a country on Earth, save New Zealand, that has not been overrun, invaded or conquered and, in New Zealand's case, it was simply because it had no human inhabitants when the Maoris settled there. The land that is now Australia is one of the more recent cases of foreign incursion and, perhaps, that it why its indigenous inhabitants aren't ready to let go of their anger and who can blame them?
It must be considered that there is no way that the continent, would have remained undiscovered as technology advanced and transports became faster, mankind discovered how to fly and even reach for the stars. A worse nation than Britain may have claimed Australia. It is, I believe, fair to say that two hundred and fifty years ago, with the stiff competition in trade, discovering new territories and warring between themselves, the countries of the northern hemisphere were not kind to each other, let alone the peoples they discovered in these lands and who didn't have to ability to fend off incursions by technologically advanced invaders who viewed them as uncivilized and backward. Slavery and abuse of these peoples was rampant and continued even after slavery was abolished by the British in 1833, the French in 1794 and the USA in 1865. Despite this indigenous Australians were used as unpaid labour in some industries until 1960.
It would be a rare nation that is comprised of just one race of people. I can't think of one. Since mankind began its journey out of Africa millennia ago and some settled in Europe, others in Asia and still others in the Americas, certain racial characteristics developed. As continents shifted and weather patterns changed people have had to change locations to find food and that often meant invading settled territories. The races that had developed started to mix it up with other ones and so it has continued.
I have always thought it is amazing that, until now, there have remained at least four distinct races. I will use the Wikipedia definition to name them: Caucasoid (White), Mongoloid (Oriental/Amerindian), Negroid (Black), and Australoid (Australian Aborigine and Papuan). One definition also includes Bushmen/Hottentots. I believe that over the next couple of centuries, thanks to global travel and the greater enlightenment of human beings, the lines between the different races will blur significantly due to intermixing.
I have watched Australia change since I was born in 1952 from a majority white country to a multi-racial one. I admit that lately I think that this has been going on too fast. My reason for this is not racist but culturalist, if there is such a word. Australia has developed an identity in the two hundred and fifty years since white settlement. It is, apart from its past treatment of Aborigines that it is now very aware was wrong, a fair minded and equitable country. I have watched a generation of Asian (Chinese) grow up here and delighted in how Australian they have become as have the Indians. I am, however, perturbed when I see Arab women here clad in burkas. I shudder at the suppression of women and am not too sure if those of an Arabic and Islamist background will take up our egalitarian attitude. Frankly, if they don't, I'd rather they leave. When people emigrate here they fill in a long form to ensure they will conform to Australian society, but will they?
When I worked in the taxi industry I saw young, male Indian and Pakistanis deluge the industry. They were not immigrants but aspired to be and many were dirty in their habits and misogynist to boot, although fine looking as well as pleasant as people. If they were to be allowed to live here permanently, I hope they would learn that certain behaviours are not welcome. These things concern me. Immigration must not allow a culture that has developed to be overwhelmed by those with different attitudes, it's as simple as that and I think that's why a lot of Australians are feeling the government needs to slow the rate at which it takes people in and give them time to adapt, rather than let their culture overwhelm ours.
So now the descendants of the first white settlers are feeling a bit like we're being invaded but it's only a matter of the rate at which that invasion takes place. Australia has, thus far, benefited greatly from its multi-cultural mix as people bring the good aspects of their culture with them. In the last thirty years the Asian immigrants have had an easier time assimilating than the Italian and Greeks immigrants of the fifties and onward. I have had Italian and Greek people I know tell me how they were called 'wogs' at school and elsewhere and been appalled. I didn't grow up in the kind of environment where that happened, lucky me, but I've heard it enough to know it was endemic Australia wide.
A nation is like an organism. It is a living thing that evolves. It is not a race of people but of like minded people of various races that have agreed on a way of life. The white settlers who invaded and took this land from its original inhabitants have evolved to be more enlightened and decent and the Aborigines are an intrinsic and valuable part of this nation. If the 26th January invasion hadn't happened, another one would have but apart from its original horrors, it has brought benefits. The Aborigines might have been happy to continue living as hunter gatherers with no fixed dwellings into the present day while the rest of the world developed all manner of technology and advances in medicine. They were in harmony with the land and may, had they been able to see the future and all the amazing inventions mankind had wrought, either have wanted them or rejected them. That we'll never know as there was nothing wrong with a life where they had all they could eat and a stunning, if harsh, environment all to themselves. But it wasn't going to stay the same, was it? Never could.
If the Aborigines want the date of Australia Day changed, what date would they choose in its stead? It doesn't change anything. I hope they will accept that the descendants of the invaders and those of the invaded are all Australians now. We have moved too far from the past to be disparate. I am not responsible for the sins of my forebears but I am grateful to them or I wouldn't exist. I am part Scot, Irish and English and that wouldn't have happened if all those elements of my make up had stayed put on their little island in the northern hemisphere. There are plenty of mixed race Aborigines now too who wouldn't exist except for the invasion.
I will admit to one thing that bothers me about those who want the date of Australia Day changed. There is a victim mentality involved in this and one cannot remain a victim and still move forward. Perhaps the best idea is to create a day for indigenous Australians that will acknowledge their grievance over the invasion but I suggest they also celebrate 26th January to celebrate they are part of a great nation that has grown up to be a fair minded and accepting country.
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