Not Timor propaganda
Mark Freeman writes: Re. “Is East Timor run by a ‘stable’ govt or conspiratorial oligarchy?” Dear Crikey, how refreshing to read a slightly critical piece on East Timor for a change. The East Timor that no sooner had it been liberated from those terrible Indonesians erupted into civil war requiring us to go back and put a lid on it. The East Timor that never seems to be getting much better for the vast bulk of its people despite all that oil and gas money. The East Timor that wonders why no one in their right mind would build a multibillion-dollar gas terminal there. And then there are those assassinations real and attempted.
The whole lot has been on the nose for years in much same way as many other oligarchic former Latin colonies. Thank goodness Professor Kingsbury has finally written, in a carefully muted manner, something that doesn’t read like an aid NGO PR piece.
On Australia Day
Colin Smith writes: The obvious “Australia Day” is August 23. The European mapping of this continent began in the 17th century (or, if the Portuguese really did get here first, in the 16th) and was completed in the 19th. The Dutch and English named two halves — “New Holland” and “New South Wales”. Then Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the whole — knitting the halves together in one accurate map — and wrote to Sir Joseph Banks on August 23, 1804 suggesting a single name for the whole: “Australia or Terra Australis”.
The British government took 20 years to adopt Flinders’ first suggestion, and it was decades before it became common usage. But that letter was the culmination and summation of the putting of Australia, as such, on the world map. Indeed, it marked a major advance in general human awareness of our planetary context.
August 23 is therefore of vastly more significance to the human race than the date of Sydney’s foundation as a penal colony; or of the federation of six remote British colonies; or of a disastrous invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Furthermore, it is one date that all Australians might agree about, including the original Australians who have been here for 60,000 years.
Not all anniversaries celebrate good news events. Anzac Day is an excellent example of this.
So, what do we celebrate on 26 January? We celebrate the establishment of a British colony in New South Wales. It is also the anniversary of the arrival of two French ships in Botany Bay.
Like much of our history, when viewed in an objective light, there are the good things and there are tragic things.
It is undeniable that the establishment of the colony in New South Wales posed threats to an ancient way of life that all concerned failed to foresee, understand, or address.
Paul Keating’s Redfern Oval speech is a forceful description of the impact of colonization on our original Australians, and of the challenges for Australia still, because of that action.
The other side is that we celebrate the arrival of eleven ships after a voyage from Portsmouth. The First Fleet has been likened to the modern equivalent of an expedition of people most sent against their will, to establish a colony on the Moon.
It was an achievement of some magnitude.
This was an age when colonizers competed for lands in North America, South America, Africa, the Indian sub-continent, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, and China. In most cases colonization brought conflict and bloodshed. Also, it brought the dispossession and displacement of indigenous peoples.
This is not a discussion of what is right, or what is wrong. This happened; this is history, warts, and all. It cannot be edited out of our history.
In the case of Australia, colonization, invasion, call it what you like, was inevitable for the first Australians by the end of the 17th century, whether we like it or not.
It is dishonest to suggest otherwise.
The real question is, would the lot of original Australians have been less dire if the colonizing power had been Spain, Portugal, the France, or the Dutch Republic?
I think not, looking back at the impact of colonization on the lands that I have mentioned. Furthermore, we must not forget there has never been a slave trade in Australia, the like of those carried on in Africa, South America, or the West Indies.
I am not ignoring the harm, or the wrongs that have been visited on indigenous Australians. However, I am suggesting that, despite these, indigenous Australians just may have got the best of a bad lot.
Yes, the wrongs must be righted, the gaps bridged in education, in health, in housing in life expectancy, in opportunity.
Celebrating Australia Day on 26 January is about understanding our shared history; its highlights and its dark times; the successes and the failures. And, of course, the huge challenges that remain for us as a truly multiracial nation.
Remember the Lamb commercial. We are nearly all boat people.
If you want to change the name of what we celebrate on 26 January, wait until we do two things.
First, we must change our Constitution to recognize original Australians and their occupation of the land.
Second, give us a Republic.
The anniversary of that would be a truly worthy Australia Day; not tokenistic political correctness.
All these beautiful academic explanations and historical expositions come to nought in the face of May 8.
Yeah, I think the day that a European decided that Australia officially existed on a European map would be something Aboriginal people would strongly support. Tone deaf?