An Aboriginal Land: What I learnt about the country growing up here

By Naseema Mustapha

I grew up here, from Grade 2 (1977) until University I knew nothing of the true history of Australia, even with my fancy private school education. When I finally did a course called Australian Indigenous Practice as part of my Human Services degree at Griffith Uni, I was in tears at almost every lecture.

How deeply ashamed I was and still am, at my lack of education on Australia's true people. The lack of understanding of their daily and historical struggles. The lack of empathy and compassion due to my own ignorance.

The disgusting way that white Australia had brainwashed me and my family and every other immigrant to this land, that Aboriginal people are lazy, drug addicts and alcoholics. And they continue to brainwash us immigrants and refugees on a daily basis.

I lived 25 years in this country without taking any responsibility to know the truth. Just accepting the white version. Knowing very well what white man had done in my own country South Africa and in my homeland India. Destructive colonisers and murderers that they are.

My journey of education began then. 2003.

I made a commitment to educate myself and my children as much as I could about the true beauty of this country. It's original peoples.

My education on this is only scratching the surface. This country is systematically designed to keep them down and us ignorant. But in the age of information when we have knowledge in our palm, we are now responsible and answerable for being part of the oppression.

Invasion Day?: Why do we still celebrate Australia Day on 26 January?

by Faseeha Hashmi

To countless Indigenous people, Australia Day represents ‘Survival’, ‘Invasion’ and most regrettably, a ‘Day of Mourning’, yet every year Australia faces the same existential crisis over the hailing of its founding day. With such high levels of controversy; how should Australia salute this contentious day, if at all.

For many of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the annual Australia Day celebration that falls on the 26 January, is a day with little to celebrate. Instead, this day commemorates the loss of their sovereign rights over their land, people and culture. So why do we celebrate such a painful day?

Historically, 26 January is a date of significance to many, as it marks the arrival of the First Fleet landing in 1788 in New South Wales. On this momentous day, Captain Arthur Phillip commander of the eleven convict ships from Great Britain and the first Governor of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney Cove, to raise the Union Jack. This signalled the emancipation of British convicts and the birth of the new colony.

On the other hand, for the native people this spelt doomsday. Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell explains that the day represents how the British annihilated and dispossessed native people from the moment they stepped foot on the country.

“Australia is the only country that relies on the arrival of Europeans on its shores as being so significant (that), it should herald the official national day,” explained Mansell.

Mansell expressed that for him, the date painfully marks the anniversary of European arrival and the violent action that took place thereafter; and is a distressing memory of “the coming of one race at the expense of another”.

Indeed, the general public has become more aware of these sorrowful facts, with attitudes beginning to change. As annually, a growing number of Australians protest over the meaning of Australia Day.

Alternative dates have been proposed for Australia Day over the years. However, without any strong political will, the holiday has remained unchanged.

Some Melbourne councillors have previously voted to drop all references to Australia Day, with politicians such as Councillor for the Socialist Alliance, Sue Bolton comparing the day to “celebrating the Nazi holocaust”.

Sue Bolton went further to explain her comment that hosting ceremonies for Australian citizenship and other festive events on this day as “grossly insensitive” to the Australian Indigenous people.

Several Australia Day fireworks displays have been cancelled this year, however, its reason is not what you may think. Victoria’s State government has officially announced the cancellation of the Australia Day fireworks in Docklands out of respect for bushfire victims amid Australia’s unprecedented and ferocious bushfire season.

The cancellation is not the first, with Geelong and the City of Whitehorse in Melbourne’s east also scrapping their fireworks displays. Whilst in NSW, Parramatta has also cancelled its exhibitions, with fresh calls to abandon fireworks in South Australia as well.

This raises the question, that if Australians can be respectful to the struggles of bushfire victims in turbulent times, the same sensibilities and understanding ought to be placed on our Indigenous people. Therefore, should Australians not regard our First Nations people with greater sensitivity?

In Sydney, the Inner West Council has moved to scrap Australia Day celebrations all-together, in favour of Aboriginal Yabun festival which its leadership believes better reflects the views of Indigenous Australians.

The Yabun Festival is an opportunity to acknowledge the significance of our native people and is the largest one-day gathering and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia.

Mayor Darcy Byrne said the move casts more progressive and contemporary attitudes on the tone of the day, considering that there could be alternative views and methods to signify the day.

“For Aboriginal people, January 26, marks the beginning of colonisation, dispossession, the removal of children and deliberate destruction of language and culture,” expressed an empathic Byrne.

In Victoria, Darebin, Yarra and Moreland Councils have already moved to cease observing 26 January as Australia Day. Fremantle in Western Australia has also done the same, as growing counter-movement has emerged refuting the relevance of the national holiday.

“There’s no need for the community to lose anything but there is a more mature and respectful way for our Council to mark the day,” said Mr Byrne.

AMUST

India: Intimations of an Ending: The rise of Modi and the Hindu far right
 

                              By Arundhati Roy

Continued from last week's CCN....

In its latest report, released earlier this month, the National Crime Records Bureau has carefully left out data on mob lynchings. According to the Indian news site The Quint, there have been 113 deaths by mob violence since 2015. Lynchers, and others accused in hate crimes including mass murder have been rewarded with public office and honored by ministers in Modi’s cabinet. Modi himself, usually garrulous on Twitter, generous with condolences and birthday greetings, goes very quiet each time a person is lynched. Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect a prime minister to comment every time a dog comes under the wheels of someone’s car. Particularly since it happens so often.

Here in the United States, on September 22, 2019—five days after Modi’s birthday party at the Narmada dam site—60,000 Indian Americans gathered in the NRG Stadium in Houston. The “Howdy, Modi!” extravaganza there has already become the stuff of urban legend. President Donald Trump was gracious enough to allow a visiting prime minister to introduce him as a special guest in his own country, to his own citizens. Several members of the US Congress spoke, their smiles too wide, their bodies arranged in attitudes of ingratiation. Over a crescendo of drumrolls and wild cheering, the adoring crowd chanted, “Modi! Modi! Modi!” At the end of the show, Trump and Modi linked hands and did a victory lap. The stadium exploded. In India, the noise was amplified a thousand times over by carpet coverage on television channels. “Howdy” became a Hindi word. Meanwhile, news organizations ignored the thousands of people protesting outside the stadium.

Not all the roaring of the 60,000 in the Houston stadium could mask the deafening silence from Kashmir. That day, September 22, marked the 48th day of curfew and communication blockade in the valley.

Once again, Modi has managed to unleash his unique brand of cruelty on a scale unheard of in modern times. And, once again, it has endeared him further to his loyal public. When the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill was passed in India’s parliament on August 6 there were celebrations across the political spectrum. Sweets were distributed in offices, and there was dancing in the streets. A conquest—a colonial annexation, another triumph for the Hindu Nation—was being celebrated. Once again, the conquerors’ eyes fell on the two primeval trophies of conquest—women and land. Statements by senior BJP politicians, and patriotic pop videos that notched up millions of views, legitimized this indecency. Google Trends showed a surge in searches for the phrases “marry a Kashmiri girl” and “buy land in Kashmir.”

It was not all limited to loutish searches on Google. Within days of the siege, the Forest Advisory Committee cleared 125 projects that involve the diversion of forest land for other uses.

In the early days of the lockdown, little news came out of the valley. The Indian media told us what the government wanted us to hear. Kashmiri newspapers were completely censored. They carried pages and pages of news about cancelled weddings, the effects of climate change, the conservation of lakes and wildlife sanctuaries, tips on how to live with diabetes and front-page government advertisements about the benefits that Kashmir’s new, downgraded legal status would bring to the Kashmiri people. Those “benefits” are likely to include the building of big dams that control and commandeer the water from the rivers that flow through Kashmir. They will certainly include the erosion that results from deforestation, the destruction of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem, and the plunder of Kashmir’s bountiful natural wealth by Indian corporations.

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK'S CCN

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