My apologies - the previous posting of the Introduction was sent in mid-scan; was incomplete and had not been edited to correct scanning errors. Copies of the full essay (16pp) are available from Evelyn on request (see below) REWIND. BRITAIN -AUSTRALIA REPAYING OUR SHARED HISTORY INTRODUCTION This essay endeavours to place the history we share with Britain into context. A patchwork of quotes, it is a grass-roots attempt to give a perspective to that history by looking at the process of Enclosure in Britain leading into the eighteenth century. Enclosure of the fields was a natural development of the age-old traditional system of open field farming. It saw the consolidation of many small holdings into much larger ones. It was the enclosing of the common and waste lands however which caused the greatest damage to Britain's traditional rural communities. It was this phase of agrarian reform that played a large part in creating the paradoxical social conditions that existed in Georgian England at the time of the establishment of Botany Bay as a Penal colony. We are at present engaged in a process of national reconciliation with our nation's first people. Ignorance of the varied elements of our history is our enemy, functioning to perpetuate the injustices brought to these shores in 1788. A wide-ranging review of the history we share with Britain needs to take place before true reconciliation can be achieved. Both Australia and Britain owe a debt to the indigenous peoples because of that history. Britain must take her place at our reconciliation table. It is imperative that the legitimacy of Britain's decision to apply the principle of terra nullius or vacuum domicillius to this continent be thoroughly examined. The consequences are still very much present history. They are played out in our country every day. Expressed in these words by Commissioner Elliott Johnson in the National Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: "the pinpricking domination, abuse of personal power, utter paternalism, open contempt and total indifference with which many aboriginal people were visited on a day to day basis" On 26 January , 1788 Britain invaded, settled, colonised, it makes no difference how retrospectively viewed, the facts remain. Indigenous people were usurped from their traditional lands. Not by ordinary settlers or the religiously persecuted but by a unique army of convicted felons. Paupers or criminals these disgraced, desperate people having escaped the gallows, were rejected and discarded by their own tribe. Banished as far as was physically possible from their homeland. Those who survived the crushing cruelty of their captors were subsequently allowed to rule, to exercise control over and to displace the traditional owners. To oust them from their land and to claim that land as their own, under the sanction of British property law. The consequence of Britain's actions were no secret. The dumping of the convicts led to 'inhumanity, cruelty and disaster' for the Aborigines. The evidence of the evils of dispossession, displacement and impoverishment in both the penal and colonial expansion phases were known to the British Govermnent through its Colonial Office Administrators. They were in posession of a mass of detailed information, giving account of the parlous condition of the 'indigenous inhabitants'. These references are available in the Archives of the various Australian States and of the British Colonial Office. They are made even more accessible through the numerous references to them in the works of such writers as Henry Reynolds. The knowledge of our origins and of settlement in this country is superficial and selective. It is because of this amnesia that we do not perceive the source of the narrow 'them and us' bigoted mind-set that persists to this day It is from this prejudice we continue to marginalise the indigenous people. To blame them for their poor health, inadequate housing, high unemployment rates, economic dependency and over-representation in the penal system. Britain bequeathed us an unjust, unfair ethos. We have perpetuated it and built upon it. Ignorance is no excuse for national injustice. We have a great need for truthful information and a revolution in our thinking. It is up to us to work out our own solutions. We should be confident in this process. History teaches us that when we are true to ourselves we can and do solve our problems in our own way. Our approach to Gallipoli, from where we have indeed built a national ethos around a defeat in battle proves this point. And nothing more so than the Referendum result of 1999. On 6th November, last year despite statistics that indicated the majority of Australians would prefer a Republican form of Government with an Australian Head of State, we voted to retain our links with Britain and the Crown. As a nation we took a conscious decision to tighten rather than loosen our connections. In essence the result avowed our shared history. Following the result it is not possible, nor is it appropriate to leave Britain out of the loop of acknowledgment, recognition and responsibility for the harm done in her name to the original Australians by the actions of the Executive Government,. its Representatives and its Colonial Office Administrators. We share a history with Britain. Both nations have profited hugely from that history. The establishment of modem Australia under the principle of terra nullius resulted in the near destruction of the Aborigines by overt hostile acts. By dispossession and exclusion from their traditional lands at the point of a gun. By the destruction of their family groupings and the loss of family structures. By the decimation of their people from introduced disease. For those who say this history is 'a bridge too far' why are our leaders clustering around Westminster in celebration of the centenary of our national Federation of 1901? The establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Council similar to that instituted in South Africa, would help to bring recognition and clarity to the motives, reasoning and attitudes that lay behind the demonisation of the indigenous people of our land. We are not seeking an alibi, rather a more realistic assessment of these harsh actions and attitudes that resulted in the social and economic chasm that divides our nation today. In this Twenty first Century , Australia must understand and acknowledge its past; recognise and acknowledge its present; devise and construct a just nation for the future. On our journey of reconciliation, we are a people in transition. Moving from where we are now, playing out another country's history , to the nation we can become. We are poised to decide what sort of nation that will be. It is only when we move together as a whole inclusive people, that it can be the just and equal country of our rhetoric, the nation of the 'fair go' The solutions to our problems are ours alone. The choices are ours alone. Evelyn Mamie June 2000 Should you be interested in a copy of the essay itself Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax 02 9349 8839 ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
