Preamble

A lot of organizations now have a preamble when a meeting is started recognizing, Aboriginals and their ancestors. I don't have any issue going along with it because I think the coming of europeans the most significant history this Australian continent has ever seen.

I was reading the 'Quakers Handbook of Practice and Procedure in Australia' and was struck with their preamble. It is everything which I would want to say...

 

Quakers in Australia acknowledge that we live and worship on the lands of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander peoples, country which gives them physical and spiritual identity and is filled with the spiritpresence of their ancestors.

We acknowledge:

the sovereignty of Australia’s First Peoples over the land we inhabit;

that the land was taken from them at devastating cost, with no just resolution;

that this trauma is ongoing and diminishes us all;

that our testimonies call us to be in right relationship with all peoples, the land and ourenvironment.

Therefore we seek in our daily lives:

to educate ourselves about the true history and present reality of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander peoples, and uphold their right to self-determination;

to acknowledge within ourselves, and bring into the light, that which contributes to the debilitatingeffects of racism, insensitivity, lack of awareness and misrepresentation;

to work towards justice and peace, and healing for us all.

 

Posted with Blogsy

The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians 1772-1839, Colin Dyer

The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians 1772-1839, Colin Dyer

I had some idea that the Australian land was visited by others than the English. The French I was unaware were frequent visitors. (as to a lesser extent the Russians!) There observations where quite different from the English who where there as colonists while the French appeared mainly for knowledge.
Much I had already gleamed about the Aboriginal life. That they where nomadic and had customs which were totally foreign to Europeans. The book just confirmed this.

I found the later chapters saddening, the decline of Aboriginal culture with introduction of European vices namely Alcohol. The aboriginals would do anything for such things. As such they were often used for entertainment with all stratas of European society. One such distressing narrative was Aboriginals pitted against each other often to the death just for a rich merchants entertainment. Dyer, the author makes this observation 'This us- or abuse- may have made assimilation of these people into European ways all the more difficult."

I could not help wondering how the Aboriginals would have fared under the French. Freycinet the French explorer seems at times sympathetic to there plight. As well as understanding of there Nomadic ways. 

Cannibalism and Christianity...

Reading Triumph of the Nomads by Geoffery Blainy and came accross this:

In that century (18th Century) cannibalism was often regarded as the antithesis of civilization, and so viewed even by many who regularly took Holy Communion and believed they were thereby eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ. In fact, may aboriginals ate human flesh in the same spirit, believing that they thus acquired some of the strength of those who had died.

It is interesting that this ancient people had this belief; that in a strange way some similarity to Christianity...

The Death of Mr Ward

Sometimes you read or see something which makes you think that this stuff shouldn't happen in Australia. Amnesty international sent me though an email with details of the shocking death of Mr Ward, and elderly aboriginal man.

What kind of government allows a person to be literally cooked to death in the searing heat of the Western Australian goldfields?

Well, that's exactly what happened on a scorching summer's day last year when Mr Ward, a respected Aboriginal community elder, died an unimaginable death as he was being unnecessarily and inhumanely transported more than 350km to Kalgoorlie jail.

The circumstances of Mr Ward's death defy the imagination. After being arrested for allegedly drink-driving and locked in an overnight cell in Laverton, WA, the elder was driven four hours to Kalgoorlie in a van since deemed unfit for the purpose of transporting people over such long distances [1]

Mr Ward, the youngest of seven children, was a well-known and respected community chairman, law-man, land manager and spokesperson. The condition of the van that contributed to his death makes stomach-churning reading: no natural airflow, broken air-conditioning, and a surface metal temperature of over 50°C.

After collapsing on the floor of the van, Mr Ward suffered serious burns when his skin came into contact with the metal surface. Leading up to the final moments of his life, his body temperature reached 41.7°C. Without a doubt, Mr Ward's treatment is an affront to personal dignity and emblematic of a deep running disregard for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

To take action now follow the link here to the Amnesty international web site