Imagine in the near future, a foreign power which deemed itself racially and culturally superior to ours, invaded Australia.
They moved across the land as an irresistible force, killing millions of us with their weapons, poisons and disease. We Australians who survived were rounded up and taken off our land. Our language, culture, and religions were outlawed and our beloved footy and all team sports were forbidden.
We were enslaved to do menial work and paid with flour, sugar, tea, tobacco and grog. The occupying force saw the entire continent as their land and devised new laws. They wrote a constitution, leaving out any mention of we Australians who had lived here over 200 years. Our kids were stolen and taken to re-education camps and we lived as fringe dwellers, wretched and malnourished on the margins of this strange new world.
The trauma of dispossession echoed down the generations, particularly affecting our health, education, housing and rate of incarceration.
But generations passed and over time, many of the occupying force became contrite and better informed. We asked to be recognised in their constitution. We also asked if we could form an advisory body permanently enshrined in their constitution, to consult with government and achieve better outcomes on matters directly affecting the wellbeing of we Australians.
It seems little enough to ask… just imagine.
Some knowledge of invasion/integration history always helps our future path[EG -what happened after 800 and again in 1066 to a certain northern European island people can point the way to better understanding.]
Imagine giving every Australian, without racial discrimination, an equal Voice in parliament as is their democratic right.
Imagine Australia with hundreds of warring tribes, where women were captured as trophies and raped, children killed in raids and land was fought over constantly changing hands. Imagine Australia’s landscape was changed on a continental scale by fire caused by humans and hunting that wiped out a broad range of species.
You can’t re-write history, we should vote Yes, however your view on history is jaded and biased, there was no perfect place occupied indigenous persons either, they still had wars and still changed the environment from its pre-human state.
We are all humans, one thing is that change is in our nature. Vote yes for change.
No one is suggesting that pre colonial indigenous life was a bowl of cherries – certainly not perfect – but I think it’s fairly indisputable that it was pretty horrific during the pastoral expansion of the 19th century. Particularly in Tassie where the indigenous population was wiped out.
We were still taking children away into the 70s
And it’s not like war, rape and land disputation doesn’t still exist.
There are other species than Homo sapiens that change the natural environment but I don’t think anything was hunted to extinction by the indigenous population. Even the fires were necessary for the germination of some plant life.