On 26 January 1788 the first fleet came ashore in Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack and declared sovereignty over half of Australia.
That day marked the beginning of the interruption, capture and subsequent colonisation of a continuous culture that had existed for 65,000 years. A culture that predates the modern human settlement of Europe and the Americas.
On 26 January we celebrate 236 years. It’s like celebrating a single grain of sand instead of the entire beach. If we are going to celebrate colonisation we need to face up to the ugly stories of what our ancestors did. Not just about what was stolen, but how. Because some of us are the beneficiaries of what was stolen while others inherit generational trauma.
We need to know the story of what white colonials did. Not just the places they ‘discovered’, stole, and settled. But the murders. The poisonings. The massacres. The hard, brutal truth. There is blood on our flag, and generations on, there is still blood on our hands. It does not wash away with beer.
It is hard to give an exact figure for the number of Indigenous people who were massacred by settlers. A massacre, by definition is the deliberate and unlawful killing of six or more undefended people in one operation. As of 2022, the number of documented massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People is over 412. There are at least 26 recorded instances of mass poisonings. The problem is that for the most part the colonisers recorded the history. There are many gaps that need filling.
It’s estimated that well over 60,000 Aboriginal people were killed over the course of settlement. Pre-colonisation there were over 750 different language groups, only around 150 survive today. Indigenous people were removed from their native lands, massacred, assimilation policies were introduced, and children were stolen from their families. We have been living through or adjacent to genocide. Our history, the one we celebrate on 26 January includes genocide. It makes the dinky-di Aussie in a flag cape obscene.
Genocide is defined as ‘the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim to destroying that group.’ As defined by international law, Australia has engaged in genocide. There are countless stories and photographs of white Australia’s history. There are so many massacres. Australia’s history is not the one I learnt at school. We have been lied to. And until we tell the truth, this nation’s story is a lie.
26 January is painful. Indigenous people talk about 26 January as ‘our Anzac Day’. And it wasn’t just that flag at Sydney Cove. This date is also a day of mourning for Gamilaroi people for another massacre.
On 26 January 1838 over 200 Aboriginal people camping at Waterloo Creek were murdered. Just before June that same year, over 30 of the Wirraayaraay people were murdered at Myall Creek by a group of convicts and a former settler. The final death toll was never confirmed. While these perpetrators were captured and hanged, most were rarely punished.
The death toll continues. There have been 558 Indigenous deaths in custody since the Royal Commission.
Until we engage in truth-telling, nothing changes.
I didn’t know these stories growing up. I wish I did. We don’t tell these stories because they are shocking and shameful. But they are the truth. I love this country. I don’t want to celebrate the brutality and the violence. But I do want to acknowledge it. I want to listen. I want to learn. And most of all, I want us to find another date to celebrate our nationhood. To own up to our foundation story.
And to be better. That’s the Australia I want to live in. That’s the Australia I want to celebrate.
Even Woolies gets it. Aldi gets it. Kmart gets it. Most of this country gets it. There’s a reason the merch isn’t selling.
Because we can’t sell the lies anymore. We want truth.
– Mandy Nolan
Show up in solidarity with First Nations communities committed to truth-telling. Main Beach, Byron Bay. 11am–3pm, 26 January.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
