"This land was never given up
This land was never bought and sold
The planting of the union jack
Never changed our law at all."
This land was never bought and sold
The planting of the union jack
Never changed our law at all."
Yothu Yindi- "Treaty"
For many years there was a ceremony on 26 th January, overlooking Sydney Harbour, where the traditional owners of the land there mourned the landing of Captain Cook in Sydney, and planting of the British flag, calling Australia Terra Nullis or vacant land for the taking. This day has been celebrated as Australia Day, and now there are louder and persistent calls for it to be resumed as a day of mourning only, and Australia Day moved to another date. This year there were petitions, editorials, and marches all around Australia about this issue. They think that 50,000 turned out in Melbourne alone .
The crowd marches for Invasion Day
This next clip is in memory of my first husband, who loved "The Oils" , you are never forgotten.
The song was written about outback aboriginals. All were affected the day the Brits landed on the day we currently call Australian Day. The aboriginals were here over 40,000 years before we , that came later. They had strong relationships with their lands, their own nations, laws and customs. Here's what the song is about, in the link :
Please feel free to comment below.
4 comments:
Can't not comment, it's my Birthday! Didn't know Australia had a 'day' to 'commiserate' us Brits landing:> Don't blame you! Totally on board with that awesome song LOVE IT! Great band. Sort of ties in with my views that 'Other' nations should keep their noses out of other countries business. I'm not a globalist at all. I like individuality in people and 'peoples'. Britain has a terrible history for poking their nose in and taking over. We haven't got the 'power' now, so that's probably why we stay cosy with the US. Big powers, big money, big business, big cover ups, big injustices = big resentments that just never really go away and very rightly so.
The British left alot of good legacies, not just here but in countries like India, for example. The problem was when they destroyed cultures that had so much wisdom to offer. Things like native foods, that are being rediscovered by the world now.
Happy Birthday, Fizz!
Good to know the Brits weren't all bad. I just can't bare the idea of outside nations trying to indoctrinate anothers with their own cultures or even worse, take over.
So true. At the time of colonisation, the French were also here. A couple of suburbs in Sydney commemorate that. If it weren't for the English it would have been the French.
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