Owning Your Past – Colonial Australia – Part 2

To read part 1 -> Mistakes – Owning Your Past

Continued … Colonial Solutions for Social Problems

One of the few institutions of the colonial era that did address a social problem prevalent of the day was Point Puer, at Port Arthur Penal Prison. Young boys and men were seen to be in an insidious position when they arrived into the colony as convicts. Some as young as 9yrs old were exposed to the worst of social constructs, abuse and ill-use as convicts, this particularly in the penal settlement of Hobart Town where the majority of convicts were first sent. This problem of unassigned boys and how to deal with them was considerable .

Unlike the young girls who were quickly assigned for reasons addressed previously, as well as being placed into service as domestic servants, the boys were unwelcome and viewed as a drain on the penal system and so Point Puer was developed. It was no holiday for the young boys and young men but it was a improved arrangement which often gave them skills and training they badly needed. Some of these skills were of course questionable as can be seen in the wake of the bushranging era of the mid-late colonial era… many of these bushrangers were early inmates of Point Puer.

Historical Mistakes – Owning Your Past – Part 1

Australian History, as Australians and the world is told in our society and schools is largely a fantasy… It is the construct of a self-interested class of people who have an obsession with ‘Mother England’ and who attempt to rule our society even today. Why and just what is it they want us to believe?

It was interesting to read a former Prime Ministers comments recently published, someone within the system who has had the chance to consider all the flaws evident in the machinery of our Government which was formed under English rule.

So what is it that can be considered corrupted in our historical account? Read on…

1. Captain Cook discovered Australia : Reality = Lieutenant Cook mapped the east coast for the British Admiralty.
2. Australia was terra nullis : Reality = Australia the continent/island supported a large, stable and well established tribal based society that not only prospered but traded widely.
3. Australia was colonized by the English : Reality = The English shipped out approx. 160,000 convicts and vast numbers of emigrants sourced from European, Irish & Scottish countries along with others.
4. Colonization of Australia was ordered and peaceful : Reality = Colonization was haphazard and led largely by squatters. In Northern NSW & Queensland it was anything but peaceful.

Yes there is a great deal that has been corrupted … and you can add to this very incomplete list other aspects of our history in relationship with native Aussies which has been also adulterated by those with agenda’s all their own…

1. The white colonists murdered thousands of natives : Reality = The Aboriginal Native Police, under the control of the Government massacred thousands of tribal Aboriginal people along the frontier to gain control of the land.
2. Whiteman murdered and decimated the Aboriginal tribes when they arrived in Aus : Reality = disease from which there was no immunity in the indigenous population decimated the indigenous population in the early years of colonization. The penal settlements were under orders from the Governor to treat the natives well, (not everyone listened as usual) actually they had trouble finding natives initially and resorted to kidnapping them in an attempt to learn from them. ie.. Bennelong, Colby etc
3. Explorers opened up the Inland and led the way for expansion throughout the continent : Reality =  Adventurers who claimed to have discovered and opened up the inland, were taken there by Aboriginal guides, mostly using often well established tracks and depended on the natives and often squatters for their survival and comfort. These guides were not always treated well though some did receive recognition from the adventurers (explorers).

The list goes on, and still the fallacies perpetuate.

Sydney, Aboriginies and Convicts

I’m currently in Sydney, looking out over the CBD and enjoying the Sydney Corroboree. To be back in the city of my birth is a delight and truly delightful, but to be able to enjoy the city, drink in the flavour of all that is Sydney and explore its museums, galleries and the city itself is a real treat.

The pic’ I have chosen to head this post is a art work by Brett Whitley, The Balcony; It depicts the beautiful Sydney Harbour and gives you the wonderful sense of freedom which is so much part of the Australian culture and people.

Research … Could there be a Greater Pleasure

One of the greatest pleasures I find in writing is research. I write on Aboriginal Lore, a passion I have had for many years and one, which has been an integral part of my life. I also write informal travelogues, which are opinion and experience rather than travel advice and recommendations. Research has been part of my life from the very early days when I would listen to stories told and read what little there was back then of Australian tales. This has been an interest of mine since childhood. It once entailed spending long wonderful hours amongst old photo’s, writings and microfiche and I still enjoy getting back to the basics in a dusty room, unearthing precious resources.

Now-a-days a great deal of research is done on the internet and within valuable databases such as the Gutenberg Collection. This collection allows you on-line access to many journals, those of our Explorers and many other writings which are made freely available. However there is no going past many of my other research resources, valued books that I have collected over the years, which simply are no longer available and other resources and papers that make up part of my collection.

Just Who are Aussies?

The question of Australia as a race of people is an interesting one. Just what makes up Australia as a race? Many would say Aboriginal Australia is the only race in Aus that could qualify as an Australian race and I would disagree. It comes down to just what makes the term Aboriginal relevant. What is an Australian Aboriginal?

The pic I have used in this article here is of an Aboriginal child. I know for a fact that this child is Aboriginal, in fact her Grandmother is a Traditional Owner and her full siblings are more Aboriginal in features as well as fact.

We are not talking traditional Aboriginal tribal people, very, very few of these people exist if they exist at all in today’s world and if they do exist … why would they join us? Anthropologists will tell you that the traditional tribal Aboriginal race ceased to exist in its purest form in the 1930’s. Today there are near half a million people who see themselves as Aboriginal and many more who can claim aboriginal descent but also have what is largely a convict ancestry from the Colonial Australian era.

The Lore of the Dreamtime

The legend and Lore of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime is a mystery often, even to today’s descendants of those ancient tribes. Colonization of the continent of Australia, which began just over two hundred years ago has seen the loss of much of what was Aboriginal Lore as an ancient people were drawn into a culture which imposed its own ideals in a world of contemporary religion, commerce, industry and the development of an all encompassing social structure and the society that makes up our cities and towns, which they became a part of.

Finding little in common with many religions I spent years looking for its purpose, and looking at the results of religious passion or faith. I saw little that was encouraging until I began to examine Australian Aboriginal Lore many years ago. After realizing I had my own respect and connection to my land and the country of my birth this continuing curiosity and study has since been an interest of mine for much of my adult life.

Do You Own the Land … Or Does the Land Own You

I’ve been involved in land issues lately and the question of traditional ownership and land rights, which is a biggie in Aus consistently. I personally believe that there is a change in loyalties, or perception and it is gradual and rather odd to note. Like a change in the breeze almost and I haven’t yet decided if it’s a good thing, or a bad thing.

I have had a bit to do with land rights over the years, mainly in the formation of opinion and seeing first hand the consequence of land rights decisions. I do believe emphatically that we should rescind the statement of ‘terra nullius’, which the English Crown declared over Australia even though they had only seen an itty bit of it and had no idea how big a landscape it was. Recognise on Facebook is a good place to start as their movement requires this as part of the action proposed. In fact I support that we rescind our connection to England but that is another posting.

As of 30yrs ago only 36% saw ourselves as descendant from the UK, the vast majority of families descend from the EU and this fallacy that we are English has been going on for 200 years. The English might have ruled us for 120yrs before we organized our own Constitution, but they certainly weren’t who we were as a people. It is time we grew up and cut the apron strings.

This declaration of ‘terra nullius’ was the basis in colonization 200yrs ago. Though colonization of this vast land did not begin with the establishment of the penal settlement at Sydney Cove, but some years later. The proclamation of terra nullius is most definitely incorrect and this needs to be addressed as an article in law in defence of our own people who are Australian. The English should have been less series about being able to claim the vast tracts that they did by putting a stick in the sand at some remote location and then doing bugger all about it until they needed a dumping ground for convicts when the US kicked them out a decade or so later.

The Kadaitcha – Superhero’s of Aussie Lore

The Lore of the Kadaitcha is an ancient and respected Lore, one of the oldest faiths in the world but one denigrated in the past by historians who recorded Australia’s colonial times. The ignorance of these historians is only surpassed by the lack of depth within the westernised concept of spirituality when it comes to understanding an ancient culture and Lore. A Lore ten times older than Christianity or any other mainstream religion.

In the social media recently I came across the graphic image shown here and found it a remarkable image. To me it represented reality vs fiction or the Kadaitcha of Aussie Lore vs pop cartoon caricature. While I have also enjoyed the still popular vampire fad of the present day up to a point, I do recognise that they are fantasy as is Batman, Clark Kent and any other super hero you might like to name including Astro-boy. I could write reams on the physical impossibilities recounted or presented in popular paranormal or supernatural fiction. This however would not include the Kadaitcha or ‘clever men’ of the Australian traditional Lore who are very, very real and are recorded in our history and the social news-sheets of their day, as well as in legend and tales which recount a social history within an ancient culture which has no ancient literary text as reference.

For anyone who has ever encountered the elusive Kadaitcha Men, or truly studied their strengths recorded in history, such as Prof. A.P. Elkin who published a study of their Lore in ‘Aboriginal Men of High Degree’ which is available online,  there is little doubt as to their commanding power. Amongst these people can be counted a number of historical figures who recognized their strengths with respect. The most notable record of historical accounts of brushes with the Kadaitcha was when Governor Phillip, Australia’s first Colonial Governor, first met the highly respected Kadaitcha Man, Pemulwuy in an incident where the Governor was speared in 1790. To his credit Governor Phillip ordered that there be no retaliation against Pemulwuy, as he believed he acted to defend his people over atrocities committed against them by one particular colonist. The renowned Kadaitcha Man was likely undertaking what is known as ‘payback’ for these same atrocities and reacting to the failure of the Governor to control his followers or those otherwise known as colonists and convicts of the early penal settlement. Pemulwuy was of the Kadaitcha Lore and a great leader amongst his people.