Australia Day January 26th

On January 26th 1788 the NSW colony was founded and the land and its indigenous people were forced to accept the white intruders from England.  Most Aussies rejoice on 26 January that they love being in this blessed land, but many indigenous Aussies see it as the day of invasion and the beginning of the destruction of their many cultures.

It's a tough question with one senior Aboriginal elder recently coming out and beseeching his people to forgive and rejoice in being Australian on Australia Day.  I am sure his views will be fiercely rejected by many of his brothers and sisters.

I feel we can have an Australia Day for all once we become a Republic, being then divorced from the ties to England and all it stood for in 1788.  I mean no disrespect to England and the English.  My grandad came to Western Australia from England and bought land for farming.

There has been much pressure for and against in respect of changing the date from January 26.  An alternative is to time the institution of a Republic on January 26 and name it Republic Day with ceremonies of citizenship on that day. It will be a new beginning as we celebrate the birth of the Republic to which we belong as one.  January 26 will not officially celebrate the 1788 settlement but those who wish can celebrate in whatever way they want.  It would be a holiday anyhow as it has become Republic day.

We must become a Republic and asap.  We cannot wait for the Queen to die. The world must think we are still a bit juvenile hanging on to the ties to England.  Unless I am mistaken even Queen Elizabeth is a bit nonplussed that we have not already become a republic.

Join the republican movement ARM and help us to achieve this vital change.


May the Force be with you!



GD

Hermansberg in South Australia

A few days ago I viewed a TV program on this remote Aboriginal community.  I know these communities well having visited nearly every remote community in WA in a former career as an educator.  I've written about my views on how well we educators did in other posts in this blog.  I felt we did poorly in our work despite great efforts by conscientious teachers.  We did not sufficiently  embrace the local cultures in what we did.

Hermansberg was established as a Mission station by the Lutherans in the 19th century.  History shows that this was often a disaster and the beginning of the end of the local Aboriginal culture.  To the great delight of my wife and myself we discovered that the Lutheran brethren had from the beginning of their time recognised the local culture and set about translating Christian hymns into the local language.  In the TV program we saw and heard a choir singing these hymns and saw pages of the script in the local language.

A local man was loud in his praise of how the Lutherans retained much of the local culture particularly the language.

My observations here are not to say that Christian missionary zeal was the way to go for these remote places.  However in this case the harm to the local culture was minimised and well done Lutherans. Hermansberg is a dry community having suffered the ravages of alcohol at one stage in its life, presumably after the Lutherans had gone.

Well done Hermansberg you are a lighthouse community for the Aboriginal people.

Great to have good news.


May the Force be with you.

GD