2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum

[Aila]

I am confused – your thoughts?

[Aila]

In the taxonomy thread a subject of fake aboriginals came up, something which is hard to believe, but seems true:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTHC...nel=AndrewBolt

Also this allegedly fake aboriginal’s book: “Dark Emu” has gained a lot of controversy:

What you thought you knew about pre-colonial Aboriginal Australia is wrong. Learn the true history of Australia’s first people in Dark Emu. Author Bruce Pascoe lays out the compelling case that Aboriginal culture was far more rich and advanced than we’ve been led to believe, crafting a work that has won two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Book of the Year and the Indigenous Writers’ Prize.

Drawing from accounts from some of the first settlers to arrive in Australia, including Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell, Pascoe shares evidence of advanced agriculture, engineering and architecture that challenges the fraught concept of Terra Nullius. One of Australia’s most esteemed writers and an advocate for Australia’s Aboriginal people, Pascoe narrates his own work with heart, honesty and expertise.

Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia's past is required.

Digging into the subject becomes quote interesting.

I personally don’t doubt Pascoe’s good intentions, as he seemingly wants to rewrite aboriginal history and challenge the original Terra Nullius concept, but in doing so he seems to create aboriginal people and the culture in the image of a European.

There is a remarkable psycho-spiritual difference in the worldviews of a hunter-gatherer and a sedentary farming culture/people of which difference Pascoe doesn’t seem to know anything about and cannot therefore discern. And why people are not talking about it is a complex issue. Culturally it is a taboo subject.

However, I do find Mundine’s viewpoint to be a voice of sanity in all of this:


It also led me to listen to Mundine’s views on the upcoming referendum, of which I have been confused about.

[Aila]

A crash course into Aboriginal history for those who have never heard it:
(My notes from the study I took with an Aboriginal teacher):

Pre-Contact
1. Land/People
2. Culture
3. Languages


Immigration
Aboriginal people arrived to Australia from S.E. Asia by sea.
(First; - shipwrecked & fishermen perhaps ... about 70 000 - 60 000 years ago).

Early sites of human occupation from 53 000 years ago found in Arnhem Land.
Obviously talented tool-makers, having arrived to Australia by rafts/boats (first in the world,)
but Australian climate, environment, Australia's flora and fauna, raw materials were different than what they were used to, hence "trial and error - school".
Out of these beginnings Aboriginal people developed a highly complex culture & society rules.

Dreamtime Myths & Storytelling Rituals & Rock carvings
In the Dreamtime Ancestral Spirit Beings, both in their animal & human forms roamed the earth.
They created in their epic adventures the features of the land; - the rivers, the hills, waterholes & rock formations, all species.
They controlled the movement of the sun and the moon, the stars, rain clouds & tides and established Sacred Laws and Customs.

Land Ownwership / Land Rights
People inherited rights to a particular area of land through their fathers ... "Father's Country"... and ideally; - this was an area where the child was conceived as well.
By conception Aboriginal people meant the moment, when a woman first realized that she was pregnant, for this indicated the pool where the child's Spiritual Essence came from. This pool was at or near the track an Ancestral Spirit Being passed through in the Dreamtime, near it's Sacred Sites, which gave the child his Totem = His identity, his connection to the Land and it's Spirit.
These 3 (Person - Land -Spirit) therefore cannot be seen as separate things or concepts.
Men became Custodians of their Sacred Sites in their areas, thus having special rights and obligations to that particular land area.

Land Use
Aboriginal people did not have an agricultural system, they relied totally on natural resources, they were hunter-gatherers.
A person would have a right to hunt and gather in his/her father's country area (which often was his Totem-Spirit-Essence area as well.
Joined, co-ordinated hunting & gathering activities were also organized with neighbouring country-area-groups as well.
Aborigines moved with the seasons within their territory and had indepth knowledge of water & food resources available at any particular time. They had extensive knowledge of the usages of the plants within their territory .... both food and for medicine (or poison). They understood the movement and habits of animals.

Passing The Knowledge
From childhood, stories would be told to connect the child to his/her environment; spiritual as well as physical and social.
As the child grew, these stories would become increasingly more complex, more encompassing.

Kinship System
Aborigines had/have strict rules of behaviour within the family relations, these are called Kinship - Rules.
For example who could marry whom. A man could not talk to his mother-in-law, or any other person he would term as such, nor could she talk to him.
Father's younger brothers were also called fathers and if father died, brother-father would look after the child. Same with mother. Mother's younger sisters were also called mothers.
Often father's older brother would be called a 'Teacher' for he had the responsibility of disciplining his brother's children and teaching them about culture.

When a child grew to puperty, first initiations both for boys and girls would take place.
Boys and girls separately would be taken away from the camp to be trained and prepared for
adulthood.
For girls this moment meant initiation into womanhood & marriage ... for boys this first initiation marked the first step into their Secret-Sacred knowledge about their Spirit Land and its Laws, which men were Custodians of. Many nore initiations would follow.
External signs of initiation include scars on the chest and back, missing front teeth or head-bands.

Law, Authority and Leadership
Initiated men were generally responsible for matters of Law & Order.
Elders, old men, who had gone through all the initiations of the Secret-Sacred knowledge, whom people 'knew' to be wise, who either "owned" or belonged to the local territory, - who had close kinship and ceremonial ties to that particular locality formed "The-Body-of-Elders".
Body-of-Elders had the power and the decison making responsibilities. They also became the 'initiators'.

For example;
- Incest would be punished by death.
- Murder, adultery, sorcery might bring a blood-feud, retaliation
- Lesser offences (injury to others, property) ... spearing
- Gossip & shaming was also a good social control tool

From the wet tropics to the dry inland desets, there are many different climatic changes, "zones" ... areas where unique cultures developed suited to those particular areas of habitation. Therefore generalizing about Aboriginal culture in Australia is often not such a good idea.

Language (Pre-Contact)
Approx. 240 languages spoken.
Approx. 700 dialects.

The reason there were so many languages spoken, is because language is always tied to the land (marks).
When Ancestral Dreamtime Spirit Beings formed the earth, created everything on it ... Where they passed or stopped & went underground or up to heavens, leaving Sacred Sites of their passing or presence behind, there they also named everything, planted a language.
Neighbouring territories might also have the same Spirit Ancestor, which passed through those lands, but at the boarder the Spirit Ancestor changed language.

Therefore ... when a person knows his "Dreaming", he will also know his land, which gives him his language & his identity + his place in the world & his culture.

Aboriginal Culture is thought to be the oldest known culture in the world.

***


Contact (1770 - 1967)

1770 Captain Cook came exploring.
He had been given secret orders to carefully observe the land and it's natives and ONLY take possession of any land with the consent of the natives.
And yes, Captain Cook and his crew did make some superficial observations of the land, it's flora and fauna and it's people.
BUT! The natives consent to take possession of the land was never asked.
If the land was called "TERRA NULLIUS", meaning empty, uninhabited wasteland, in such case consent was obviously not needed.

Because there were no signs of farming, permanent housing, no army fleets to meet Captain Cook ..... Australia was conveniently decided by The British Government to be "Terra Nullius".

1788 Arrival of British to Botany Bay - Sydney Cove (Captain Philip)
- Botany Bay at first, but there was no water > Sydney Cove.
- Marks the year of colonization of Australia for British
- Marks the year of INVASION for Aboriginal peoples.

Invaders
White slaves were brought to colonize:
- British and Irish convicts for labour. Australia as "Penal Colony".

Australia was not only being invaded by the British, but it also was being invaded by European animals & plants:
- Domestics as Cows / Sheep / Goats / Pigs / Poultry
- Horse / Donkey / Camel / Buffalo for transport & farmwork
- Cats / Dogs for companions
- Vermin such as Rats / Mice just came along
- To make Australia more beautiful Rabbits & British songbirds were introduced
- For sport and hunting ... Fox
Most of these animals escaped into the wild, still causing much destruction on the land & native flora & fauna.

Europeans also brought with them diseases such as smallbox, measels and influenza.
To these Aboriginal people had no immunity. These diseases spread rapidly and large number of Aborigines died.

Dispossession
As the invaders, both in their human and animal forms started to spread into the country, they seized i.e. took posession of Aboriginal land.

Popular Beliefs at Contact
Aborigines wondered about the white men and often believed them to be reincarnated spirits of their dead clan - members.
Out of British ignorance, suspicion, fear and desire to posess-arrogance; - popular beliefs of the Aborigines conveniently were:
- Most miserable people in the world
- Filthy, ugly
- Lacking of essential human attributes
- Black skin, shark-like teeth ... such hideous appearance could only point to inward dificiency of morality and intelligence.

GOD had commanded man to till the earth and make it fruitful, therefore British had the perfect right, under Divine Authority to go fourth & people & till the land and to take it from the Aborigines, who obviously were far too primitive to understand the proper land use and hence could not be regarded as having any claim whatsoever to the land.

Food - Water
For both, Aborigines and the (human & animal) invaders ... food and water availability was central.
When traditional food source availability was gone from traditional "tribal" hunting territories, there now was cattle and sheep. Aborigines believed it to be their right to hunt those for food.
Squatters in turn wanted to protect their cattle / sheep .... this was the start of conflict.

Many Aboriginal clans died of starvation, not being able to access their food and water supply areas, or in general Aboriginal health started to suffer ... then their societies started to break down.
There was a sense of hopelessness, loss of pride and great confusion.

Massacres, then Systematic Cenocide
Started by poisoning , shooting and hunting Aboriginal people for sport.

Native Police
- From distant territories were bribed to track down other clans.
- They were given best rations, good horses, they could rape women etc.
- They came to be called "Bullymen" and were dispised by their own race.

1816 - Coverner Davis'es Proclamation
Justice system about relations with Aborigines (do this do that).

1838 Mayall Creek Nth NSW
Conflict with Aborigines led to a massacre of Aborigines by shepherds.
Justice was carried out, 5 whites were hanged.
Mayall Creek was the first national news to hit the headlines about relations between whites and blacks and the only place whites were punished.

1858 Horned Bank - QLD
Two Frazer boys took two Aborigine women, whipped them and then raped them (Jiman people).
11 Frazer - family members were killed.
Massacre happened afterwards. Surviving Frazer son (of the quilty 2) spent rest of his life killing Aborigines.
Jiman people no longer exist.

1862 Cullin - La - Ringo
Wills family was killed

1839 Aborigines Preservation & Protection Act

1897 The Protection of Aboriginals & Restriction of The Sale of Opium Act
British conscience started to bite and to salve the situation, British Government decided to "protect" Aborigines i.e. control Aborigines by putting them into reserves.
Media opinion was that Aborigines were infant-like, mentally inferior, not able to look after themselves, therefore they were considered as wards of the Government.
Aborigines were seen as having no culture, no purpose, no history, no laws, no religion.
"Aborigines must be protected from themselves"

Under the Act
Local Police was "the protector of Aborigines"
White people were handled by courts, Aboriginal people by Police Stations.
Police handled arrangements for Aboriginal employment and pay was often held in the police station, only pocket-money was given (the rest sometimes was never seen).

Missions / Reserves
2 Choices (but often forced to move):

1) Traditional life,
Resisting European settlement, thus risking punishment of "Black Crimes" . .
Black Crimes were: Cultural Ceremonies & Storytelling, Dance and travel.
Risking mulnutrition.

2a) Missions
Health / foodrations / protection / education / dormitories / English / religion
& for example needlework for women
All this meant separating Aboriginals from white community.
It ensured that Aboriginals lost all civil rights and were under control.
Suppressions of traditional society organization / religious ceremonies / culture / language

2b) Reserves
1909 Aboriginal reserves were also being established to be under white management.
They often were training camps for servants.
Farmwork for boys and domestic servant training for girls.
Children aged 13 were taken to be sent to white employers
(Managers arranged marriages)
Set wages, but Aboriginal employees often only got pocket money, wages never to be seen.
Employeers were "Masters".
In some reserves mortality was high.
1930's many Reserves closed to release Aboriginal Reserve Land for farming.

1930's
In order to escape "protection", Aboriginal people started to speak out.
It was a time of Depression.
Communist Party was sympathetic to Aboriginal situation as were some other organizations for example 'feminist movement'.

Aboriginal plight started to get media coverage (Newspapers) and support for Aboriginal cause started to spread.
In 1930's first public protests by Aborigines were aiming mainly at wider community's attention to the harsh treatment of Aborigines on reserves and the removal of children from parents ....
People wanted freedom from Protection Act.
People wanted Landrights
People wanted Equal Pay

1950's
In 1950's Aboriginal Organizations began to raise public consciousness.
Aboriginal Organizations like APA: Aboriginal Progressive Association was demanding changes.
Australian Aboriginal League
In 1957 a peak council of such advancement bodies was established and in 1958 renamed as: "FEDERAL COUNCIL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ABORIGINES AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS' = "FCAATSI".
Largely as a result of FCAATSI in 1967 a referendum was held to change 2 clauses in the Federal Constitution discriminating against Aborigines.
For the first time Aboriginal people would be counted in national cencus.
This in other words meant that white Australians considered Aborigines to be human beings for the first time.

***

1967 - 1988 Post Contact

"The Assimilation Policy"
- was adopted and began to be implemented in 1960's
To Aboriginal viewpoint this assimilation policy introduced another type of economic control, one which would make Aborigines the menial workforce of the nation, with menial wages, confining them on powerless economic level and therefore to a controllable situation.

From Aboriginal viewpoint; - much time and effort was put into schemes designed to assimilate Aborigines and therefore to rid the nation of the "Aboriginal Problem".
Despite their low socio-economic status, most Aborigines however refused to become assimilated to the low status.

1972 A Labour Government started a new policy of "Self - Determination".
Allocations of money and bureaucratic positions increased.
A sprinkling of Aborigine males achieved senior positions, the bulk of public service positions were being filled by white males.

"Self - Determination" policy was followed by "Self - Management" policy in the 1980's.
Structures and institutions were established to aid the process, but again, the control and decision - making powers remained in non-Aboriginal hands.


1972 "The Tent Embassy" was set up on the lawns in front of The Parlament House in Canberra to draw attention to the landrights issues.
Governments had provided leases to Aboriginal communities whilst retaining certain powers to resume such lands. The demand for greater security of the title led to legistlation which incorporated the concept of inalienable freehold title held by local Aboriginal corporate bodies.

Year 1988 brought Bicentennial Celebrations marking 200 years of European occupation.


***

Contemporary; -1988 onwards ...

1992 Aboriginal people were recognized as being the first inhabitants of Australia.
This was handed down by the High Court of Australia in what has become known as the "Mabo Decision"

Mabo and others v State of Queensland decision rewrote Australian Law:
- That Australia was not TERRA NULLIUS (land belonging to no one), when settled by the British in 1788, but was occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who had their own Laws and Customs.

***

Australian Launch of the International Year for the World's Indigenous People
The speech by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, at Redfern Park in Sydney on 10 December 1992

2008 Australia says SORRY
Australia formally apologised to the Stolen Generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament Feb. 13th 2008 ... speech which was delivered in a heartfelt and genuine manner.

[Aila]

1972 A Labour Government started a new policy of "Self - Determination".
Allocations of money and bureaucratic positions increased.
A sprinkling of Aborigine males achieved senior positions, the bulk of public service positions were being filled by white males.

"Self - Determination" policy was followed by "Self - Management" policy in the 1980's.
Structures and institutions were established to aid the process, but again, the control and decision - making powers remained in non-Aboriginal hands.

Because we haven't had a good track record of hearing the voices of the real Aboriginal people in the past ...
I remain somewhat skeptical of this new "Voice" ...

[Creoda]

Thankfully it failed, every state voted against and 60% against nationally. Common sense prevails for once, in spite of all the major corporations and sporting leagues backing it. And it probably puts the kibosh on other referendums for the next few election cycles at least.

Funny thing is I'd be happy to vote for an Aboriginal racial voice to Parliament, if it was included alongside racial representation for the other 98% of Australians. But that would never be entertained, so get lost.

[Aila]

Thankfully it failed, every state voted against and 60% against nationally. Common sense prevails for once, in spite of all the major corporations and sporting leagues backing it.

I thought so too. The whole referendum started feel as fake as Pascoe’s claim of Aboriginal heritage.

She gave a good speech imo:

[Your Old Comrade]

Before the coming of white people to Australia in the late eighteenth century, the people living there had not advanced beyond the Stone Age. We are now supposed to pretend that they had a civilisation which was at least as rich as that of Europe.
https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/indi....

[Aila]

Your Old Comrade,

I haven’t met an aboriginal yet who denies the 65000 years of their occupation on this land.
The speaker of your video is perhaps confusing Oz Aborigines with some Amerinds, who claim they had always been on their lands.

Also, this speaker does not know/understand “Dreaming” or “Dreamtime”, which is before time began.
So it is beyond time, or in other words it includes past, present and future.


Or perhaps this points to it better:

Movement is time, stillness is eternity, realizing the relationship of the temporal moment to the eternal not moment, but forever - is the sense of life. Realizing how this moment in your life is actually a moment of eternity, and the experience of the eternal aspect of what you’re doing in the temporal experience is the mythological experience.

Joseph Campbell