Lessons of the 1700s
This was an empty land, there were 300,000 people living in the size of Europe. The First Australians that lived here in 1770 had little ability to defend themselves.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Today, if you can't see that cheap Chinese product covers most of our retail sector - case in point, they own and control nearly 60% of our electricity supply in Australia - then you must be mad. The notorious Drew Pavlou case with the University of Queensland clearly shows they're in control of numerous institutions in this country. And that is exactly what happened to the First Australians in the late 1700s.
The ABC, as our Australian owned media outlet, is tapping into a message of division, and in so doing - aiding and abetting those wanting to divide and conquer. Instead of fighting amongst ourselves as we did in the late 1700s, we Australians should stand together. Let us learn from our mistakes, and I think of all the people that should be pointing this out are those of us who identify as First Australians. Pointing out to the children of the colonists that we must make sure we don't make the same mistake, and we must act now because the sad reality is, we are already making the same mistake.
I say protect our nation. Provide protection for our industries, create new industries with Govt. contracts, for motorcars, export gas and oil. There's no doubt our country has the means to supply all our diesel and petrol requirements, and yet we only supply 3%. We must meet our own needs in the same manner as other strong nations.
We have become vulnerable and have no defensive wall. An analogy of our situation is when we sent the 39th battalion to Kokoda to prevent the invasion of Australia with one machine gun - history is repeating itself.
Winston Churchill's great quote when Hitler invaded Russia, 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to suffer again the same historical fate'.
Bob Katter
Federal Member for Kennedy
Schools should teach the Stolen Generations story
The Healing Foundation is urging all Australian schools to include the story of the Stolen Generations in their curriculum to ensure students have a better understanding of the full history of Australia, which dates back more than 60,000 years.
As schools prepare for the 2021 year, they are encouraged to incorporate The Healing Foundation's Stolen Generations Resource Kit for Teachers and Students into their curriculums. The kit provides schools with a free resource that communicates the full history of Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a safe and age-appropriate way.
Australia's history dates back more than 60,000 years and is rich with stories of the oldest continuous culture on Earth.
The story of the Stolen Generations provides context and meaning for the struggles and inequities that First Nations peoples have faced since colonisation.
The traumatic impact of historical child removals continues to affect Stolen Generations survivors and their families today, but until now very little has been taught in schools.
The grief and trauma that resulted from historical child removals is deep, complex and ongoing, and it is compounded when unacknowledged or dismissed for a sanitised version of history.
Sharing the ongoing impacts that colonisation has had on Stolen Generations survivors and their families, and honouring their lived experience, is an important part of healing for survivors.
It's also an important part of healing for Australia more broadly as a mature nation that can engage in meaningful conversations about our shared past.
These conversations will enable us to walk together to a better future. This includes sharing this history with our children so they can have a full understanding of our real history and its present-day impacts.
Fiona Petersen
Healing Foundation CEO