I posted this on Twitter yesterday following the Mayor of Byron’s announcement about their Australia Day celebrations.
It appears to me the loopy Mayor of Byron, Simon Richardson is playing both sides of the deck re #AustraliaDay. He announced the council’s official ceremony will move to January 25 but some council events will still be held on the ‘national HOLIDAY’ the 26th. BUT then he said... “Celebrations on January 26 caused pain in a section of the community & questioned whether the values of a fair go & mateship were being reflected.”
I asked why are some events were still being held on the 26th? Won’t those events still cause pain? PointIng out the lunacy of the illogical.
I woke this morning to a response containing this link https://bit.ly/2DvCwQh to a Facebook post by a gentleman by the name of John Henderson. This is my response.
I tire of the verbal assaults. I tire of being told I live on stolen land & that the contributions my family have made (including losing their lives) counts for nothing because they, and obviously ‘we’ are not legitimate. I tire of being told this land is not my land, or my home because it belongs to someone else. I tire of being insulted, abused and bullied into carrying the guilt of the past.
John Henderson can rail against us and insult us but I don’t see one word in that tirade asking those he says we hate holding out the hand of friendship to us. I never read the words it’s time to put the past to rest and to move forward together.
To me Mr Henderson also overlooked one very important point. He said ‘we’ being white Australians (and any other group who lives here I assume) don’t consider (hating in his words) “black-fellas” racism because they are Australian. Well, I believe there lies a problem. Many of our indigenous brothers and sisters (mostly the ones with the smallest amount of indigenous DNA but usually the most vocal) don’t consider themselves Australians. So isn’t it insulting for Mr Henderson to refer to them as Australians?
It doesn’t matter what day we choose to celebrate Australia Day or who chooses it those with axes to grind won’t be appeased. The problem isn’t about a date or a celebration. Because the concessions and rights our indigenous brothers and sisters have won hasn’t appeased them. The vast sums of money the tax payers have gifted to them hasn’t appeased them. The significant tracks of land handed back to them hasn’t appeased them. The benefits and laws that apply to them but discriminate against us hasn’t appeased them. National sorry days, something that was supposed to heal the bitter wounds didn’t appease them. All of those things certainly haven’t appeased those of our own kind like Mr Henderson who believe we haven’t done enough and the problem is ours and our alone. The same Mr Henderson’s of our nation who accuse us of being the worst racist and haters in the world. So letting our our indigenous brothers and sister pick a day to celebrate Australia won’t certainly won’t.
I want to make it very clear to the Mr Henderson’s of this nation I will not be made to accept the guilt or to pay for the sins of those who came before me. As far as I’m aware no one in my family committed atrocities against our indigenous population. In fact my Dad employed “black-fellas” on our property and he did everything he could he help them. Except for Wingy Burns who used to steal everything including washing from our washing line. Why? Because Wingy believed he had a right to steal. That said my Dad still gave Wingy a place to live on our land and money for the work he did. Our indigenous workers were treated better in many respects than the ‘white workers’ who worked along side them.
Mr Henderson also overlooks one very important point. Those who arrived here in 1788 were as much victims as those whose lands they are accused of stealing. Ripped away from their families most never to return. The soldiers with guns were often pressed-ganged into service, they had no say either. Yes dreadful things were done to ‘black-fellas’ in later years and we (in my humble opinion) have tried to make restitution for that repeatedly but it’s never enough. The one thing we can’t do is rewrite history but, we can learn from it but that is obviously something we are incapable of doing.
So if as Mr Henderson claims Australians on mass are the worst racists on the earth (which I vehemently dispute) perhaps we have cause to be. Because over and over again we are told what dreadful people we are by self-righteous (not black-fellas) but ‘white-fellas’ like John Henderson. So yes Mr Henderson some perhaps don’t consider hating fellow Australians as ‘racist’ and you are obviously one of them because you certainly appear to hate us.
