Its not everyday you get to read a book that not only changes the way you see things, but also makes you feel on a deeper level why and how things came to be in Australia.
I came across this book in the Jindabyne Info Centre, and I knew I was going to buy a book that told of the true history about this great country that we’re travelling in. From the real true life stories of the Australian indigenous...to how our land became to be so dry.
I knew I was going to pick up a book that would open up a can of worms, that would throw up the rug and expose all the dust that was swept under it, to reveal a truth so cutting and raw.... A far cry from the ‘love, lace and laxatives of FB and the wondrous pretty instagram feeds....
I held the book in my hands, read the cover and quickly put it back on the shelf. I walked around for a few minutes, went back, picked up the book again, then something inside of me said ‘this is going to be deep and heavy, can I handle this’?
Dom even said,‘Are you sure’?
I was already fighting my own battles living in our van in the middle of the snow. How could I possibly come to know of the battles the aborigines fought too? Yep, that was it, I bought this book...
If your Australian or visiting Australia, this is part of our history, our truth, our shame and acceptance. It's as much a part of our history as: The Gold Rush, The First Settlers, The First Fleet, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Opera House, The Anzacs, etc.... And it's something that should be taught in schools.
This history of ours should be free to tell the truth of how we all became to be, sitting at our computers, making a living, driving our cars, catching buses, making our riches, and enjoying a meal... this book is about ‘how we came to be right now'
This is our history, this is our beginning of our Australia!
Because this book taught me so much and answered questions I never thought could be answered, I felt I should pass it on, to always be read. It should always be in the hands of another. The stories are there because the aborigines wanted their truth told, to not be swept under the carpet, but to live freely.
I am passing this book onto a very dear friend and sister of mine. I know she will then pass it onto some else too. Each person that reads this book will sign their name, date it and pass it onto the next. If they can’t get through it (due to it being so deep), they are to pass it onto some one else who is ready for it. That way the book will remain being read, and the truth of Australia will live!
Without knowledge and acceptance of our truth there is no freedom to grow...
An extract from the book....
Think of Sydney in 1787. There were about 3000 people living in the Sydney basin. They woke up each morning to views unsullied by concrete, asphalt, brick and steel, and enjoyed a lifestyle made easy by an abundance of natural delicacies.
Aboriginal Australians had what we all now want.
We, the European invaders, took it all away.
We destroyed it.
We took the land as if it were our own.
We destroyed the native fruit-bearing trees to creates pastures for cattle and sheep.
We killed off native wild life if it tried to compete with sheep and cattle for the pastures.
We replaced ecology with aggressive nineteenth-century exploitive capitalism.
We built roads over sacred sights.
We denied the land its spirituality
We killed off Aboriginal people with guns and poison and disease.
We refused, through ignorance and arrogance, to see any tribal differentiation in those Australian people who survived our insidious, long term holocaust.
Those Australian people who did survive were herded into reserves or ‘allowed’ to live in humpies on the fringes of towns.
We took away their reason to exist and when, in their despair, they took to the bottle or simply threw their hands in hopelessness and gave up on life, we had the arrogance to accuse them of drunkenness and laziness.
The blood of tens of thousands of Aboriginal Australians killed since 1788, and the sense of despair and hopelessness which informs so much modern-day Aboriginal society, is a moral responsibility all white Australians share.
Our wealth and lifestyle, the much touted ‘Aussie Way of Life’, have all been achieved as a direct consequence of Aboriginal dispossession. We should all hang our heads in shame.
Extract taken from: Blood on the Wattle Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians Since 1788, Third Edition
Authur: Bruce Elder
Page: Introduction
