Gubbas [white fellas] call it Australia Day
Big celebration of the Brits settling their convicts here
Public holiday, festivities, fireworks and too much beer
No thought of the original landowners and their way
We Murries [black fellas] call it Invasion Day
They hunted us down and shot us for no reason
Just like it was open black fella season!
Poison in our flour, whole families wiped out
They mated with our women some kindly
But mostly by force, gave us STD’s and half breeds
Then govt. and church stole that generation
Rounded up the kids from our reservations
Trained to be servants to the Gubbas
Cooks, housekeepers, stockmen and bed mates
But didn’t pay us thus sealing our fates!
Disenchanted, addicted, our culture afflicted!
Racism is rife, our people in deep strife
4% of the population, 25% prison inmates
Not to mention psych units and foster care
For any Murri to succeed is remotely rare
How to regain our dignity when it’s so unfair?
January 26th is a national celebration of white settlement / invasion of this land.
Many feel is should be a celebration of our diversity on a different date!
Here’s one of our heroes spreading the word!
Uncle Herb kindly read this and said “it needs to be said!”.
With a link to how it will be celebrated this week!
with a 2018 massive protests as there should be!
aroused 
very true and emotional words spoken from the heart
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One Day sounds like a worthy idea. Native Americans have similar feelings about the fast-fading American celebration of Columbus Day.
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[…] Here are my previous posts or just search for Uncle Herb or Celebrate […]
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There was a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald with a suggestion to change the day to the 29th February – that way we’d only have to celebrate once every four years. It would make us much more cohesive if we changed the date. I don’t understand why if it was so necessary to have the postal vote for same sex marriage because it was such a community devisive topic why not do the same for Australia Day if they can’t just do the right thing and change it.
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yes, what did that postal vote cost? I heard it was $62m … With all the carry on every four years sounds more like it lol 🙂
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There are many who feel the same about Columbus Day in the US, and are calling to re-name it “Indigenous People Day” — for the arrival of Columbus — and what followed, wasn’t exactly a celebration (and foreshadowed much agony, hardship, and loss) for the ones who already lived, loved, and believed on the Americas.
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yes colonialists were and still are so arrogant … we need to respect those who have lived here for 65,000 years, the longest living culture in the world!
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I believe that respect is something everyone should be entitled to. Alas, many times those who came to colonize treated the indigenous people as expendable, exploitable, and less-than-human.
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and sadly many still do … 😦
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Similar story in Irish history!
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No, we don’t learn Kate. 😥
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Colonialism has generational consequences. You articulated it well here.
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This is so important and you expressed it well in your poem.
I still struggle with why this continues around the world. 😦
Thank you for sharing this, Kate.
(((HUGS)))
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PS…Thank you for sharing the links! The 2nd one didn’t work for me. But I read the others. I liked when that lady said that about William Cooper who “fought for his people peacefully”. That is wonderful and a great example to all of us! 🙂
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indeed, and how tough that must have been!
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In different words the Native Peoples here (in the States) could say similar things too. Many say we should abandoned the nationally celebrated explorer’s day because he didn’t find anything that he should have taken. It wasn’t his! Top that off he wasn’t a very nice man either… but that’s another story…
I like the idea of Diversity Day or perhaps Unification and Respect of all Peoples Day.
Justice Jedi needs to work on making that a World Heritage Day since so many other peoples were taken, stricken, enslaved because not only those from other countries but those in their own lands who were greedy to make money. That was especially true for some of the African countries.
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great points Jules I hear you and JJ needs to come out on this one … onto it this week!
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