Photographer :
Halans @ flickr
In 1770 Captain Cook arrived in Australia, planted a flag on the shores of Botany Bay and declared that Australia was British. He did this without any consultation with the 500 to 700 Indigenous nations who had inhabited Australia for the previous 30,000 plus years. It was like they didn’t exist and their views didn’t matter.
So began the suffering of the Aboriginal People of this land. When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, the Indigenous people of Australia were quickly overpowered. They were forbidden to talk in their own languages and were made to live by the white man’s ways. Many were murdered, punished and viewed like they were something less than human.
As time went on it was considered that Aboriginal children would do better if they were raised with British culture and there was a deliberate attempt to wipe their cultures out. This was done by forcibly removing children from their families and sending them to church homes where they were made to live a white man’s life and where they were trained to become domestic servants. Many of these children never saw their families again.
I am not Aboriginal myself and I cannot begin to even imagine how horrible it would be to be taken away from my family and my culture. Even the thought of never seeing my mother, my father and my brother again makes me want to cry!
History shows us that the injustices suffered by Indigenous Australians have caused hopelessness, despair and disadvantage for generations. Many Aboriginal people still live in terrible conditions and suffer from diseases that are easily curable. When we talk about intervention and reconciliation, these are just some of the things that must be addressed.
Indigenous Australians have only 76% the life expectancy of other Australians, are 24 times more likely to be victims of domestic violence, four times more likely to be unemployed and sixteen times more likely to be imprisoned. These things are the direct result of the past. Yet, until recently, we hadn’t even apologised for what had happened.
When Prime Minister Rudd offered an apology on behalf of the Australian people in April 2008 for the injustices that were committed against Indigenous Australians, many people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous lined up outside parliament house to hear the Prime Minister’s words.
Many people cried as they heard the injustices of the past finally acknowledged. Several Indigenous Australians said that they didn’t think it would happen in their lifetime. Many non-Indigenous people said that the apology was long overdue.
While the apology from Mr Rudd was important, it was only the first step in what needs to happen. Solutions will not be easy to find, but a long term government commitment towards providing enough money for Indigenous communities so that adequate health, education and housing can be provided, would definitely be a worthwhile step to take.
Perhaps we could start by asking Indigenous communities to identify what they need because they are in a good position to know what would help to improve life in their communities.
At present, some Indigenous communities do not have even the basic facilities that non-Indigenous Australians take for granted, and this definitely must change.
What matters is the need to keep the good will and momentum from the Australian Government’s apology going. If we don’t start fixing up the effects of these past injustices, by providing resources that will make a real change to Indigenous Australians, then the apology offered by Mr Rudd will be just, ‘hot air’ that really didn’t mean anything.
What Matters? Reconciliation!
This article by Jessica Black, from Beverly Hills North Public School, was the Year 5/6 Winner in What Matters? 2009.
What Matters? is a writing competition, run by The Whitlam Institute, that gives year 5-12 students in NSW and ACT a chance to say what matters in society today. For more information go to: http://www.whitlam.org/whitlam/index.php 
