Kevin Rheese
Recognition Unrequited
Perhaps I am beginning to understand that white silence is violence.
Australia's history is problematic for 232 years, and counting. Though we can be proud of the 59,768 years before that; before colonization.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uszdyMaC2c
I was appalled as a child when I learnt in 1966 that we had not previously counted our First Nations People in our population census. I was just a kid and it seemed simple to me: you count all the people and you come up with a number for the total population. Why weren't we counting all the people?
So the years passed and I grew up and my learning became more sophisticated and I was confronted with the legal concept of terra nullius. A latin term meaning "land that is legally deemed to be unoccupied or uninhabited". So that is how Australia is occupied: with no recognition of any indigenous inhabitants. WTF! This kid is increasingly uncomfortable with this history.
I am ashamed today that my country continues to allow a disproportionate rate of black deaths in custody.
We need to change. I look forward to sacrifices to my white privilege in order to achieve this.
Recognition Unrequited
Perhaps I am beginning to understand that white silence is violence.
Australia's history is problematic for 232 years, and counting. Though we can be proud of the 59,768 years before that; before colonization.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uszdyMaC2c
I was appalled as a child when I learnt in 1966 that we had not previously counted our First Nations People in our population census. I was just a kid and it seemed simple to me: you count all the people and you come up with a number for the total population. Why weren't we counting all the people?
So the years passed and I grew up and my learning became more sophisticated and I was confronted with the legal concept of terra nullius. A latin term meaning "land that is legally deemed to be unoccupied or uninhabited". So that is how Australia is occupied: with no recognition of any indigenous inhabitants. WTF! This kid is increasingly uncomfortable with this history.
I am ashamed today that my country continues to allow a disproportionate rate of black deaths in custody.
We need to change. I look forward to sacrifices to my white privilege in order to achieve this.