Black, White,and Yellow Men- a continuing Australian dilemma…….
This is the cover of a geography textbook used throughout my schooldays during the 1940s. It continued to be used into the 1950s, prior to my migration to Australia in April 1959.
Pages 263 to 265 in particular make for illuminating reading. They have a great deal of relevance to issues of racism that continue to hold back Australia — if it is to live up to official policy that tries to tell of a nation in which truth and the fair treatment of its first nation peoples are beyond reproach. Today’s Australians are faced with a growing dilemma. Studies of contemporary Australian history show that racism, particularly against its first peoples, has existed ever since the British, under their false claims of ‘terra nullius’, took possession of the land, commencing in1778.
Is it any wonder that two hundred years of disrespect, maltreatment and refusal to accept Australia’s First Nation Peoples — the original and first owners of the Australian continent continues, even during in the 21st century, during what is often claimed to be to be a time of enlightenment?
What school students of mine, earlier and following generations were taught about Australia’s first peoples continues to be influenced by the words and uneducated descriptions, most unfortunately ignorant of the true history that…
