- This blog post began as a facebook post introducing The European colonisation of Australia and is republished here because of its connection to that article.
“What’s on my mind?” Facebook asks.
I’ve been thinking about why I am increasingly uncomfortable with celebrating January 26 as Australia Day.
My parents arrived from England as post-war migrants. Growing up, I felt little connection to Australian, let alone indigenous, history. It wasn’t my history at all, and no-one on either side of it was any relation of mine.
In due course, my brothers and I married Australian-born women and produced children. In doing so we acquired families with longer Australian histories than our own, going back in some cases to the 1790s in NSW, the 1840s in Victoria and the 1890s in North Queensland, all well within the period of the displacement of indigenous people from their land.
At least some of our children are therefore direct descendants of settlers.
Continue reading “January 26 – Australia Day or Day of Mourning”