16. National Sorry Day - 13th of Feb

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(I apologise in advance for any factual errors made, especially as I know this may be a sensitive matter for some).

Today is national sorry day.. a day for all Australians both indigenous and non-indigenous to reflect and remember the ‘stolen generation’. But most importantly, the wait is finally over. The Australian Parliament is finally going to say sorry for the barbaric actions taken against the aboriginal people back in the late 60s early 70s. Most of you may have seen the film ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’, the story of how 50,000 aboriginal children were taken from their mothers. The idea behind this atrocity was to educate and integrate them into so called ‘civilised society’, but also it seems, with the plan to eradicate aborigines from the future of the Australian nation.

The day started at 6am. Dee and I trekked down to the spring to collect the mineral water for the next few days. We returned to a hot rice breakfast with Su, David, Oli and Seb, and then headed down to the town hall to watch and listen to the Australian Prime Minister address the country. It was a pretty emotional and touching morning. Both Dee and I had tears in our eyes throughout both the Prime Ministers and the opposition leaders speeches. It was great to see a community coming together to be a part of this, although it was a shame that the 2 indigenous people that were invited could not attend. I thought both speeches were really good, but obviously a tad overdue. Better late than never though eh! I just hope that they put their money where their mouth is in terms of ‘closing the gap’ between the socio-economic wellbeing of indigenous and non-indigenous people in Australia. There are some pretty shocking statistics out there concerning; child abuse, housing, unemployment, offender rehabilitation, health, alcohol misuse, and education.

On the point of education I have to say I found it quite disturbing that no-where in either speech did they mention the ‘mutual exchange of knowledge’. As far as I can tell, the speech appeared to be saying that they would be continuing to ‘educate’ the aboriginal people. But what about vice versa? Ok, all human beings deserve to have access to education. It is a basic human right! But.. the aborigines are the oldest civilization on the planet. Some of the evidence points to dates over 60000 years old. ‘The hallmark of Aboriginal culture is oneness with nature'. Surly we have just as much to learn from them, as they do from us. Especially in these times of climate instability.. where in-depth knowledge of the Australian landscape and ancient agricultural methods could be paramount to the survival of Australians.

Aborigines are deeply connected to their land, connected to nature, their pre-historic knowledge and song lines have been past down from generation to generation. It’s not only aboriginals that hold such wealth. There are many old tribal societies struggling for survival. And when they die, their wisdom will die too. This knowledge is something that is clearly missing in our ‘modern civilised societies’. Are we really progressing? Our civilisation is rapidly changing so quickly that there’s no time to understand the old and wise. Our elders are tucked away in old peoples homes! The effects of the industrial revolution (OIL!) have caused such exponential growth, that we are completely spiraling out of control. Bring on energy decent I say.. we seriously need to slow down.

http://www.survival-international.org/

It was also Dee’s 31st Birthday today. Happy Birthday Dee!

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