Debunking The Aboriginal Myth - Part 1
Many people think Aboriginal people are either; grass skirt wearing, spear weilding bush men, Warren Mundine, Anthony Mundine, or a typical drunk black. Here's a few facts about both Aboriginal people and Aboriginal Australia that may or may not surprise you. Please also, keep your racist comments to yourself - we all know the world doesn't need to see more racist bogan Australian's at work.
The Aboriginal Flag
This is the Aboriginal flag. You may or may not have seen it. It was created by Harold Thomas and first flown in public in 1971 at Victoria Square in Adelaide on National Aboriginies Day.
The black represents the Blackfellas of Australia (more about the recesive gene later)
The red represents the red oche (kind of a clay paint used in ceremonies and painting), and spiritual relation to the land. Some Aboriginal people even believe it represents the blood of the many slain since invasion (also known as colinisation, and settlement).
The yellow is the colour of sun - the giver of life and the protector.
In 1972 it was chosen as the official flag of Aboriginal people.
It differs to the Torres Strait Islander Flag. Torres Strait Islander people and Aboriginal people are not the same race. However they both are 'Indigenous' to Australia. The Torres Strait people to the islands in the TSI and Aboriginal people to the land mass of Australia and Tasmania.
Urban, Regional and Remote
You can find about 3 kinds of Blackfellas into today's world.
The Urban Aboriginal - a city dwelling blackfella, usually doesn't speak any traditional language. May or may not be in touch with his or her roots.
The Regional Aboriginal - a country dwelling blackfella who may or may not have grown up in a farming community or on a mission (a place where white people made Aboriginal people go and live when they were kicked off their traditional lands). Usually speak bits and pieces of their language mixed with English.
The Remote Aboriginal - usually a blackfella who lives on their land and is quite emersed in their language and traditional cultural lives. Speaks English as a fourth or fifth language, with various dialects of traditional language coming first.
Recessive Gene
The reason why there are many Aboriginal people who are white skinned is due to what is known as a recessive gene.
White Australia believed they could 'breed out the black' by the 4th generation if they didn't allow Aboriginal people to reproduce with other Aboriginal people. This led to the Stolen Generations.
As seen here
"...One of the most notorious examples of this approach was from the Northern Territory Protector of Natives, who stated, and I quote:
Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes —
to quote the protector —
will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white."
Also see Breed out the black
Don't ever ask an Aboriginal person if they are a half caste, or 'how much percent' they are. It's rude. Identity for Aboriginal people is not necessary just skin colour, due to the obvious attempt at removing the Aboriginal race from the face of the Earth, it comes from who we are.
Why do Aboriginal people not celebrate Australia Day?
Many Aboriginal people choose not to 'celebrate' a day which signifies the beginning of the loss of Aboriginal culture, identity, language and home. This is fair enough - why is it a problem for you?
Some Aboriginal people decide to celebrate their survival - After attempted genocide, and then assimilation - Aboriginal people as a race survived, so many Aboriginal people call Australia Day, Survival Day.
Some other Aboriginal people decide to not celebrate anything and choose to mourn this day - by calling it Invasion Day. The day that White people came and invaded a land and calling for it to be their new home, when it was already home to people they decided shouldn't be there.
I choose to celebrate this day as Fun Bags Day. My friends and I get together and draw boobs on white t-shirts, drink, listen to the Triple J hottest 100 and swim in the pool.
I used to be an angry Aboriginal person - Why? I was always told I would amount to nothing because of the colour of my skin and my ancestry. My mother is Aboriginal, my father is 3rd generation White Australian. For an Urban Aboriginal kid I grew up knowing and learning a lot about my culture from my mum who grew up in Longreach, QLD, and also my dad who was a hippie white dude who worked in Parliament House for 40 odd years.
The picture above is of me, at the so called 'riots' of 2012. I look angry in this photo because I was having a go at a police man who kept pushing this old blackfella over and I kept trying to help him up. He threated me with capsicum spray and then ended up punching me in the titty.
I didn't agree with the shoe stealing or the Australian flag burning, but I disagreed with the poor treatment of an elderly man who was trying to find his footing. Hence why I was mad.
I got a lot of flack for this, so whatever your comments are won't scrape my skin, my whole life I've had worse things thrown at me than you could probably imagine, I'm use to it.
And that's what I don't like, I don't like that Aboriginal people have to say; "I'm use to it." Racism is in our every day lives, it's a constant. Just the other week I took video footage of a blind Aboriginal (young) man being harrassed by 7 police officers and told he was going to be arrested because they believe he stole a drink from the store - the drink which he had in a plastic bag with the receipt. 20 minutes I stood their filming before they realised what complete tools they were being to this poor fulla. Then they started at me because I told them they could have handled things a hell of a lot better.
"What am I supposed to do with a 150kg guy in my face?" The copper replied to me.
"He is blind," was my reply. He had his stick, the cops were told he was blind on multiple occasions, yet they still physically harrassed him.
Why am I telling you this? Because it's an every day situation, that we are 'use to.'
I have a Bachelor's degree, and went to a very posh boarding school where I was the 'token' Aboriginal person. I wasn't there on scholarship nor was the government paying for me to be there. My mum paid because she thought that to be accepted I needed to be given every opportunity I possibly could have to make it as a Aboriginal person in a White Australia.
I'm still told I'm not good enough or smart enough because I'm Aboriginal. Aboriginal people shouldn't have to prove that we are not what you stereotype us as.
And hopefully the next part of this little eye opener will help you learn.
Don't tell us to get over it
Why?
Do we tell you to get over Anzac Day?
Do we tell you since your child's rapist/kidnapper/murderer apologised that it's time to move on and get over it?
Put it into a bit of perspective before you tell Aboriginal people to stop their whining and move on and get over it.
My white family is forever telling me to not forget I'm also white, and I always say to them, when white people are the oppressed, I will fight for their rights, but until then, I will fight for the rights of Aboriginal people until the life expectancy is the same as every other Australian, until there are no Aboriginal people living in a first world country in third world conditions, until we are accepted as HUMAN BEINGS.
They also often tell me to get over the past and move on, but it's not in the past, this happens today, yesterday, tomorrow, to ALL Aboriginal people.
So when it stops happening, is when I'll stop talking about it. Which will be never. So sit back, enjoy the ride, stop your whinging, and learn something new about the Oldest Living Culture in the World
side note...If you would like to know anything in particular about Aboriginal people or something Aboriginal, I can endevour to answer it for you in part 2.
Just send me a message.
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