Testing bounds of tolerance
THE Talking Point by Reg A. Watson was unbelievable (“The building blocks of a great nation,” January 26). He completely dismissed First Nations people, not even mentioning them once. His title should read “historian of colonisation” because he writes as if the country was founded in 1788 and not invaded, colonised and that an attempted genocide took place.
He states that “it took time, effort and enormous sacrifice” to establish the colony of Australia, which mimics our Prime Minister’s statement that it wasn’t so great for the first settlers either when they first arrived.
These statements and views should not be tolerated, and they should be called out for what it is, a whitewashed version of this country’s history in order to continue the myth of Terra Nullius. It was shocking reading. Bridget Verrier
Rokeby
CHANGE THE DATE
BRENDAN Blomeley refers to “the standard-bearers of the Left” who have “predictably started to froth at the mouth as they attempt to undermine the importance of January 26”.
What’s the difference between “frothing at the mouth” and Blomeley’s spitting sputum in his outrage towards those of us who recognise not only the original destruction of Indigenous cultures around modern-day Australia, but the ongoing consequences? These include over-representation of Indigenous people in our prisons, premature deaths, lower educational attainments, reduced social status and many other European-inflicted disadvantages for Indigenous people. This man has absolutely no understanding of the injustices inflicted, nor the ongoing discriminations against First Australians.
Change the bloody date — and I use the term bloody in all its meanings! Bob Holderness-Roddam
Austins Ferry
INVASION POLITICS
DO other countries celebrate their invasions? Or the removal of invaders? Who decries the invasions of the Romans, Egyptians, Turks, Monguls, Mesopitanians, Greeks, Celts, Vikings, etc? They decry their brutality, but in the next breath celebrate their achievements and legacy that was left behind.
Why is Australia so different when it cannot celebrate a national day, as in Australia Day, a day that brought to
gether the Indigenous with the English “invaders” or settlers. The way I see it, and I may be wrong, but before white settlement, the Indigenous people were not a combined nation as such, but a whole lot of individual tribes, spread out over this vast land, and the only time they got together was when they went to war with each other, over hunting grounds, women and the like, and these skirmishes were brutal.
They had no name for this land that they all knew, no flag to unite them, never even heard of a flagpole.
The only thing the Indigenous should be sorry for is that their forebears didn’t defeat the “invaders” when they arrived, as every other country has tried to do. They let them get a foothold, and the rest is history.
We cannot change history. Yes, be sad about it, comment on it, and hope it never happens again. Remember when all Australians, Indigenous and European settlers halted the Japanese attempt at invasion? If that had gone the Japanese way, we all would be cursing a Japanese-celebrated Japan/Australia Day.
ON THE NOSE
READER Jon Aufder-Heide (Letters, January 25) suggested Margaret Court shouldn’t be vilified for her opinion, yet he turns a blind eye to the fact that her strong and outdated opinion on samesex marriages vilifies our LGBTI friends. Irony anyone? My dear old mum always said, opinions are like backsides, everyone has got one, but some stink more than others.
Jason Darbwana
Geilston Bay
MY FAMILY
Bruce Reynolds Lindisfarne
READER Michael Watts says Margaret Court deserves her latest honour asking: “Whatever happened to tolerance and respect for diversity?” (Letters, January 26). Well that’s a question I’d like to put to her. I am happy to be the uncle of a gay man and a transgender woman and it makes my blood boil that she can direct her vitriol against my family (who were born that way) based on her selective interpretations of a primitive, unscientific document. Peter Hepburn
Claremont