Don’t forget our convict ancestors
I ENDORSE the sentiments expressed by Kate Kirk (28/1). I too have convict ancestors, one of whom, my great grandfather, was transported from England as a 17year-old for a petty crime – stealing a spade. He suffered harsh punishments – solitary confinement, lashings, chain-gang labour and work in the coal mines – but he survived and I’m proud to be one of his many descendants who still live in Tasmania. Don’t forget the convicts on January 26.
Alison Morgan
New Town
Dividing the nation
MERCURY (30/1) headline reads Australia is still seen in many parts of the world as a racist nation. Well I grew up in North West Tasmania, was born in 1949, and all the Indigenous kids, I grew up with, and went to school with were all well looked after, and treated as one of the group. Then in later years along came Michael Mansell, and the media. These two entities have continually fuelled racism and continue to do so. The ABC and the Mercury are like a dog with a bone, they are hell bent on dividing this nation, rather than becoming one, for races.
Wayne Cobbing Oakdowns
Freedom to choose
WHY can’t we agree to disagree?
The controversy of Australia Day on January 26.
Not wishing to demean any point of view. In Australia we can have a personal aspiration without fear of persecution of one’s belief.
It’s a democratic right. Being a multicultural nation we have freedom of choice.
To suggest that a person should conform to a particular political agenda is incorrect. We were all given
a brain to be objective to all things. Phil Georgeff
Dover
Change not for better
AUSTRALIA has certainly changed, and not for the better. Even though I was born in Australia, unlike Vlastislav Skvaril, who arrived here from Czechoslovakia in 1969, he is “spot on” with his reflections on the changing Australian character in more recent years.
The old Australia, with reference to his letter in the Mercury (25/1) is clearly done and dusted, and sadly that is a tragedy in my opinion.
I tried to obtain an Australian flag last week, but they were not available. However, I could purchase a couple of alternative flags, one of which represented 0.0001% of our people.
Maybe it would be best if we simply abandoned Australia Day as it seems unlikely that a suitable date could be established to the satisfaction of the people at large. After all January 26, as I understood
it was to commemorate the passing of the Australia Citizenship Act on January 26, 1948, whereby we suddenly became Australian citizens rather than mere British subjects.
That seemed a pretty good idea to me, even though some of us argue that January 26 actually commemorated the First Fleet arriving in Botany Bay back in 1788.
As another alternative, maybe we can go back to when we celebrated Anzac Day as our main national day.
Maybe that is not a good idea either as the date of April 25 (1915) was initially established to commemorate the attempted invasion of Australian infantry forces upon another sovereign nation, or was it an empire? It all just seems too difficult and that is a collective problem!
Steve Young
Sandy Bay
Forced migration
EVERY year for many years First
Nation people have called January 26 Invasion Day.
It was anything but an invasion, more liked forced migration. The officers, crew and a few soldiers did not want the job of transporting convicts to a faraway land that basically nothing was known about.
The convicts were from many countries and were the worst of the worst from English prisons and convict hulks. It was either be transported or be hung. The only plan was firstly to get to this distant land and secondly survive.
There were no plans to invade the country, the only intention was to set up a settlement. Those on the First Fleet ships were the first boat people, however not through choice as many boat people have had who have arrived in far more recent times.
The term Invasion Day invokes images of the First Fleeters arriving on shore with guns and cannons firing at the Indigenous people, which did not happen. Instead it was a group of people who were lucky and pleased to survive a perilous journey ordered by those sitting back in comfort in England.
Invasion it was not, forced migration it was.