Indigenous Australia, School and Lies.
By Harrison Sellick
Indigenous Australia, School and Lies.
Australian history: we’ve all learnt the story, after all we all spend half a year on it at least. But have we really learnt the TRUE story? I mean Adam Briggs said it best when he said on the weekly, “Your history is so white, you even whitewashed out the dutch”. By now I think its no secret that Indigenous Australians have been here for some 65,000 years, and yet despite this as being common knowledge we still only teach 230 years of Australian history with maybe some passing mentions to the dreamtime before moving on to convicts. Personally, in my history class we watched one documentary on the Dreamtime and proceeded on, again skipping over the European discovery and the events that lead to it and going straight to British colonisation. Melbourne Indigenous activist, Aretha Brown, once stated on her YouTube channel that during her history education she opened her textbook to see only 2 pages depicting Indigenous Australians spearing animals before moving on to British colonisation, once again ignoring Indigenous history and even the events that led up to Europeans reaching Australia.
Some might say, well, great but what would be taught? its not like Indigenous people wrote down their history, and while this might be true that does not mean this information is lost. Oral traditions still exist and are passed down, not just the dreamtime stories but also Indigenous astronomy and medicine. Something else that should be noted is legendary Indigenous author Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, which is an amazing book that presents the true history and practices of Indigenous Australians, such as the oldest stone structure on earth which is an indigenous fish trap, Indigenous agricultural practices and Indigenous grain economy. Some have tried to write these off as “crazy myths” but the book cites the observations of the frontier settlers, people who are largely considered to be the backbone of Australian history by conservatives, as well as geological evidence.
So you might ask, why write all this? What do you want? Simple, I want the truth and the whole story to be taught at schools. it is time we spend longer being taught about Indigenous history in Australian schools, it is time we are taught of pre-colonial Indigenous society. it is time we are taught the stories and practices that made this country: it is time we are taught of the theory of Terra Australis, it is time we are taught of the trials and tribulations of my ancestors, it is time we are taught the truth so mob, like me, may read our textbooks and revel in the rich history and continuing culture of our people. Always was, Always will be Aboriginal land.