Politicians and media shunning the truth
With political leaders and the media calling Lidia Thorpe’s actions before the king disrespectful, I’m pleased someone stood up and stood out to speak truth of Australia’s past and present in this setting.
The takeover of Australia wasn’t respectful to First Nations people – at least she wasn’t violent, which is more than could be said for the actions of settlers in the name of the crown. And how far did being polite and gracious (Uluru Statement and the Voice referendum) get Australia’s First Nations peoples towards justice?
The king and queen are direct beneficiaries of colonisation, exploitation and the cruelty of the British empire across the world. All non-Indigenous residents here have and continue to benefit from the original sin of dispossession. Most probably don’t want to acknowledge this and feel in any way implicated (surely an undertone of the PM’s ‘I’m not indigenous’ hence last year’s referendum result was ‘not a loss for me’).
It is more relaxed and comfortable for Australians to sleepwalk through the present. We won’t emerge from the great Australian silence and cult of forgetfulness about our past until we can give collective acknowledgement and provide justice. Until then we’re a morally bankrupted nation.