"You either feel you belong or you don't. And once that sense is there it can't be given up, willed away or reasoned out of existence."

One of many. Davey Street, Hobart. March 2021.

Why Weren't We Told? by Henry Reynolds

This is an essential read for any Australian who still holds (what they perceive as) the benign view that Australia's foundation was a case of gritty settlement of an unoccupied land against the odds. Moreover, it challenges the notion that the fate of its Aboriginal occupants (however tragic) is primarily due to their primitivism rather than any specific colonial policy or action.

Why Weren't We Told? is an exciting and accessible history. The book serves as Reynolds' literary memoir of a journey from 'innocence' (believing the comfortable myth of Australia as one of heroic settlement) to understand the true horrors of invasion, dispossession and ongoing racism.

While I thought of myself as being quite across the realities of the Australian story, Reynolds has done a fabulous and thorough job in unpacking and interpreting the trends in historiography and highlight the distinct change in tone in the lead-up to Federation. It turns out that those writing in the nineteenth-century were far less squeamish about the brutal realities of the settlers’ interactions with native peoples.

The critical elements explored in the second and third sections of the book concern understanding the frontier's violence and the intricacies of native title, which has driven both the policy debate and public understanding on achieving something akin to true reconciliation.

The former - tracing the story-telling and public memory of violence - is fascinating and should be of interest to the lay-reader. The latter is an exploration of the legalities of terra nullius and the historical work that led to the High Court decisions in the cases Mabo v Queensland (No 1 and No 2) and Wik Peoples v Queensland.

Some will undoubtedly find the deep-dive into the legal cases' intricacies that led to several historic High Court judgements a little dry. Yet, understanding the logic that led to the dismissal of the legal fiction that Australia was uninhabited upon European arrival is an essential step towards recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' legal right to claim Native Title on their ancestral lands.

While I thought that I had a pretty good grasp of these cases, I realise that I had underestimated the work done by historians, legal scholars, and community leaders. This work exposes the great injustice that saw legal recognition granted to European squatters to occupy vast swathes of the country while at the same time dismiss any sense that Aboriginal peoples had any rights at all on their land. For mine, this was the most engaging and enlightening telling of this story that I'd read thus far.

It is also a reminder to anyone who doesn't already loathe the odious John Howard and the terrible damage that his crooked and amoral Government(s) have done to our country, and the many reasons that they should do so!

It is not hyperbole to say that Reynolds and his lifetime of work represent a revolution in historical understanding of black-white relations in Australia and destroyed the traditional understanding of the process of colonisation and has been critical to much of the progress made.

I highly recommend it!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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