Today is the day that Australian's are told we should celebrate the "founding" of our country.
This has always been a sore point for a huge chunk of our population (myself included), since we're effectively being told to celebrate the beginning of a massive campaign of genocide against the original people of this country.
TheJuiceMedia have done a brilliant short parody of the old anti-piracy ad that sums up the problem :
Each year the divide in Aussie society over issues like this grows larger and larger.
This year it escalated into multiple huge demonstrations all over the country, fanned by activist groups like GetUp! and FIRE calling for people to either protest to have the date changed, or to go to work (but not celebrate).
50k gathered to protest in Melbourne (source, permission)
Some of the larger protests happened in Sydney, with huge crowds starting off fairly peaceful - but violence from both sides escalated once somebody was stopped from burning an Aussie flag by police and got knocked out in the struggle.
The overwhelming police presence deployed in all of our capital cities soon got things "under control" though.
No pride in Genocide (source article)
It's fascinating to see the shift in public awareness and attitudes over the last few years alone. I'm amazed these protests got as large as they did, especially right after the astroturfed womens march campaign only a few days ago.
You can find heaps more coverage of the protests via google news and twitter hashtags #invasionday and #AustraliaDay .
Historical Context
This hour long documentary from the legendary John Pilger , gave one of the first honest mainstream looks at aussie history. This should be considered essential viewing for all Australians, and I've just tweeted a thankyou to John for his work if anyone wants to echo that, or just help spread the doco itself.
I'm really not sure how much of the true story and attitudes of Australian's really spreads to the rest of the world.
We've had such a warped image spread over the years - the general vibe I get back lately is that we're mostly just crazy racists thanks to the recent actions of our government on our very own prison islands.
The ironing is delicious :P (source)
I'm so deeply ashamed of what has been done in Australia's name, and the ongoing crimes STILL being perpetuated not only against our own native people but now also anyone trying to get asylum here.
I believe the Australian aboriginal people are the oldest race. The oldest human remains were found right here in Australia , and there is evidence of plenty of other cultures interacting with early Australians looong before the invasions (by the dutch, and the british, and everyone else). We even have Egyptian Heiroglyphics from 500BC in caves in NSW !
Of course, none of this is common knowledge because we've been lied to about our nations history from the start. Decades of straight up massacres, kidnapping and forced assimilation, poisoning of water supplies, nuclear weapons tests and much more have been done to the native Australian people for daring to stand up to the empire in defence of their homeland.
This country has gone from one of the most pristine in the world, looked after by one of the oldest people with a deep and rich history - into a culture of corruption, and environmental destruction on a massive scale through mining and fracking and sending the profits overseas.
We seem to have this self-image of an independant strong nation - when in reality we've been Britains bitch from colonization, and then America's bitch ever since the CIA murdered our PM (Harold Holt) back in '67 for resisting the slow takeover of our government.
I'm sorry this is a rambling terrible post, the whole situation makes me so angry that I'm struggling to focus. Researching genocide is putting me in the same mindset as pizzagate has been. Not a fan.
My point
It seems to me that anyone claiming to be "proud" of Australia is clueless about both our history and our current activities.
There are some deep issues that need to be resolved before we can move on, and a simple "sorry" just isn't going to cut it.
These latest protests are just another symptom of a sick society built on a foundation of lies.
</ramblyrant>