What Came First: The People or the Trees?

As the title of this blog entry suggests, I am discussing the true origins of Australia. A controversial topic among both indigenous and non-indigenous people is the subject of what actually existed on the continent when Captain Phillip came to settle. Factually the indigenous people were the first people to reside on the land and were doing so when Captain Phillip arrived. But then why is it that some people believe that the bush and the trees and shrubs were the only things on land when the convict settlers arrived?

It wasn’t until the 1967 Referendum that Aboriginal people were even really considered people. The referendum allowed for the counting of Aboriginal people in the national census, thereby no longer considering the group of people to be a part of the landscape. The referendum also endowed the government with responsibility for the indigenous people by allowing the Commonwealth to create laws for the Aboriginal population. Despite being in the country thousands of years prior to Phillip and his men, Aboriginal people were not considered part of the society. And one of the worst parts of the whole situation is that it seems most Australians don’t even know the history of the people that truly founded Australia.

Judy and Daf are two women who currently work in the dealing of Aboriginal art and have a wide and diverse knowledge base of the culture. When I asked Daf about the education of non-indigenous Australians about indigenous Australians her first response was laughter. She then continued on saying that “most Australians don’t know what [our class] is learning.” It is fascinating and horrifying to think that I know more about indigenous culture and Australian history as an American student taking a three week literature course on Australian culture than an Australian student who has been in the native school system for many years. Daf went on to explain that there is “no acknowledgement of the first people” and that the Prime Minister himself even said that when Phillip arrived there was “only bush” in the area. She reiterated that the “schooling was lacking” in a lot of areas about indigenous culture.

In many ways Australia has lived up to my expectations of wonder and awe but I can definitively say that my rose colored glasses have been shattered by what I have learned about the treatment of indigenous people in this country. As poorly as America treated and still treats its native population, I feel that I can confidently say that the American school system acknowledges that the Native Americans settled the land first. In speaking with Aboriginal park ranger Karen Smith I learned that there are some schools where children have basically no idea who the Aboriginal people are and where they come from. They are “completely unacknowledged” in some history books. 

I think one of the more appalling things I learned through interview and research is the continued maltreatment the indigenous populations of Australia receive and how little attention that it receives. Adam Goode was recently awarded the title of Australian of the Year for a variety of reasons, one of the main ones being his celebrity in AFL. Using his publicity, he attempted to shed light on the atrocities that are being enacted upon the Aboriginal people. When I asked a Sydney dweller, a shopkeeper in the rocks named Michael, what he thought about the whole controversy he said that the thought “it was good that people are talking about it” because there are many people like him that “don’t know much about the subject at all.” Michael’s own admissions completely echo what Daf had talked about in that the education is lacking in regards to both past and present treatment of the indigenous population. I can say without hesitation that if I stopped and interviewed all of the other Australians I saw walking around The Rocks the day I spoke to Michael, the majority of them would not really know about Indigenous and Aboriginal culture either.

I argue that one of the best ways to improve Australian and Indigenous relations is through education. By knowing the true history of the country and all histories that occurred thereafter, the Australian people and government can make informed and culturally responsible decisions going forward. And one of the best places to start would be to fully acknowledged the “first people” as Daf so rightly named the Aboriginal and Indigenous people.