Dear Michael,
Thank you for sharing your great
article on decolonisation.
While I fall into the white/migrant category of Australians I would have to be blind not to see the deceitful and exploitative nature of the Crown and its local agents, as well as the 'assimilate or die' tactics used against the Aboriginal people.
Why then do most non-Aboriginal Australians fail to see the obvious?
I tend to agree with the writer/poet Czeslaw Milosz that colonisation is ultimately colonisation of the mind, so that the colonised victim is no longer capable of thinking for oneself but lives in a permanent state of psychosis, of mental fragmentation sustained primarily by deep-seated fear of recognising that one is a slave, and that is perhaps the true nature of the State.
In that sense, the non-Aboriginal population of Australia is also colonised by the British crown, but realisation of that fact would threaten the imaginary identity of most whites that they are courageous, wise and free, and therefore too traumatic to accept.
I can see what happens to people when I bring up this subject in conversation: they look at me with blank stare, or they bring up some ambiguous objection that "there must be something that makes crown a legitimate power"' and thus simultaneously confessing ignorance and fundamentalist-like conviction.
I try to remind my peers in what ways we are enslaved by the crown, by it's banks, agents and corporate allies, because only realisation of our own enslavement and tacit complicity in the crimes of the colonial power can open our eyes to the oppression and suffering endured by the indigenous peoples.
By seeing ourselves not divided by race but united by our humanity, desire for freedom and sanity in the face of the genocidal, psychotic Crown, we can realise that we all are on the same side in this age-old conflict.
Just like reconciliation between Germany and the victims of the WWII would not be possible if the Nazi party still remained in power after the war, so reconciliation is not possible between Britain and the colonised peoples, victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing far numerous than those of Hitler and Stalin, as long as the genocidal institution remains in power.
Tolerating the Crown despite its crimes against humanity would amount to acquiescing to those crimes and inviting their continuation.
I wish you strength in your work.
Empathy & freedom,
(Name withheld)
Burning the Australian Flag at Emma Miller Place South Brisbane in 2014.
The provocative protest came just a few days after Prime Minister Tony Abbott shocked and angered the Aboriginal community by claiming, for the second time this year, that Australia was nothing but bush before the arrival of Europeans – ignoring the presence of Australia’s original inhabitants.
(Image: The Source Pic: Kasun Ubayasiri)