A statement that evokes a strong sense of justice that Australia’s First Nations People, my people, created a lifestyle a community a history that is forcing all Australian to take another look and realise that our ways, our methods, our culture, and our spirit still remains strong.
Bruce Pascoe’s “Dark Emu” has dramatically changed the landscape of the history providing evidence of our civilisation, living in villages, communities with an abundance of food fresh and stored. We caught fish for our villages using sophisticated fish traps, careful not to harm the river or the many other stocks of other water creatures that lived there. We knew the river gave us food, therefore must be cared for to continue to supply.
In every village, people kept storage containers to store grain, rice and water. Over 60,000 years, roads and paths were built, pastures were maintained as the grasses grown as another food source. The land was cared for in an immaculate way so as to ensure plentiful supplied. We grew rice without water, which is unheard of today. Houses were a thing of beauty, in 1883 David Lindsey a surveyor in Arnhem Land came across structures that were 12 feet high with enclosures to hold live game.
In 200 plus years, generation after generation of Australians both Indigenous and non-Indigenous have been raised on the narrative of the poor suffering Aboriginal people who need to be looked after and protected because they were inferior to the white people was FRAUDULENT and WRONG. It set the scene for the invasion of this land, and the psychological brainwashing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were never good enough to achieve anything hence the disparities we see in society today.
First Nations people had exceptional knowledge and skills to understand every bit about the land, the climate, the food sources, building houses, roads, enclosures, storage units to live rich comfortable healthy lives without declaring WAR on each other. We did it for 60,000 years….and with the advent of the MABO decision the legal system removed the fraudulent terms of ‘terra nullius’ as we know it always was, and always will be………
Moira Bligh
NRG President
