geeklite

My LJ is friends only. Because some people are rather more dickish than I'd prefer.

Amazon Rank

Just helping the Google Bomb, nothing else to see here...

ETA: For the 2 of you who may not have seen, explanation is here.

Title: Greetings
Author: GeekLite
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Word count: 4
Rating: Everyone

( Read more...Collapse )

I took History as an elective in High School.** Not because I'm particularly interested in history, but because the alternatives (typing/woodwork/geography) were even less interesting to me. Because I moved schools at the beginning of Grade 10, I ended up taking "Australian History" twice.

This is what I remember from those classes: We spent weeks talking about the political and social climate that lead to the Eureka Stockade, and much time talking about the colonisation of the country. In contrast, I remember only a day or so spent on the, oh 40,000 years of pre-white history. Admittedly a lot of written Australian History is white history written by white men about white men, but still... On a related note, I believe the discussion of the Kanakas*** brought to Australia as indentured labour was quite short - maybe 15 minutes - and while we discussed "the Chinese" who came to Australia during the Gold Rush, the tendency was to classify "the Chinese" as a single entity.

I hope things are better for kids at school in Australia today. If I'd actually gotten to learn stuff in class, instead of it being whitewashed all about the white man, I might have been more interested.

*I stole the title from this article.
**In the 80s in NSW and Queensland.
***Yeah, Kanakas is the word that was in my textbook and everything.


(If you want to find out more about IBARW, go to ibarw).

I'm not the most articulate or well educated person ever. Nor would I say I was particularly enlightened. Other people have covered things with way more panache and eloquence than I ever could. I do want to talk later about racism and how it has and hasn't affected me; and I'm hoping to collect my thoughts enough so I don't end up with major foot-in-mouth problems, since I'm good at that.

But first I thought I might share this video with you as it lead to one of the major "Whoa" moments of my life. I was about 15 when I was watching a version of this and I just... I just couldn't imagine having that kind of history, and it really opened my eyes, and made me want to go really talk to my friends who were Indigenous Australians.



(If you want to find out more about IBARW, go to ibarw).

ETA: The video is of the Warumpi Band and Midnight Oil. The singers are George Burarrwanga* and Peter Garrett.

*George died on June 10th this year, and it is traditional in many areas to refer to deceased Indigenous People by a different name than they had in life.