What would Australia be like today if it had not been colonised by Britain

[nero_bolt]

What would Australia/Gondwana be like today if it had not been colonised by Britain?

Who would have colonised this country?  The Dutch? The French? The Portuguese  Or maybe Indonesia? or?

What would it be like under one of these other countries

What would  Gondwana be like if it hadnt been  colonised?

[silverfaun]

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@izabsmiling wrote:

I hope that this Country accepts it's history ...before doing what ifs .

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What do you mean?? Australia has a rich history and we all know that but if you want to take it back to the initial landing then we  accept that and the historical wrongs too.

I for one will not be guilted into any more guilt.

For countless generations Australians have taken their responsibility to our indigenous brothers and sisters very seriously.

There have been numerous reconciliation measures and apologies, land rights recognition and compensation and many other measures still ongoing today.

The constitutional preamble is very important too, maybe the most important.

Australian governments in modern history have done all in their power to lift up our indigenous brothers and sisters so I for one will not be lectured in that area and anyway that is not what this post is all about.

[icyfroth]

To move on, indigenous people must forgive

However you define it, the common theme is that reconciliation involves both  the wrongdoer and the wronged taking steps towards each other to restore or  establish a relationship after a conflict or estrangement.

It seems to me that when we talk about reconciliation in the context of  Indigenous affairs, we talk a lot about the sorry part but we don't talk much  about the forgiveness part.

As a nation, Australia and its citizens have taken major steps of remorse and  amends, both symbolic and practical. The 1967 referendum and the National  Apology were major steps by the Federal Government and, importantly, were  overwhelmingly supported by the Australian people.

Today every government and  most major companies have a reconciliation action plan. Both governments and the  private sector are devoting substantial funds and resources to overcome the  ongoing consequences of past wrongdoing and close the gap between Indigenous and  non-Indigenous Australians in health, employment and education.

There have been many  successes. Community attitudes have radically changed. There has been real  reform in land rights and anti-discrimination laws, access to university and  professions and access to employment, with the private sector already committing  more than 60,000 jobs for unemployed Indigenous people.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/to-move-on-indigenous-people-must-forgive-20140127-31i9n.html#ixzz2...

Have you read this Iza? I quoted it once before in another thread.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

By chance an episode of Big ideas  on Aunty 24 screened this morning  gives some food for thought on part of the

OP and the lecture jogged my memory re the Ford News advertisements

.... If you are like me and are availed to the fine attributes of the Satellite internet. ...it would take a month of (early)

Sundays to download or watch on i view. I think a transcript of the lecture is available although I was unable to find a

link....

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/big-ideas/#episode/FR1308H011S00

Shaping a Nation: A Geology of AustraliaSeries 7 | Episode 11

Oz is the world's driest inhabited continent, with unique flora and fauna, and relatively cheap energy resources. This address by geologist Richard Blewett outlines how geology shaped Australia's economic and social history.

[silverfaun]

Thanks for posting icyfroth,

Great speech by Warren Mundine. A true man of his culture and people. A man who has reached out in a positive way. A great man or woman is  someone who can forgive  and move on in a graceful manner and he sure has done that.

History is not about imputing the past onto the people of the present or making people feel shame or looking at events of the past through a modern mindset. And it's not about editing out the bits we prefer not to emphasise (be they positive or negative). History should not be sanitised to make people feel better or to make them feel worse – both sides of the so-called “culture wars” should take note of this. Teach the facts; and teach all of them.

[silverfaun]

Thanks I'll try to track it down.

[izabsmiling]

To move on the Indigenous people of this Country need  a Government which doesn't have an Indigenous Minister who 

  tweets "What a bunch whinging up themselves **bleep**ers! Total time waste! I'm off to the footy & a weekend with kids" when they and other Australians excercise their democratic rights and appeal to our own Government.They'd rather call us names and go to the footy ..than listen to their own people !!!!

We all need a Government which acknowledges history...rather than talks about the first lot of Australians coming by boat...at Australia Day events .

no ..they don't need to move on ...our Government needs to get it right .

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Some of the lecturers ideas are documented in this book

Shaping a Nation: A Geology of Australia. Geoscience Australia, 2012, Richard Blewitt, Chief Editor, 571 pages

http://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2013/08/shaping-a-nation-a-geology-of-australia

an excerpt from the link

"The continent itself is, however, home to some of the oldest rocks in the world, some dating back to 3.7 billion years. Even more intriguing, a detrital zircon grain from Western Australia has an age of more than 4.4 billion years. (The Earth is close to 4.6 billion years.)

This voluminous book about the geology of (mostly onshore) Australia is not another book about rocks, minerals and fossils catalogued through time. It is thus not only about how the geological history has shaped the continent where the Aussies live, it is also about how the geological history has influenced Australia’s human history and the way they live. It is about how underlying geology has created a nation and a society.

We therefore totally agree with Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism, who says in the introduction that this book ‘demonstrates the fundamental importance of the study of Earth sciences to our society’."

[izabsmiling]

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@silverfaun wrote:

Thanks for posting icyfroth,

Great speech by Warren Mundine. A true man of his culture and people. A man who has reached out in a positive way. A great man or woman is  someone who can forgive  and move on in a graceful manner and he sure has done that.

History is not about imputing the past onto the people of the present or making people feel shame or looking at events of the past through a modern mindset. And it's not about editing out the bits we prefer not to emphasise (be they positive or negative). History should not be sanitised to make people feel better or to make them feel worse – both sides of the so-called “culture wars” should take note of this. Teach the facts; and teach all of them.

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that's right...history is factual 

we can't change it...regardless of anyone's possible feelings of shame (though how precious are those who think any feeling of shame they may feel is bigger than the right of other people to have their history acknowledged ?)

re the satisation to make people feel better or look better ...Leave our union history in our childrens education too.

[izabsmiling]

the problem is where people see a problem with acknowledging ALL people

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Thank you to ANU.. and the other Aussie tax payers as it appears to be a government publication and available for free

download

http://press.anu.edu.au/titles/shaping-a-nation/pdf-download/

and these wacky (and cheapskate) atheist forum members where I found the link

http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/forums/archive/index.php/t-16384.html