Growing up with Lambanana and slavery

And it is this second part that makes this museum so important: there is a need for us to understand that while the slave trade as it existed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century ceased to exist, its impacts and effects are still being felt today. As David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool, stated at one of the celebrations to mark the opening of the museum:

“Our aim is to address ignorance and misunderstanding by looking at the deep and permanent impact of slavery and the slave trade on Africa, South America, the USA, the Caribbean and Western Europe. Thus we will increase our understanding of the world around us."

This is done very carefully and respectfully by the Museum, for it also celebrates human resilience and the work of many who have worked towards reconciliation.

This is not a pretty part of British history, but it happened, and just because some may not like remembering it, it should neither be ignored nor forgotten. Rather, the Museum operators hope that we al learn from the mistakes of the past and work to overcome their contemporary consequences.

Returning to Australia a week after visiting the Museum I have wondered if we, as Australians, are mature enough to establish a similar monument to the source of our wealth? To acknowledge that the sheep’s back we rode for generations and the contemporary mining wealth that has kept the recession at a distance is related to the forced displacement of a complex network of Aboriginal nations that had lived on this continent for tens of thousands of years.

Likewise, the essential enslavement of Aboriginal workers that resulted from stolen wages from the 1700s until as recently as the 1970s also led to wealth creation for many that has never been appropriately reconciled

The protests on Australia Day that targeted the opposition leader where ignited by Tony Abbott’s position that it was time for those at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy to ‘move on’.

Rather than moving on, it is a history that we should be mature enough to acknowledge. Like the history of slavery, it isn’t pretty, but is it what happened, and it is one that we should learn from.