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Australians in denial ...

By Bruce Pascoe - posted Monday, 21 May 2007


I implore young Australians to undertake a scrutiny of the available material and begin a negotiation with Aboriginal Australia, not about money but about our shared history, our shared future and in celebration of this land we love, the land we toast with cups of tea and Indigenous wine and beer.

We love our country but have pulled the bag over our head pretending the world can't see how we arrived.

Young Australians please read your history, don't believe your elders' version of events, most have got their head in a bag. You are young, intelligent, hopeful, you have the rest of your lives ahead of you. Enjoy it, learn that you live in a fabulous place where a civilisation developed which may yet teach us crucial lessons about sustainability and civilised behaviour.

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To understand our history is not an act of grand generosity but a bloody-minded necessity. The alternative is to live with a bag over your head ... and baby, it's dark in there.

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About the Author

Bruce Pascoe's new book Convincing Ground (Aboriginal Studies Press) discusses these ideas and looks at how we might "move on". His website is here.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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