January 26 marks the colonisation of Australia and the grief, heartache and pain that this has inflicted on First Nations people for generations. It is also a moment to recognise the ongoing survival of the oldest existing culture in the world today.
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Warrane, marking the beginning of British colonial rule on Gadigal land. This date, originally commemorated as Foundation Day, has evolved into Australia Day. However, this day also represents the start of the invasion, suffering, and dispossession for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The true history of these lands spans over 60,000 years, far preceding colonial times.
When British settlers began colonizing Australia in 1788, between 750,000 and 1.25 Aboriginal Australians are estimated to have lived there. Soon, epidemics ravaged the island’s indigenous people, and British settlers seized Aboriginal lands.
Though some Aboriginal Australians did resist—up to 20,000 indigenous people died in violent conflict on the colony’s frontiers—most were subjugated by massacres and the impoverishment of their communities as British settlers seized their lands.
Between 1910 and 1970, government policies of assimilation led to between 10 and 33 percent of Aboriginal Australian children being forcibly removed from their homes. These “Stolen Generations” were put in adoptive families and institutions and forbidden from speaking their native languages. Their names were often changed.
For many Aboriginal and Torres Trait Islanders, January 26 is a day of mourning, symbolising the loss of their ancestors, their land, and their rights. It recalls the devastating impact of the Frontier Wars, the ongoing trauma, and the systemic injustices that continue to this day, including disproportionate rates of Black deaths in custody, health inequities, and the desecration of sacred sites. Celebrating on this day overlooks these painful realities and the resilience of First Nations peoples in the face of ongoing colonisation.
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The truth about white Australia: The genocide few talk about
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The killing times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront
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Indigenous kids are still being removed from their families, more than ever before
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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
Things have been super eack at work, our chef is all over the damn place brainwise and giving us contradictory standing orders on a twice a week basis, the owner is also being real squirrelly, like it's post holidays and restaurant business is down and they seem to be using the slow time to invent crises. There are 3 major underlings including me here, one is teccccchnically the sous chef but like effectively we all share that job cause all three of us could be chefs if we wanted to be and make the real chef's job super fucking easy as a result. Our reward has been increased responsibility and the kitchen staff being gradually cut in half over a year, our schedules have been messed around with (not mine cause I've made it very clear from.the start I won't allow that) to almost keep these two other people against each other, the sous chef is a geologist who didn't wanna be an oil man, worked at Wendy's and then a local bar kitchen before being here, he's genuinely very good at food through his own personal interest and had been there the longest by 2 years, so fine, I'm second most senior behind him being there wise but have 13 years of culinary experience in a massive variety of fields, I have worked at Indian, Thai, Korean, general Middle Eastern, 4 star Michelin, shitty bar and grill, hole in the wall vegan place, craft service for films, riders for rock stars and those 5000 dollar a plate millionaire charity dinners, our other cohort is just out of culinary school and had been a kiss ass, wayyyy too critical openly about our sous chef, is just 22 years old and is basically Asuka, she had been experiencing her first shock of none of what you studied mattered, your try harding will just hurt you and no one will give you a raise and promotion for working harder than everyone else, so she's been very radicalisable, the place would fall apart if any of the three of us quit, all three it would have to close for a month or more. So I suggested the 3 of us start a group chat.