The annual Maleny Remembrance Ceremony, to honour the loss of life amongst Indigenous people in the process of their being dispossessed of their land, was held on 26 January. Organisers expected numbers to be down due to Covid-19 concerns. Instead, attendance at the Ceremony increased by 25%!
We have heard of the economic slogan, which envisages the well-tanked affluent turning the tap ever so slightly to let moisture drip to those below them. It is called “trickle-down” economics.
A new concept is the “grass-up” process of reducing ignorance. From grass-roots gatherings and movements (like the Maleny Ceremony) even the highest in the land may have the sparseness of their knowledge of Australian history watered, and awareness even sprout.
The Prime Minister told Australians “You know, when those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either”. Leaving aside the fact that there were only 11 ships, Professor Marcia Langrton corrected the PM’s misapprehension when the mortality rate amongst convicts is compared with the much more numerous instances of Indigenous deaths in relation to the imperial takeover of this continent and its islands.
Sometimes even a small green shoot can possibly be detected sprouting in the sparseness. Mr Morrison said the public holiday was not about the day the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay in 1788. So, presumably he is not wedded to the 26 January being Australia Day.
As regards the outrage aired by some over the ABC referring to the day under two appellations. Do the vocal anti-PC shock jocks assert that the only PC name for 26 January is Australia Day. If so, they give hypocrisy a bad name.
Ray Barraclough
