Sliced Bread

The enormity of this week’s Victorian fire storms are beyond my comprehension.

Lives, livelihoods and homes indiscriminately destroyed, the erasure of deep personal and community heritage built over generations and the shared pain felt by those who lived this devastating event will unfortunately become another chapter in our history.

The survivor’s shock will be felt far into the future, when others in society have moved on, hopefully not forgetting too quickly what our fellow Australians have endured. Outsiders cannot possibly understand the deep pain, no matter how hard we try to empathise.

This tragedy has rightfully consumed our nation’s hearts and minds. I’m proudly biased so the outpouring of humanity, generosity and community spirit exemplifies why our country is the best in the world, bar none. In times of enormous grief we unite as one and rally to offer assistance as one. That typifies an Aussie. I expected that.

Unfortunately our nation’s history has not always been this compassionate. My feelings above could easily describe the appalling treatment suffered by indigenous populations, especially the stolen generations. The difference being our immediate fire tragedy was largely spontaneous and natural the other a series of premeditated policies inflicted by our nation’s forebears.

The degrees of separation, passing of time and a lack of personal connection and understanding dulls responsibility. However it does not make it right, nor should it excuse past national behaviours.

Let’s hope on this day, the 1st anniversary of the national apology, we do not forget too soon the many lives still living the hell inflicted by either Mother Nature or our fellow man.

Reconciliation and rebuilding are synonymous; let’s do both in pragmatic achievable steps and see if we can’t arrive at both concurrently. I trust Australia can and will.

If you have a spare 7 minutes, I hope you can pause and reflect on the words uttered 12 months ago.  The “Get Up Mob” and assorted reconciliation friends also illustrate that historic day and prompt us all to make a difference.

 
“Sorry” from Tony Searl on Vimeo.

As a history teacher I have a deep interest in Australia’s indigenous history partly due to mum and dad’s stories about their early careers at Cloncurry, Mary Kathleen, Kunbarllanjnja (then called Oenpelli) and with the Kunbidji people at Maningrida from the mid 1950’s to the early 1970’s. 

photo credit: SMH See the full slideshow

Yesterday, I was excited to read the SMH report of a significant indigenous art site recently “rediscovered” and studied in the north west Wellington Ranges. This Arnhem Land region of the Territory was where dad prospected extensively for the BMR. This site is currently the subject of ANU studies and will hopefully be preserved from future development impacts.

“This is one of the most fantastic sites anywhere in the world,… (it) demonstrates the power of artistic effort and storytelling. One cannot stand there and not be awed by such creativity.

 ”Djulirri is like a library or an archive where we can go back and see the log books and diary entries about what happened here in the past.”

Many of our family discussions in the 1960’s and 70’s centred on indigenous history, and more specifically land rights vs mining rights. Dad’s deep personal appreciation of this ancient history must have conflicted severely with the professional demands to mine (exploit?) these same lands.

Growing up, I remember some particularly heated debates between my father, with his strong eclectic views on Gough Whitlam, Rex Conner, George Chaloupka, William Stanner and ALP beliefs, and some brave pioneer land rights/environmental activists who dared to present contrary views. Talk about fireworks.

Any who questioned mining ventures such as Jabiluka, Ranger, Coronation Hill, Rum Jungle, Nabarlek or Olympic Dam were in for a torrid debate. Dinner table discussions by Bruce Walpole, Rex Conner, Bill Foskett, Trevor Jones, Chan and Ken Smith, amongst others, were passionately heated, always stimulating for the participants and sometimes scary to an impressionable youngun’, usually playing innocently in the next room. Boy did I learn what colourful language adults used.

Terania Creek was another hotly debated environmental issue in our household back in the late 1970’s, let alone the storm created over the proposed Gordon River Dam in 1982/3, by which time I remember being brave (stupid?) enough to contribute my contrary views during family ”heated discussions”.

photo credit: Wilderness Org

Now not only should these ancient sites be saved from the rampant mining exploitation of the past 5 decades but recent overzealous developments posing as ‘ecotourism’ that have turned Uluru et al into something resembling the tawdry “DisneyWorld” of Central Australia.

Dad can no longer contribute to these ongoing debates, but I’m certain he’d agree by now that culturally and environmentally significant sites such as these should be permanently preserved above all other interests.

As I reflect on what shaped my adult values, many of which I use daily in my teaching, I wonder, other than the generic obvious, what influences or legacies have your parents given you?