Australia’s racist heritage

Australia’s history was born out of racism. In order to colonise the landscape of this great land, the British settlers killed and pillaged the country in the name of colonisation. It was in Tasmania where the settlers committed genocide and very nearly wiped out the whole Aboriginal population in that state. It was in our culture that the people who first inhabited our land were treated as flora and fauna, and were given voting rights in 1967. It is in our country that the excuse of “terra nullius” was used by settlers to justify the killing of more than 65,000 Aboriginal people from 1788 to 1838 in Queensland alone, in a war for which there is still no true recognition.  It is in our country that Aboriginals, despite making up 2% of our population, have 25% on the imprisoned population, and over 300 Aboriginals have been killed in police custody since 1991. Yet this is the country that is constantly labelled “the lucky country”. Our history is riddled with racist atrocities and genocidal activity and we must never forget this.