Just a quick post, not too flashy:
Happy Australia Day, no qualifications. No "this is a time to mourn", no "we weren't a perfect nation". Happy Australia Day.
Australian Christian figures and media organisations will nowadays often qualify Australia Day with some reminder to lament the suffering of the indigenous. Motivated by a defeatist, self-hating version of Christianity, they suck any joy and pride out of the day, as if our nation isn't worthy of any celebration. Eternity news here is a good example. Granted, this is reporting on a Church's action, not giving an opinion piece. However, you quickly learn with media orgs like Eternity that what they do and do not report on is a good test of their demeanour. Notice how this is virtually the only article on their site pertaining to Australia Day, and it shows a Church trying to play the middle ground, neither condemning or 'whitewashing' Australia's history. They - Eternity - can't bring themselves to promote joyous celebration on this day; we can't enthusiastically celebrate our nation's founding. This is why Christian centrists and pacifists rile me up.
There are also the usual hordes gathering around for their "Invasion Day" protests, with Australia's media oligarchs fuelling their garbage [I]. These people don't care about debate, they don't care about sober historical research. They hear "white man bad" and bang the war drums.
First we need to see the ideological assumptions of this pack. Assuming the black armband view of history [II] is true, British colonies have historically and brutally mistreated indigenous Australians, and only in recent decades has this begun to be rectified. Therefore, we should not celebrate Australia as some great achievement of civilization, but a nation built on the blood of murdered natives and their destroyed societies. Instead we should mourn this destruction, apologise to the natives, and do everything in our power to raise them up in well-being
That's the gist of their view, and I aimed to be charitable in presenting it. But however well I word it, I can't escape how rubbish the logic is.
If a bloody history disqualifies a nation from retaining any pride, then no people on earth can have pride in their nation. But the activists may be more than happy for this to be the case, at least for white Europeans; rootless urban parasites have no interest in the pride or even the survival of their heritage. Yet they're all for minorities having pride in their heritage, no matter how barbaric that heritage is, such as traditional indigenous culture [III]. And I mean that without qualification and without malice; the 'noble savage' is a myth, and indigenous Australian culture was the dictionary definition of barbaric. See the article in footnote three. But also take time to read arguably the most in depth account of pre-colonial indigenous culture, The Life and Adventures of William Buckley [IV], in which a former convict recounts his experience of living with the Wathaurong people for 32 years, including the bloody warfare and barbaric treatment of their own kin (especially women). Don't take these sources as the be-all-end-all, but as a good start on this inconvenient topic.
So, are activists prepared to start condemning indigenous Australians for their racial pride? When will they start demanding that National Sorry Day become National Say-Sorry-to-Your-Women Day?
But this is even assuming that the black armband view is true, even partially so. One of a handful of historians to dare to combat this orthodoxy is Keith Windschuttle in his multi-volume "The Fabrication of Aboriginal History", in which he thoroughly critiques many claims of deliberate killings and genocide of indigenous Australians. Often, he is very successful, but other times not, as countless online critiques of his work emphasise (although they too sometimes misrepresent Windschuttle). When half the academic establishment rushes to attack your work, it's inevitable that genuine errors will be found. And all this to say, read Windschuttle, read the primary sources he cites, read his opponents, and read Windschuttle again to see if they accurately represent him. Don't rely on organisations like the ABC and activist NGOs who have a vested interest in lying about history. You will see that the black armband view is at best simplistic or at worst a lie.
In the end, whatever history says, the result of colonisation is clear; a great and prosperous civilization which even many indigenous persons have come to benefit from, most of all from being exposed to the Gospel, and having access to countless opportunities for personal fulfilment and material comfort (especially compared to their former way of living). For this I won't apologise.
We can debate the mistakes the British made every day of the year in the blogosphere and the halls of academia. But this one day especially deserves to be one of unqualified celebration. A civilization was born, and the greatest cultural achievements this continent has ever seen were achieved in the last 200 years. But the most importantly, a new front for the Gospel was opened.
No, you rootless urban parasite. I won't shun my heritage; I won't be guilted into shaming my ancestors; I won't kiss the feet of an aboriginal as if I did something wrong; I won't be lamenting today, but joyous. If indigenous people want to lament any sufferings they incurred, they can go ahead, but neither they nor any white saviour activists will stop me from thanking the Lord for forming this great nation.
I will praise the rise of civilization and laugh at the cry of activists.
Happy Australia Day.
~~~
I - For example, The Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/national/on-invasion-day-our-calls-for-justice-will-not-be-silenced-20210124-p56wf0.html
II - An activist-led school of historical thought whereby post-colonial Australia was overall disgraceful in its treatment of indigenous Australians. An overview of the debate can be read here:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/RP9798/98RP05#CON
III - Part II of a series of articles, all of which should be read (though the links in this article are broken, so you will need to manually search for them):
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2013/05/the-long-bloody-history-of-aboriginal-violence/
IV - Full PDF here:
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/115045/2/b12742697.pdf
