In response to the various black and white people who have expressed dismay or disgust in the burning of the Australian Flag: That flag, and the union flag thats on it have both meant a great deal to us. At worst they have meant state sanctioned murder, massacres, child slavery, kidnapping, dispossession, genocide, ethnocide, ecocide, mass incarceration, discrimination, racism, assimilation, attempted assimilation, pain, turmoil, depression, anxiety, suicide, mental ill health, substance abuse, disconnection from kin and country, confusion, loss of identity, loss of belonging, loss of family, loss of country, loss of pride, loss of dignity. At best it represents successful assimilation, where those few who have achieved that are caught between vying for scraps from their white idols table and starving for acceptance from their own communities. That flag means an awful lot to us, and every single bit of it is BAD. In other colonised countries, the indigenous people fight actual wars with bombs and guns and attempt to destroy not just the SYMBOL of their oppression, but the actual oppressors. We are not an aggressive people, we carry our dignity with pride, which is why publicly attacking that genocidal symbol is such a big deal for us too. Its not just a media stunt. Its not the act of a few angry youth. It is a powerful statement of our rejection of this invader governments authority over us and a clarion call to all our brothers and sisters to stand up with their ancestral dignity intact and reject the assimilationist oppression that we are all subject to under that flag. Resist! Revive! Decolonise!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 07:50:03 +0000