ART ACTION UNION - CREATIVE ACTIVISM
ART ACTION UNION AIMS to create awareness for current concerning issues to educate the greater community and collect a critical mass.
ACTIVITY FEB 2008 - SORRY
Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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A forum for the discussion of the decision to apologise to the Stolen Generation of Indigenous Australians… February 13th 2008 |
shayne2011
721 posts
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With with live coverage, big screens being set up outdoors, BBQs and dancing, classes being stopped and demands for a public holiday, not to mention the t-shirt, this is turning into quite a circus. But I don’t think this should be the end of it, but the beginning. There are 13,000 Aboriginal children stolen from their familes who are now grown up. They deserve compensation just as any other citizen who had suffered at the hands of the government would be; and I believe a trust should be established. Further, indigenous Australians continue to suffer a greater burden of ill health than the rest of the population and are more likely to experience disability and reduced quality of life due to ill health, and to die at younger ages, than other Australians. While an apology will lighten the burden of guilt for a lot of liberal thinking Australians, somehow, ‘sorry’ just sounds like a cop out, if that’s all there is. |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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I like the way you think Shayne, if we could only control all dem rednecks… hey? Mind Control… sometimes I think that IS the only way… shit… I didn’t just reveal a psychopathic nature… really I didn’t… |
Dee Boylan
2656 posts
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Good job guys…good to see there are people here who give a shit and have a heart…here’s a T i designed on Australia day…thought it’d be appreciated…but…well…no….
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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IT’S AWESOME ARTEMIS… Hmmm… It’s been about 7 minutes since I posted in the ‘main’ forums and already encountered an uneducated apathetic so and so… well that was the immediate impression I received from the two 4 words sentences (if you could even call them that) that he managed to type… I need to state this here… I don’t give a shit what you think about this… it is righteous… and you just sound dumb and evil if you don’t recognise the simple facts and actually FEEL for another person… that’s what this is you know everyone… it’s a test of how bloody caring you are… if you don’t get it… than I just reckon you’re stoopid… that’s my feeling… that’s life… |
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Dee Boylan
2656 posts
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I agree….I am sooo shocked at some peoples attitudes here…it’s like they take it as a personal affront that someone other than themselves should get anything…I wonder though if they would chose to got thru what our Indigenous went and continue to go thru in order to get the attention they obviously desire? |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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they don’t even know artemis… that’s the really scary thing… the complete in your face uneducated mass that is australia… if they had cultural awareness training (which is something I am fortunate enough to have had and I believe strongly it should be included in primary and high school curriculum) they might see some passion inside them… it’s scares me I tells ya… |
Lloyd Harvey
183 posts
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I am British and was on the understanding that Australia was set up as our prison colony like a few hundred years ago. So, indirectly, is it not our fault? |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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ha… one would think so Lloyd… but as I have just been researching there’s longer brittish history in my family than australian… in fact just found out I am related to Sir Robert Peel, Lawrence Hargrave and Sir Robert Philp… hmmm soooooo dubious… |
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Lloyd Harvey
183 posts
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So what, may I ask, would you prefer your government to do other than simply apologize? America faced a similar problem when they were accused of “raping the land of the natives.” I’m not 100% sure what happened but I think a lot of land was given over to surviving tribe members. |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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this is in the spirit of reconcilliation lloyd it is only a token… but a willingness to empathise is important… and I point out… not all indigenous australians care… but those that do… need to hear it… that’s all it is really… a lot of hoo ha over a word… that word again… SORRY SORRY SORRY… SORRY FOR THE CONVICTS TOO WHO WERE TREATED LIKE CRAP… |
Dave Sandersfeld
63 posts
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The USA, starting in 1960s, the tribal units got organized and got lawyers to represent them and they are slowly gathering their lands back. I am personally working with a Siletz tribe trying to get their reservation back given to them in 1860; but they were kicked off three times for miners wanting to find gold or railroad speculators. I consider it good Karma? |
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Lloyd Harvey
183 posts
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Ok Kath, I was only wondering. I admire your passion and I empathise for the mistreated. Mr. Dave, I hope the tribe get their land back. You to are working for a noble cause indeed. You’ll have to let us know how it goes. |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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lloyd, you are the only man here who has actually stood up and said… hang on the brittish were not cool… thanks for that… |
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Lloyd Harvey
183 posts
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Yes my home country has been pretty mean to the rest of the world over the years and pulled some pretty dirty tricks. You just have to look at what happened in India with Ghandi, or how we actually were involved in the slave trade (as well as Spain). Another thing which relates more to the subject at hand is that when the Brits first landed down under, they used to hunt the natives for sport! Shocking isn’t the word! But in all fairness, the country itself isn’t to blame but more rather the influential figures at the time. For instance, I don’t blame the German people for WW2, but rather Hitler and his cronies. The thing is, no country can say their hands are clean. Somewhere down the line some one has done something bad that the whole country gets blamed for. Its a bit of a tricky subject to talk about but if more people were empathetic to the here and now, their would be less problems in the world. |
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Kathleen Cameron
708 posts
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I totally agree lloyd… totally agree… I am just getting my head around it… Like what did Sir Robert Peel do, what did he support?… there is so much context to find… and given he is one of my ancestors I have a vested interest to understand it in the context of the family we have now… it’s a messy business… lots to explore… |
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Lloyd Harvey
183 posts
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Good luck on your exploration! Let me know how it goes! |
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shayne2011
721 posts
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what happened to the rest of this forum, did you delete it? Probably a good thing; it was getting pretty nasty. Whatever, I’d like to acknowledge the wrong done by my people (of whatever generation) to the Aboriginal nation and say, sorry |
