NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick says his party has obtained about a dozen journals from British officers etc who arrived in Australia in 1788. The journals demolish the anti-colonial settler guilt narrative being peddled by modern Aboriginal activists and their fellow travellers.
This Australia Day these activists will be out on the streets today, Australia Day, demanding it be called “Invasion Day” or “Survival Day” and instead of celebration be marked as a day of mourning. But history proves this narrative as well organised leftist propaganda designed to fragment and divide Australian national unity.
As for Ruddick, he’ll be joining the Sydney March for Australia event, which is also being held in other state capitals and regional centres across the country.
Organisers are expecting high temperatures across Australia. “Please make sure you bring plenty of water (bring a few extra bottles for anyone who forgets), hats and sun protection.
“If you are struggling in the heat, please find your nearest police officer or marshal wearing a yellow vest and ask for assistance.”
“Also, don’t forget to bring your megaphones, hand-held speakers, signs and of course your flags. Remember, we are not there to cause violence, keep an eye out for agitators or strange behaviour and again, report to your nearest marshal or police officer.”
Ruddick says the historical journals provide endless diaries, letters and official reports for the early colonial period. “We also have the letters of foreign visitors to Sydney at this time.
“When these are read the thing that leaps out is how many Aboriginals chose to happily live among the white man … and how welcomed they were. Females especially preferred to get away from tribal violence.
“The two groups were fascinated by each other. There was mostly goodwill, respect and friendships.”
Fancy that – colonial settlers and Aboriginals getting along and Aboriginal women deserting their tribes because of violence. It’s certainly not the message that has been peddled for decades by the Indigenous activists whose communities across Australia received more than $33 billion in state, federal and territory government grants and funding in 2017.
Those who benefit most from this money are the professional class of Aboriginal administrators who run the multiple organisations from land councils to healthcare providers.
Ruddick says the historical records also show that when the Aboriginals heard about Christianity, most voluntarily became believers. “At the time of the Bicentennial 80% of Aboriginals identified as Christian,” he says, citing another statistic the activists don’t want to know about.
Ruddick has also learned that the British settlers would often head out from Sydney Cove on a three to four day trek to learn the terrain and always be accompanied by Aboriginal guides who happily shared their knowledge of the bush.
“If they bumped into another group of Aboriginals along the way the guides would explain, ‘these guys are cool.’
“Some conflict came when the white man built thriving farms at Parramatta and then the Hawkesbury. It wasn’t ‘heroic resistance to an occupation.’ It was petty crime,” he says.
“Like all pre-agricultural societies, Aboriginal society had no concept of private property and so no concept of theft.
“The farmer had worked his guts out to clear land and then plant a crop or raise livestock and so felt acutely cranky if his produce was then stolen. Most Aboriginals quickly learnt to respect property rights and many happily became employees on farms.”
This clash between farmers and tribes was behind much of the bloodshed that later flared up across the country, with atrocities occurring at the hands of both sides.
Ruddick says the journals show that life pre-1788 was short, nasty and brutish. “The best insight we have is the account of escaped convict William Buckley who spent 30-plus years living as part of a tribe.
“They did have some fun times, but the bad times were frequent and severe. There’s a free PDF on the web somewhere – absolutely gripping.” Ruddick says a small minority of activists today have calculated that the more they invent lies about the past, the more money they’ll get.
The Buckley story, written by William T. Pyke and published in 1904, makes the following observation about the first contact between the settlers and indigenous peoples:
“The black inhabitants seemed to regard the invaders of their dominions with but very little apprehension, and showed not the slightest desire to contest the right or the power of the new-comers to settle amongst them. They manifested the childish curiosity common to all inferior peoples, and took with great avidity and delight the presents of biscuits, trinkets, blankets, etc., proffered to them by the white men. Generally, after receiving the gifts, they immediately departed into the seclusion of the bush, to more thoroughly enjoy them, or to make known their good fortune to their friends.”
Chapter 2 of the book describes one of the clashes between the early Port Phillip settlers and the indigenous inhabitants. There is no suggestion that the settlers were determined to “conquer” the native population. Dealings with them often involved the giving of gifts like blankets and tools but not all encounters were peaceful and misunderstandings could lead to violence.
Pyke writes: A few weeks later a serious affray with the natives took place, in which, it is to be regretted, some blood was shed. With it the conflict of the two races may be said to have had its beginning. It happened while Tuckey, First-Lieutenant of the Calcutta, and Mr. Harris, the Surveyor of the settlement, were exploring the shores of the bay in company with two boats’ crews.
The 21st century, now mixed-race descendants of those Port Phillip tribes would do themselves and the rest of Australia a service by reading some history such as Thirty Years Among the Blacks of Australia. Yes, there was violence and displacement of the natives by a technologically stronger culture, but there was also goodwill and co-operation.
