Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Jun 29
th, 2025 at 12:16am:
..."As far as I know, Indigenous Australian culture is an ancient culture which has evolved over 60, 000 years. It is complex and layered in many different ways and by many different tribes/clans/families/groups/mobs/etc."
So you now state clearly that there was no concept of nationhood or sovereignty over land, water and resources - that there was no organised over-arching government apparatus - and that their entire 'culture' was nothing more than that of a number of wandering small groups and differed for each group - meaning there was no 'culture' as such, and that, therefore, all this talk about 'celebrating their culture' - for example during NAIDOC Holiday - as well as carrying on endless campaigns to 'defend their culture', are all totally meaningless.....
Very well said. I agree totally.
I also totally disagree with this persistent, so-called "Welcome to
country" that seems to precede every damned public meeting
these days—even when there are only non-indigenes present.
Nobody's listening. It's only spouted because of the fear of
aggravating woke do-gooders.
So... What is country? With no "the","my", or "our"?
Before colonisation, Australia was
not one country, but approximately
200+ "countries" or "nations". Think of pre-colonial Australia as being
similar to Europe, in the sense that each country was vastly different
to its neighbours. Each country had its own language, lore, traditions,
customs, stories, song-lines, art dance, ecosystems and more.
And, just like Europe, those indigenous "countries" had their share of
bloody wars, with one "country" (or mob) attacking another for some
perception of territorial wrongdoing. Aboriginals seldom moved more
than 200km from their home base, and of course had no idea of
other aborigines living on lands distant from them.
The notion of a singular, united aboriginal (so-called) "nation" is nonsensical.