Saturday 27 January 2018

Change or accept?

There have been more demands to "change the flag". Someone left me a twitter message to say that the "butcher's apron" in the corner needed to be removed.
I have almost reached screaming pitch over all this nonsense. Our flag represents our past, our present and - I hope - our future.
The flag has the "Union Jack" in the upper left hand corner and the rest of it is composed of the stars of the Southern Cross. 
"Think about it," I told the man who wants to change it. Yes, the  Union Jack represents the first settlers but to call the Union Jack a "butcher's apron" is nonsense. Claims of "genocide" are nonsense. That isn't to say awful things didn't happen but that story of deliberately giving "measles infested blankets" to the indigenous is simply not true. There is no evidence for it. The idea that Captain Philip set about deliberately wiping out the local indigenous population is absolute nonsense. But, there are still people who believe these things. They talk about "our shameful past" and demand we make "reparations", return land, acknowledge ownership and much more. 
Even if everything which is said was true I am not responsible for what people did 230 years ago. If that was true - where would you stop? Why not make me responsible for something that happened one or ten or a hundred or a thousand years ago  even though I am in no way related to, or had any control over the events which occurred or the decisions which were made? My own ancestors were living in the north of Scotland. They had their own problems. The decision to transport convicts to Botany Bay  had nothing to do with them. But, I am told, I somehow have to be held accountable for the decision?
But, if we go back to the flag, I told this man to take a careful look at it. If he did he might see something that most people seem to be unaware is even there. Yes, those stars. 
Those stars take up the major part of the flag. My late friend R... once explained them to me this way, "Those stars represent the Dreaming Cat. The Dreaming belongs to all of us, you and me and everyone else." R... saw the Union Jack as the notion that nations come together and wanted it to remain there too. It may not be the official version but it is the best explanation I have ever heard of
R...., an indigenous woman through and through, did not want the flag changed. Her family did not want to see it changed. My indigenous friends don't want to see it changed. They tend to view the flag much as R.... viewed it - many of them no doubt influenced by her strong view of it and handing it on to their children.
Changing the flag won't change history. It won't make us something different, something we aren't. Accepting R...'s interpretation of the flag may actually bring us all closer together.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And, should any of you doubt it, that is exactly how Mum taught us to view the Australian flag. Cat posted this explanation on the Guardian website later and got some vile abuse for doing so.
Please don't assume that we all want the flag changed or to become a republic or that we want to say or do anything simply because of our heritage. Mum was a proud Kaurna woman and made us proud to be the same. Cat has been a close family friend for most of her life and I am proud at how well she fits in with us.
Phil

Anonymous said...

It has become an annual part of Australia day ... while a fair portion of Australians share a BBQ, a few drinks and some tall stories ... and the flag, just as it is, is a part of it all.

As you say, just how far back are we supposed to be responsible for events in history. I don't think any one of us can even be responsible for what our parents do, let alone what they did before we were born.

jeanfromcornwall said...

I have to make a comment on the "measles/blankets" myth. At the time when they were supposed to have done this they
a) were vague about what measles was.
b) didn't understand what caused it.
c) didn't know how it was spread.
Yet in spite of this they knew that if they gave some people dirty blankets they would cause an epidemic.
Clever!
Since measles is spread by droplet infection, I am dubious about whether dirty blankets would have had any effect. It is just another of these nasty myths.