When my ancestors and Marjories first came out here they were sent here, in my case 6 generations ago, deemed criminals, they were victims of a class structure that offered little opportunity to live well... rural land was squeezed by the inclosure acts that made common land into private commercial assets and it forced people off land that their families had used productively for centuries. These people fled to the cities looking for work but this was not available to all so a new under-class was created.. For stealing a watch or a few potatoes our ancestors were sent here to build a new colony with forced labour;.. They had to do this on land that was taken off the indigenous and traditional land owners and again enclosed and turned into private land for those who could afford it. One of my ancestors, well two, a couple, had over 20 children.. they grew up to raise their own children and to work the mines of the West and the fisheries of the East and the farms of the midlands. A few of these people fought for decent pay and safe working conditions and at least one died for his mates and fellow workers. When a generation was born that knew no other home they were no longer expatriated British persons but Australians. They built a world here in which the class system of the Empire was despised by most. They welcomed immigrants and refugees into their homes, their sports teams and their hearts...Some of my great great uncles fought in WW1 where the British wasted Australian and Tasmanian lives as cannon fodder in foolish battles... Yet we still fly a flag that sneers at us with its colonial Jack... we still defer.. lose faith in our own ability to rule ourselves... The fact that the Mad Rabid could with one phone conversation to the British Queen, reinstate an archaic colonial honours system disgusts me... I would laugh but I feel that we as a people have been betrayed and humiliated by this. I will not be comfortable till we fly a genuinely home grown Republican flag
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:49:24 +0000
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