Australia Day 2021

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, culture and community. I pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

Australia Day is a conflicted experience in our country - for many, it is the reminder of what has been stolen.  You may as well say "Happy Invasion Day".  

Have you completed the ABC Australia Day quiz yet?  I did not get a very good result at all, no sirree.  I think I only got about 3 answers right.  I knew that the first protest about Australia Day was back in 1938; something I learned only recently.  I knew when the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up in Canberra; having grown up in Canberra and being old enough to remember made it easy. And I  knew that India celebrated a public holiday on the same day.  But I only learned that this morning on social media because of a comment someone made on someone else's blog post.  

So what kind of blog do you write on a day filled with so many mixed emotions?  

This year I have resolved to live my life more according to the following values:

1. Self-care - unless you look after yourself, you can't care for others
2. Learning - the more you learn the more you realise how much you don't know
3. Appreciation - remembering to express gratitude as much as I can
4. Empower - my goal is to enable or teach so others can help themselves
5. Temperance - exercise moderation in all things.  Food is my weakness but my temper also frays with age.

No-one could be a greater example of empowerment than our Australian of the Year Grace Tame, using her voice to push for change and to empower others to speak out.

In an attempt to do something constructive in terms of reconciliation, I want to write a blog post that goes some way to acknowledge the land and culture my ancestors arrived here 100-200 years ago.

Language is so important as a tool for empowerment. Using language, we tell stories to amuse or instruct our fellow humans in the ways of the world.  Taking away someone's language disempowers them.  They are silenced.  

This quote from the AITSIS website living languages page says it all:

Language is more than just a means to communicate, it is what makes us unique and plays a central role in our sense of identity. Language also carries meaning beyond the words themselves. It is a platform which allows us to pass on cultural knowledge and heritage. Speaking and learning first languages provides a sense of belonging and empowerment.

I thought today I would educate myself about the land my ancestors came to when they arrived in Australia, including where possible the languages spoken there.  My sources are the AITSIS website, the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages and SLQ Indigenous Languages Map.  

I won't be able to write about all my ancestors that arrived in Australia as some were adopted and so the information is missing.  This is a selection of my ancestors who came out to Australia from the UK.  There are more but these are a representative sample, most of whom settled in Sydney or Melbourne.

HMS Victory at Portsmouth - Pixabay

CONNER/COOK

Edwin CONNER and Eleanor Eliza COOK came from Portsmouth, England out to Australia in 1912 on the ship "Omrah" landing first in Melbourne and then heading up to Sydney eight years later.  It has been suggested that they came via New Zealand but I haven't been able to prove that yet.

So landing in Melbourne, according to the map on the AITSIS site here, they landed in Boonwurrung country and the language spoken there would have been Woi wurrung meaning "no lip".

CONNER/SMITH

Edwin's two daughters had come out to Australia earlier in 1885 and settled in Queensland.  Both women, and my great-aunts, Clara Rebecca and Harriet were teachers.  Clara married William Smith in England.  When they first arrived they started teaching in Comet near Emerald which is Gayiri country and the name of the language spoken there.  The words for Good day are Binbee karri in Gayiri language.

CARRETT/PASBY

George Henry CARRETT and Mary Ann PASBY came from London in England via New Zealand to Sydney in 1867 on the ship "Auckland". Sydney is in Eora country where the Darug language was spoken.  The Carretts then moved to Dubbo which is Wiradjuri country.

MCLOUGHLIN/FLANAGAN

We think Patrick McLOUGHLIN and his wife Margaret FLANAGAN came out to Brisbane on the "Light of the Age" in 1864.  It's the only McLoughlin we've been able to find that fits the right age and time frame for being in Australia from his death certificate.  Brisbane is in Yuggera.  The McLoughlin's then moved to Bathurst which is in Wiradjuri country.

Sketches in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Norfolk Island, ca. 1841-1847] / by John Skinner Prout
Out of copyright - Creator died before 1955 Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

TAYLOR/JONES

My convict ancestors Samuel TAYLOR and Margaret JONES were transported to the colony of NSW and eventually settled at Taemas south of Yass which is in Ngunnawal country. You can read (and hear) about the Ngunnawal Language Project here.

If my post has inspired you to research your own family history I would encourage you to join your local family history society.  Here in Queensland, I am a member of the Queensland Family History Society but there are others like GSQ and other more local societies depending on where you live.  

If you have indigenous heritage, the AITSIS site has lots of resources to assist you.  For example, this page gives lots of contact points for people in Queensland.

I am grateful for being able to keep the language I was born with and learn about and record the stories of my ancestors. I believe we need as a nation to understand and accept the wrongs of the past and the impact they have had on our first nations people.  I will attempt to reflect this in the stories I tell by incorporating more truth-telling; the ugly as well as the nice bits. Otherwise, how do we learn?  Of course, I recognise and understand that truth is a matter of perspective and that we can never hope to convey/know all the truth but I will do my best to consider the context in which my stories are told. 

Books that I plan to read that may help me on this journey are Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson and Benevolence by Julie Janson which I heard about recently on the Society of Australian Genealogists Friday hangout. If you want to read more about the state of reconciliation in Australia click here.

I apologise in advance for any errors in this post.  This is a relatively new area for me so I welcome constructive correction/feedback.