[avandonk]

To me it is self evident that we are all partaking of the spoils of invasion by simply being here. No amount of weasel words will exonerate any one of us from this simple fact.

Is it not illegal under our system to buy or possess stolen goods?

I find a real sense of irony in people who were convicted and transported for something as minor as stealing a loaf of bread, then they collectively set about stealing a whole continent!

Saying sorry is only the first step to correct all the wrongs of the past. No amount of rationalising such as "they really meant it all for the best" will excuse a policy of defragmentation of families and hence whole societies by the very policy guidelines. I thought I would add if it was not 'policy' it certainly was practice! Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister.

The "Australian History" taught to me in the fifties was the biggest whitewash I have ever experienced. The pun was fully intended!

Can you imagine if the the real owners of this land had taken the children of the early settlers to free them from the brutality and near famine that the first colony was was subjected to by distance and circumstance. We would never hear the end of the negative statements made!

Meanwhile earlier on my ancestors (mob) were doing a very good job of 'civilising' the Dutch East Indies way before Captain Cook 'discovered' Australia.

Nothing has changed. There are still injustices being perpetrated worldwide. That does not make it correct.

We all of us have got to start somewhere! Acknowledgement of past wrongs is a good place to start.

What we fail to realise at our peril that the indigenous people of Australia were eating better tens of thousands of years before than the King of England in Medieval times.

Bert