Australia is built on lies, so why would we be surprised about lies about climate change? | Luke Pearson for IndigenousX | Opinion | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/10/australia-is-built-on-lies-so-why-would-we-be-surprised-about-lies-abou
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f12f71dd5fcc8ac79232fee67e8040af77a885f0/0_397_6048_3627/master/6048.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali
Le conseil de lecture d’une activiste australienne sur les #feux en #Australie.
#peuples_autochtones #climat #changement_climatique
Amid the turmoil and panic and worry there have been moments of gratitude; gratitude for the firefighters, for the neighbours who have opened their homes to strangers displaced from fire, for the countless people who have donated money or goods to those in need. There has also been moments of anger at the inaction of government, the slow responses, the fumbled PR attempts, the disrespect shown to the victims and the heroes, the barefaced denial of reality, and the blatant lies being told to the public and repeated through the conservative media channels.
For many this response has been confronting and crushing. Many have shouted: “This is not the Australia we know.” But for myself and others, it is exactly the Australia I know.
Early within the bushfire season we saw efforts to pretend it wasn’t really that bad, and that it was just those damn inner-city elites complaining, as they always do (it wasn’t). As things got worse, we were told it still really wasn’t that bad and that it definitely had nothing to do with climate change (it does). Then we were told it is that bad, but it was all the Greens’ fault (it wasn’t). Then we were told the government is giving everything the fire services have requested (they haven’t).
Then finally we have been told the Coalition government has never denied climate change and its links to fires (they have, and do), just as various Coalition members went on air telling us that there was no such thing as climate change.
Australia was founded on the lie that this country was terra nullius. It was founded on the lie that white men are the superior species. It was founded on the lie that the country was previously “unsettled” and that importing animals, plants, pests and unsustainable farming practices was how best to “settle” this “wild” land. It was founded on the lie that this is a “lucky country” and the land of a “fair go for all”.
Within my lifetime, I have seen the same lies play out to justify the Northern Territory intervention, to attack land rights, to justify inaction on climate change, to deny the stolen generations ever happened, to dehumanise and delegitimise the plights of Indigenous peoples, the unemployed, the entire “left”-leaning population.
These contradictory lies have necessitated a phenomenal amount of cognitive dissonance within the population in order for them to feel that patriotic pride that usually comes out so strongly in the form of flags, flag capes, flag thongs and alcoholism later this month.
Australia is home to the oldest living cultures on Earth – cultures that understood the health of the land, the water, the animals and the people are one and the same. We cannot take Australia back to its pre-invasion state, but we can move forward into the future embracing these same principles, and returning Indigenous people to our rightful role as guardians and caretakers.
It is fitting that this should occur so close to Australia Day, and during the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook not actually circumnavigating the country.
It would have been better if we didn’t need such a dire catalyst for these conversations to occur, but here we are. The only question now is where do we go from here?