January 26 marks the colonisation of Australia and the grief, heartache and pain that this has inflicted on First Nations people for generations. It is also a moment to recognise the ongoing survival of the oldest existing culture in the world today.
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Warrane, marking the beginning of British colonial rule on Gadigal land. This date, originally commemorated as Foundation Day, has evolved into Australia Day. However, this day also represents the start of the invasion, suffering, and dispossession for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The true history of these lands spans over 60,000 years, far preceding colonial times.
When British settlers began colonizing Australia in 1788, between 750,000 and 1.25 Aboriginal Australians are estimated to have lived there. Soon, epidemics ravaged the island’s indigenous people, and British settlers seized Aboriginal lands.
Though some Aboriginal Australians did resist—up to 20,000 indigenous people died in violent conflict on the colony’s frontiers—most were subjugated by massacres and the impoverishment of their communities as British settlers seized their lands.
Between 1910 and 1970, government policies of assimilation led to between 10 and 33 percent of Aboriginal Australian children being forcibly removed from their homes. These “Stolen Generations” were put in adoptive families and institutions and forbidden from speaking their native languages. Their names were often changed.
For many Aboriginal and Torres Trait Islanders, January 26 is a day of mourning, symbolising the loss of their ancestors, their land, and their rights. It recalls the devastating impact of the Frontier Wars, the ongoing trauma, and the systemic injustices that continue to this day, including disproportionate rates of Black deaths in custody, health inequities, and the desecration of sacred sites. Celebrating on this day overlooks these painful realities and the resilience of First Nations peoples in the face of ongoing colonisation.
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The truth about white Australia: The genocide few talk about
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The killing times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront
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Indigenous kids are still being removed from their families, more than ever before
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Aid:
Theory:
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #3
临时抱佛脚
(lín shí bào fó jiǎo)
Literally: “temporarily embrace Buddha’s feet”
Figuratively: “profess devotion only when in trouble; make a hasty last minute effort”
@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net
the Zhongwen firefox extension makes it read more like... "at the last moment, hold/embrace/clasp Buddha's feet" which seems to fit the idiom. it's like when people in the West sometimes say 'Jesus Christ' or 'oh God' when they see something dangerous happening or coming their way. or i guess when people do death bed born again stuff.
yeah 临时 can mean both of these and more, in any case it means that it's out of the ordinary. i tried to get the literal translations in the same order and roughly the same length as the original, and English doesn't have a neat way of saying this 🤷