Van Diemen's Land

[terrorgore]

Comments

[zebrallama]

Hi. I'm in Australia and happy to talk.

[terrorgore]

Hey! Thanks for that. How do you deal with your position within Australia; how closely do you feel the need to examine it

[zebrallama]

How do you deal with your position within Australia; how closely do you feel the need to examine it?

I think a lot about the fact that I'm overprivileged, although mostly I think about being overprivileged compared to other animals. I don't think that much about colonial issues ... but when I do I think, hey, isn't there a lot of racism directed at indigenous people? And isn't that awful? E.g., once I was at a demo at which the police arrested 6 people; took them down to the station; then immediately released the 3 white people. The 3 Aboriginal people they held and charged.

I'm bothered by the misinterpretation of conflict (eg, the Stolen Generations) as a distinct entity with a birth, a peak & an end

Yes. I think that's a VERY good point. That's one reason I try to summarise the problem in terms of racism, rather than in terms of particular events like the Stolen Generation.

I want to come home & burn my privilegeAre you sure? Why not use your privilege to publicise the problems

[terrorgore]

For sure I'd rather use it! I think that was what I was trying to say originally but for some reason it came out sounding really clunky. I also wish on principle of course that I just didn't have this privilege, & feel useless anger at History for endowing me as such

[rekapitulacija]

Your studies sound fascinating, you should post more about them.

[terrorgore]

I should, gosh knows an antipodean sounding board would probably do me good.