Are We Indigenes Yet?

Are We Indigenes Yet? by Viv Forbes.

No human race evolved in Australia — several different races walked, paddled, sailed or flew here over the past 60,000 years. Some displaced earlier arrivals, others mixed with locals. Some left rock art distinctly different from that of later arrivals and some destroyed or hid evidence of earlier tribes. Some were cannibals, most brought domesticated animals with them and all hunted native animals, sometimes to extinction. None can claim any moral superiority.

Visiting fishermen from Asia and exploring mariners from Europe added to the gene pool in this vast land. Negroid tribes were isolated in Tasmania when rising seas formed Bass Strait and others found refuge in the rainforests of North Queensland. Now a few claimed descendants of a few of these many tribes are seeking special constitutional recognition as “indigenes” and a “voice” to Australian Parliaments. This divisive proposal will do more harm than good.

Europeans started settling in Australia over 300 years ago. They sailed here.

Are any of them indigenes yet? How long does this process take?

The narrative has taken to calling Australian Aboriginals “first nations people”. Doesn’t that suggest that the rest of us are somehow “second class”?