I also don’t think that those sentenced to a decade of slavery here (which is what happened to most convicts sent here) or sent here to clean out the indentured poor of the workhouses of England, are the snobby gentry who stole indigenous land. Perhaps, in time, the grandchildren or great grandchildren of such impoverished people came to own a house on Aboriginal land under a non-indigenous government but I don’t think this makes them all ‘dirty bastards’.

in the 1820s-1840s and before ‘free settlers’ came here from the 1840s, 50s and 60s, women and men were sent here in chains, many of whom had stolen to feed themselves, their families, or free family members enslaved in workhouses. Many died in chains on the way and those who didn’t faced years of slavery here.

My great great grandfather was sentenced to 15 years in labour here, commuted from death…he had stolen a horse in an attempt to free his sister from enslavement in a work house. Those who sent him, guarded him, worked him, here for 15 years. Another great great grandfather was part of the work house clearances… people who had been enslaved in the UK to pay off family debt and were often worked to death. To get rid of this social ‘burden’ such people were sent here. I have a great great grandmother who was an orphan sent here among others designated as suited to marry convicts and, so, relieve a burden on the ‘good’ people of Britain. So it is power and status you are angry at, not race. Good things and good people, bad things and bad people, can happen in all races.

I have been degraded by PEOPLE, and their race was irrelevant to them being bastards.

It was not race that committed the crimes, but power and status which SOME presumed over others
and which others are guilty of ignoring, others were probably unaware of and some actively spoke out about and challenged. Hence there is no race which is ‘you dirty bastards’.
There have been people who have been immoral, selfish, ignorant, spineless, oblivious or busy.

Racism breeds racism no matter who is being racist.
Narcissism is the real evil and narcissism is part of both racism and reverse prejudice.
Neither are dignified paths.
If someone is ignorant, even psychopathic and says stupid things
the best one can do is not defend with similar.
A dignified response at least avoids being the same as those one is upset by.

I have Aboriginal cousins and my father’s some of my father’s closest friends were Aboriginal people who I’ve known since infancy.

In Australia it is people like me people, who are the strangers, the immigrants, and I am an immigrant among many from all different nations.

I’ve been left with and cared for by many people and was taken in by an Italian family in late childhood when my own was too violent and chaotic to live in and their language, their ways became the stuff of ‘home’.

The greatest kindnesses which have come into my life have come from strangers and those different to myself and I can’t thank them enough for THEIR open heartedness and generosity to a stranger - me. If only we were all so lucky to know such things.

None of this justifies continuing racism on either side but the cries for reconciliation largely come from the indigenous community and that speaks for itself. Non-indigenous people who feel justified in heaping even more insult on indigenous people should view the film Kanyini and first get to grips with their own place in the wider picture before they feel so justified to stand up for racism.