Indigenous Rulers

Indigenous Rulers

Indigenous Rulers

Interpretations of the Christian variety coupled with aspirations of assimilation were procrustean, murderous and culturally corrosive. Blissful in the minds of the conquistadors, but destructive to the to the schema of the dominating hegemony. However, redundant placing dominance next to hegemony may seam, in the preceding sentence, the repeatability is worthy of repeating until it sinks in. In the name of their Lord and Saviour, families were destroyed, and symbolically so, rulers were the weapons for the pedigree of “God”, the one and only, Father figure and son that are painted in a pure light.

From ancient times, we are familiar with the indigenous rulers of Australia. We have been told that indigenous people are the first inhabitants of the land, that they came from somewhere else, and colonized Australia. Some people claim that indigenous people never came from Australia at all but rather came from somewhere else and they were brought by Europeans or Asians. Others think that it was an invasion or a forced relocation of people that came to Australia.

For many years, many of these settlers in Australia did not really understand the indigenous peoples that lived on the land. There were some who wanted to live amongst them and treat them as equals. These settlers did not respect the rights of the indigenous people and many of them were killed. Others treated them as outcasts because they were different. Still, others abused them because they were indigenous.

The situation became even worse when the Europeans brought their religion into the land and tried to convert the indigenous people. They took their names from Christian books and some of the churches even had crossed over the doors. This was a way of making the indigenous people believe that they were evil and God had taken his punishment upon them. This made many of them hate the Christians that they lived amongst, and this lead to much worse problems.

In the 1800s, there was a big struggle between the Australian government and the indigenous people of the country. There was a big movement in which the Australian government was trying to get control of the land and make it theirs for the benefit of the colonists. Many of the indigenous people were fighting back by taking over land from the settlers. They took over plantations that had been set up by the settlers. This caused much damage and many lives were lost.

The governments of the country and even the settlers thought that the problem could be solved with just a little amount of violence but that was not the case at all. It would become worse until it reached a point that it had to do with a complete war. This was fought between the indigenous people and the settlers. The settlers were trying to kill off the indigenous people and steal their land.

There were many stories that were told of how some people were forced out of their homes and others were taken away to boarding schools where they were made to learn what they had to learn. There were many stories of rape and other terrible things being done to them. This would have been unthinkable a century ago in some countries of the world. But in those days it was just the norm to be doing this. and nothing was ever done about it because the authorities and the settlers knew that the people were too scared.

As time goes by, more people are waking up to the truth. The truth is that many indigenous people were treated as outcasts in the past and their rights were trampled on. It was their fault for having different beliefs and practices, and they were made to feel guilty and to be ashamed of who they were.

Today, there is a growing interest in educating the native Australian people on the rights of their ancestors and their cultures. They realize that there was a lot of mistreatment and that they need to protect what is rightfully theirs. For those who still hold on to traditional beliefs and practices, they are also starting to take responsibility for the future of their culture and their ancestors. They need to be educated on the importance of preserving their history and traditions.

The ruler was the instrument of forceful instruction and embodies fear from within. For those that don’t already know, residential school “teachers” in Canada used to wield the weapon of the ruler to threaten students into submission. This rapture is anything but liberating. Conservative common sense cites the status quo as a method to achieving a civilized society. Partially this is true, the inductive reasoning we employ to do the heavy lifting of predictability was once left to the devices and whims of the prophetic. Pathetic paranoia placates the power of the people with the search for thought leadership and community leadership. What are we searching for?

My own story has a direct descendent from these live-in schools, my Great Grandmother was of Cree ancestry from the prairies of Alberta. I post thoughts related to this history in a Twitter moment called, By Sun and the Plains Indian Within.