Invasion Day Re-enactment: As It Should Have Been

Over the years there have been many official re-enactments of the landing of
the First Fleet, most have been sanitized and watered down versions of what
really happened.  I think back now and I laugh at what I was force fed as a
student, ships rolling dramatically onto the shores of the new "empty" land,
men embarking from the ships, dressed in inappropriate clothes and trading
with a few "native" people, huge expanses of land for a few trinkets and
sacks of flour.  It sounds like something from a comedy movie.  It wasn't
until the huge protests of 1988, that I realised that this land wasn't
founded in 1788.  Inspired by conversations with Victorian Kooris and
readings I had done, that detailed very clearly the physical and cultural
genocide perpetrated upon the Aborigines during the white invasion, I became
involved in their struggle for recognition and self-determination. 

On Invasion Day, 26th January 1992 part of the Melbourne Koori community,
together with several hundred non-Aboriginal activists (gubbahs), marked the
204th anniversary of the white invasion of Australia.  We re-enacted the
landing of the first fleet, and told the story "the way it should have been."

In front of a crowd of several hundred people at St. Kilda Beach, on a sunny
Sunday afternoon, two old sailing vessels arrived, from which landed
row-boats complete with Captain Phillip, soldiers, sailors and convicts, they
were met on the shore by a group of spear wielding Kooris.  The Kooris were
resistant to this invasion, until the 'invaders' rewrote history by
recognizing Aboriginal ownership and prior occupancy of the land.  They
travelled through aboriginal 'customs' and paid the rent for their use of
aboriginal land.  Captain Phillip, who refused to acknowledge Aboriginal
sovereignty, was sent back on the row boat, complete with convict chains
whilst the rest of the First Fleet were admitted and allowed to stay on the
land, provided they respect Koori customs and Koori law. 

This type of positive, creative, nonviolent action is powerful and important
because of its educational value.  Empowerment for the Koori community and
the sense, that finally white people were beginning to recognise their
complicity, and a role, in the ongoing struggle of the aboriginal community,
helped make the day both memorable and successful.  People there were willing
to forge an honest relationship with aboriginal people, not a relationship
built on lies and denial.  

Australian mainstream history is based on many lies, and prominent amongst
these is the idea that Kooris didn't resist.  Resistance took the form of
guerrilla warfare and widespread spearing of cattle.

There is also a rich but poorly researched history of nonviolent resistance
by Aboriginal people to the theft of their lands.  The first land rights
campaign occurred in New South Wales in the 1860s and 1870s when Aborigines
mobilized and nonviolently reoccupied areas of traditional lands, refusing to
be moved.  When forcefully evicted they would return and continue their
occupation.  Eventually these tactics won limited success with areas being
set aside for these people.  Today the struggle for self-determination and
land rights continues, everyday Aborigines struggle to reclaim their culture,
a culture that they have very little access to .

The re-enactment was designed to raise people's awareness of some of these
issues, and to touch peoples consciousness to consider what it would have
been like if the First Fleet had recognised Aboriginal ownership and
respected the law.  Australia may have been a far different, more
humanitarian, ecologically intact place today.  The action was also designed
to involve people in the PAY THE RENT campaign.  Aboriginal activist Gary
Foley said on the day "we want people to acknowledge that your ongoing
occupation of our land is illegal and oppressing us, unless as individual
people you seek some form of reconciliation yourself with the Koori people." 
Reconciliation can begin, by PAYING THE RENT for the use of aboriginal land. 
This can be in the form of money or working for the Koori community, sharing
your skills or resources. 

If people would like more information on the PAY THE RENT campaign or would
like to be involved, please contact Brendan Condon, 50 Moor St. Fitzroy.
3065. Victoria. (03) 417 7448.

The PAY THE RENT group also intends repeating the re-enactment action again
on Invasion Day 1993.
Bernadette McCartney and
Brendan Condon