Me? Sit down

I am a Gamileraay woman who wants to leave this world better than it was when I arrived but we are going backwards which makes me angry and the result is I have a lot to say and sometime, the truth makes me unpopular.

I am also a suffering optimist, I try to see positivity in things but find that is generally only my family that provides the positivity in an otherwise politically depressing world.

Stick around and nod your head, join the discussion and give me a piece of your mind.

Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/nataliecromb

Sunday 24 January 2016

Massacres were the tip of the iceberg...



At the outset of invasion of Australia - one intent was clear - that the British were expanding their empire and the Indigenous were merely obstacles. Not people who loved and walked this land since time immemorial.

By 1920 two thirds of the Indigenous population had been eradicated by murder, massacre and targeting them with poison and disease. Thereafter, government policy continued the work of the callous murderers - by removing children, placing them in Catholic camps where they were forced to relinquish their old ways and learn that white is right or face torture.

As you can see the number of massacres highlighted above only scratch the surface but I think the overall message is one of devastation.

A devastation that has only partially been acknowledged, only partially apologised for and none of it has been recompensed in any way.

To celebrate the day that kicked off the attempted eradication of a race says more about you than it does about the race you continue to oppress. 

Always was and always will be....






Friday 8 January 2016

Why Invasion day?

Consider this; what would we think of Germany if it celebrated a nationalistic celebratory day on the same day each year as the opening of Auschwitz?

Australia - January 26 - the land where we celebrate with nationalistic buffoonery with complete disregard to the Indigenous Australians mourning. Even worse, it is the land where such mourning is not only an inconvenience but is downright offensive to the true blue Aussies who have made this "the lucky country."

It is important for the non-Indigenous readers to note that even under British law, this land was never ceded and therefore, this land was and remains to be stolen in the true sense of the legal definition. The invasion of this land and the events that followed were and are the most devastating in the history of not only the original peoples of this land but the land itself.



There is a tremendous divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians despite 228 years of inhabiting this land together and it is never more obvious than on January 26 annually.

This is the date that the Government has declared Australia Day and it has been a nationalistic date of celebration for all things "Aussie" and if you don't like it, you can "go back to where you come from."

But what if you come from here and your ancestors are of this land and there is nowhere else to go because this land holds your cultural identity?

Then, you are expected to be quiet and not make a fuss because this day is not about you - this day is about STRAYA!!

Look, it is clear this day holds tremendous emotion for Indigenous Australians and I am no exception, but I also prescribe by the rule that you can't unscramble an egg. We cannot manipulate time and change what has come to be but that does not mean that Indigenous people ought to be expected to bite their tongues and sit on their hands.

I don't have the power to effect change, I know this. My words are paltry in comparison to those of my ancestors and elders leading the contemporary fight for Indigenous rights but I will write anyway because, even if I only reach one person, that one person makes it worth it.

I know that there is no other day of the year that would make sense for Australians to hold this day. Anyone who knows my campaign for Treaty knows that I have preached that if we were to sign a Treaty, that was ratified with the approval of all Indigenous nations, the date of signing this Treaty would be a momentous occasion in Australia's national identity and THIS day would be a more appropriate day of national pride. I feel that this will be the iconic moment of change that our ancestors have agitated for and it will be a key moment where the national identity changes and becomes more inclusive and respectful. Moreover, it will be an occasion that has come from something positive not as is the case currently where Indigenous people mourn the loss of land, culture and countrymen to the invasion of the British.


The intent of these posts is to reach, to educate and to - hopefully - have some people empathise and understand why this day is so problematic for Indigenous Australians.

Here is the thing; you don't have to hate your country to be empathetic and an ally to your Indigenous brothers and sisters. You don't have to fester in white guilt (for the record I HATE that emotion, guilt is the most useless emotion - turn that shit off and do something useful to address an injustice or wrong rather than having a pity party). You don't have to hate your white ancestors.

You know what you have to do?

After you turn off the commercial television and eliminate all whitesplaining from your mind, you have to do something really complicated;

You simply have to listen and learn and take our lead.

That is all.

We can speak for ourselves, we are actually quite a mouthy bunch with rad ideas but because we don't run with the Packers and Murdochs - you don't really get access to an easy platform where you get to hear what we have to say, but we do have a lot to say.

First, I want to explain WHY January 26 is a day of mourning.

Put simply, it is the day that life as it was known was destroyed. It represents the end of the Aboriginal harmonious co-existence with the land. It represents the onslaught of disease, massacres, murders, rapes, slavery and attempted genocide of our people.

Throughout my posts in the lead up to January 26, I will highlight some of the events in our history that exemplify why Indigenous Australians do not celebrate as non-Indigenous people do. I will start with the Botany Bay murders.

Botany Bay Murders
In 1790, Governor Arthur Phillip ordered the capture and killing of 6 Aboriginal people who resided at Botany Bay. This is the first documented sanctioned killing of Aboriginal people in Australia, however, one year prior there was an outbreak of smallpox that lead to many deaths following the gifting of blankets (a practice mirrored in America when the British gave smallpox infected blankets to the Native American people with similar results).

It was not simply decimation of the people that had commenced, the delicate balance of the environment that was maintained since time immemorial was being utterly destroyed also. Within 6 months of the First Fleet arriving, they had fished to such an extent that there was a shortage and a major shortage of kangaroos and the water was being polluted by their 'civilised' practices of cutting down and demolishing beautiful flora to make way for concrete and gravel.

From this introduction to relations between our peoples there have been over 70 documented massacres of Indigenous people, there has been disease, there has been slavery, there has been the removal and attempted genocide through assimilation of the Indigenous people and there has been little to no attempt by the Government to acknowledge and redress these reprehensible wrongs.

Indigenous Australia has been gravely hurt by the actions of the numerous preceding governments but that hurt is not history, it is being felt now and is ongoing because the wrongs committed aren't history either, they continue.

In the lead up to Invasion Day / Australia Day, I hope you will open your hearts and minds and truly empathise with what this day represents for Indigenous Australia. I will be sharing snippets of history on my Twitter feed which will collectively speak to the atrocious history we have and why this day is, in fact, a day of mourning.

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Racism: perpetrated by assholes but it is everyone's problem....


I am hoping that if you have found yourself to my blog, you're a lefty that detests prejudice and will likely nod along and may even learn something from what I write which will in turn help in your arguments with RWNJ's. If you are a RWNJ that enjoys partaking in racial vilification and hatred, feel free to write a scathing denigration of my views that will be thoroughly ignored and/or mocked.
I digress.
I am writing this post because I have so much emotion stewing through me because of the NUMEROUS racist posts I have seen on social media and it has enraged me, not only that racists exist and consider their views acceptable - but because they are so flagrantly out of touch about the true history of this country and what racism actually is.
Australia has a long history with racism and the racism that has pervaded this land since 1788 has been particularly targeted towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the very first act of racism - the declaration of terra nullius – a lie predicated upon British ethnocentrism.

Terra nullius was a deliberate social construct that was intended to facilitate settlement without regard to prior ownership – theft without redress because the British classed themselves as superior based on their own notions of what constitutes ‘society,’ otherwise known as ethnocentric racism. Some of the white settlers as far back as 1832 questioned the legality of the British invasion of Australia. George Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, wrote;

“I am at a loss to conceive by what tenure we hold this country, for it does not appear that we hold it by conquest or right of purchase.”

James Cook referred to the Natives of New Holland as “some of the most wretched people on earth” in his journal – an ethnocentric viewpoint if there was ever one.

The crux of the racist attitudes in this country are rooted in the long relationship between government and Church notwithstanding the theoretical separation of powers. Australian societal attitudes and behaviour towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is borne of the corrupt relationship between Government and Church and their inherent ethnocentrism.

The two together were a force of complete annihilation of that which was culturally and societally deemed inferior, specifically, that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were savages without the social standards deemed acceptable by the Government or the Church and the two, notwithstanding their false notions of commitment to human rights, waged war upon the Indigenous population, committed massacres, enslaved, introduced illnesses, poisoned and forced segregation of the Indigenous population.

There are many that, when faced with the historical facts of the atrocities against Australia’s Indigenous population, diminish the reality and the trans-generational consequences for the Indigenous population and simply say “it’s the past, get over it.”

But racism in Australia is not a dark (pun intended) history in which we can look back upon with the safe knowledge of having learned from the mistakes of the past; it is alive and well in Australia.

One of the most glaring aspects of racism in Australia is how we deal with questions surrounding what is racism and what is not and, invariably, we have some white commentator on right wing media franchises telling us that a racist comment or action isn’t racist, that it was humour or tongue in cheek and that we are all getting a little carried away with political correctness.
Nothing like having Asshole Blot or Madam Deville telling a black person that they don't have a right to be offended, because "free speech" or "get a sense of humour." Because lets face it, who knows better how to be black than a pair of white people that continue to propagate racial stereotypes from their platforms on the media provided by the very organisations that seek to gain from the denigration of Indigenous people?

Let me make one thing clear; the only people who think it is acceptable to diminish racism to a joke are those who either don’t understand the concept, have colonised minds or are, frankly racist.

By continuing to denigrate race and culture into casually accepted racism, we are missing the point and widening the divide within Australia.

In Australia, there are numerous aspects of our society that are responsible for the continuation of the racism that has been endemic for over 200 years; the media, the government and justice system and families.

The media is obvious. The reporting in the media is so overtly racist that it is obvious we certainly don’t have any standards. A young man does from a coward punch and this is a horrendous reality that amasses a tremendous outpouring of shock and horror and rightly so. But only a few weeks prior, an Indigenous man died in exactly the same way and the mainstream media was conspicuously silent.

Think about the things you see reported about Indigenous people in the media; you will see variations of the following themes:

  • Alcoholism.
  • Substance abuse.
  • Violence.
  • Unemployment.

If you dig a little deeper you will be able to note the stories that AREN’T reported:

  • Indigenous people dying at the hands of authorities.
  • Indigenous people being targeted by police, spending lengthy periods incarcerated awaiting a hearing and then when they are finally acquitted for something that they should never have been incarcerated for – they never have that time back nor is there any redress.
  • Indigenous people incarcerated for things as little as fines, while non-Indigenous counterparts receive NON-CUSTODIAL sentences for killing black children.
  • Police officers going without any repercussions for brutally murdering Indigenous people in custody.
  • How about Indigenous people successfully completing school, university, running a business, representing their people with dignity and pride and keeping their culture alive?

Don’t see those stories on the mainstream media do we? Why?

Because it does not serve the agenda of the powers that be that seek to divide and continue the practice of ethnocentrism that was borne from the church controlling our government (and continues to today).

The government and the justice system are also culpable in the continuation of the racist attitudes that thrive within our society. The government will placate the Indigenous population with token and symbolic gestures but will fail to address the truth of the past, the illegality of the purported settlement and will certainly make no moves to repair the damage of which it is responsible.

Before anyone gets into a flap about the past being the past and the current government not being responsible for past governments, have a think about our tort law system. In our legal system, if someone wrongs another, not only do they receive damages for their loss, but they receive interest on their damages. That is our law and yet, Indigenous people have been overlooked on the issue of damages. In fact, the government has been so consistent in their denials of liability – that they have not even attempted to quantify their responsibility.

The thing is, most people think that the Indigenous people want money, money, money. In truth? Indigenous people want to maintain their connection to land and culture and this cannot be done if the government continues to behave in an underhanded manner, united with mining companies to destroy for profit. This land is not for profit – it is for sustenance of life.

The government is also responsible for the school curriculum which is alarmingly lacking in anything with objectivity when it comes to the Indigenous history of this land and the post-1788 experience for Indigenous Australians. This is something that needs urgent redress and appointing racist curriculum reviewers is the Liberal party’s idea of a review.

The legal system? This is something that enrages me. We have an imperfect system that unfairly targets. We have people within the police force that are intellectually inappropriate and target certain people based on their race, so much so, that racial profiling is an accepted problem within the force. Then we also have those that take their prejudices further by acting upon their racism in the form of racist violence and rather than responding to a CRIME, our system investigates and sweeps such acts of racial violence by authority figures under the rug – thus creating a culture where such behaviour is accepted.

This is not only a problem for the Indigenous population that then intrinsically fears this authority, but it lays waste to the reputation of the law enforcement officers that are genuinely in the job because of their desire to keep ALL of the community safe and treat all with respect and equality.

The legal system? One need only look at the sentencing practices of certain Magistrates to know that personal prejudices play a hefty role in how sentences are handed down. There are also factors such as access to legal representation, quality of that representation and ability of the legal system to address issues of mental health and other physical issues.

Families, particularly parents and grandparents, play a huge role in shaping the society in which we live. The amount of racists walking around spouting their venom? That was learned somewhere and, statistically speaking, it is almost always in the home. Parents and Grandparents that teach children to hate are then unleashing those mongrels onto the world for the rest of us to deal with.

There are many contributing factors for the endemic racism in Australia but the government and legal system, media and families are the most culpable and capable of changing the landscape.

Until they get their shit together, it is going to be up to each and every person that detests prejudice in all forms. Each and every person has a responsibility to call racism out when you see it. To recognise bullshit stereotypes and educate yourselves on the truth and think about what is not being reported on mainstream media because often what is not reported on these pathetic programs is the real news.

Ultimately, we all have a responsibility to not be assholes. It is quite easy:

  • Form a view of a person based only on the content of their individual character and actions.
  • Realise you are one person with a set of experiences, learning and values that shape who you are and you will never approach an issue the same as another, and that is okay. Our differences are an opportunity to learn, not to perpetuate ethnocentric ideals.
  • If someone makes a racist or otherwise prejudiced comment – CALL THEM OUT ON IT. People make these comments because we live in a society where they feel safe to do so because they are the majority – it is time to educate and eradicate these notions of hatred and fear.

Australia’s racism is allowed to flourish because we as a society have elected a government that is fundamentally racist. We as a society have not stamped out racism, we have ignored or denied it to such an extent that it is now eating away at the fabric of decency (however little) that remained in our society.

We do not have a society in Australia, we have an economy. We are expected to be hamsters on a wheel and then consume and then run on the wheel and then consume in the constant cycle without regard to any of the true questions of our lives.

This is why the government, the media and in turn society view Indigenous people as a problem for money to be thrown at and then whinged about when the root problems remain. Fundamentally, Indigenous people are unwanted guests in their own home and that demoralising hurt cannot be cured without understanding, empathy and true understanding of the reparations required to bring about healing; self-determination, treaty and land.
Racism plagues Australia because Australia likes to pretend the past is in the past and that Indigenous people are the 'problem.' Nope - hate to break it to you - the problem lies within the ignorance of the population that sits on their hands and does not demand action from the government to redress the past.
The problem is that there are thousands of people that educate themselves on the history of the country from the likes of Pauline Pantsdown and those Reclaim Australia dickwads and then shout it as gospel.
The problem is that there are people who will rally against mining ONLY when it stands to destroy farmland, but were conspicuously absent from protests when it was destroying Aboriginal land and sites.
The problem is that the past is so vehemently denied that there is no possibility that there will be a bridging of the divide of our peoples.
Racism is not something that us black people have to "ignore," "get over" or "rise above." Nope. It is something that assholes need to be responsible for and need to have consequences befitting a society of 2015.
Until our government pulls its head out of its ass and stops treating citizens like stupid hamsters (and lets face it - a significant portion of the population do a fine impersonation of the government's 'good little consumerist hamsters') - it is up to you and I.
When you see a racist - make it known to them and those in the vicinity that it isn't acceptable. On social media where they are rife, screen shot and go public so people can be made to suffer consequences for their racist comments and rants.
Every little act not only diminishes their platform of hate, but it gives hope to my brothers and sisters in Australia that cop this shit daily. To know that the number of people that have our backs outnumber those that seek to stab us in the back provides us with hope and power that the Australia we are fighting for is already taking shape.
Peace out x