Native+People+in+the+English+Speaking+World

The Chief Speaks - Written by Anders

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“It all began when James Cook sailed around the coast of Australia. Our tribe was living near the coast at this time, and we lived of the treasures of the sea, like fish, pearls and the local springs that the small rivers carried rain water by. When we were living here, we had enough space to have all the freedom we needed and to practice what we believed in; the power and the goods of the nature. Suddenly we could see a big black point on the sea as far the eye could see. At first we got an uneasy feeling. What was this? Was it a threat? We got even more anxious when the “big black spot” was coming closer and closer against us and where we had developed our own little settlement. Were they friends or enemies? The women and children hid into the bush. ======

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Soon after we could see a big ship with a big sail not far from where we then lived. Suddenly we could see people wearing those weird clothes. They had long coats; long hosieries and they had triangle formed hats. Then they saw us and the crews of the ship were watching us for a long time, just like we did with them. We all felt relief when it was too clear to us that they were leaving. Soon the ship was a small point again far away. We began to live our life again as nothing had happened. ======

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But some months later a lot of the Gandangaras were confused, scared and afraid when the sailors came back. This time with criminal people, because England used to transport prisoners to Australia. They didn’t have enough space for them where they should have been, and we got even more upset when we experienced that they arrived with new prisoners. Of course they also brought weapons with gunpowder! ======

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Without knowing that this was a dangerous powder, we began to attack those people who were ruining our beautiful land. It was our land. We had lived in Australia for about 40 million years. We had developed our own weapons, like the boomerang, but our weapons could not been compared to what they had managed to creat. Their gunpowder and tactics were too good. Actually the battles lasted for a long time, but we kept loosing lives and many Aborigines were arrested, especially from our tribe. They were sent to prisons in our neighbor state, New South Wales. The Gandangaras were divided now, and that has affected us for the last century in a very bad way. ======

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Our people were devastated for many years. Families were separated and many were badly injured. Luckily our healer had an everlasting power and strength, and by the forces of nature, our people recovered after some years. But still our entire people were injured in a way which never can be healed. ======

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Decades afterwards, Australia was not only a country for prisoners, and of course the Aborigines, but ordinary people from Britain settled down. This was the beginning of the 20th century. They began to build new towns on the eastern coast of Australia and they destroyed a lot of the forest and the nature which was an important part of our lives. ======

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Without any arguments s we decided to move our homes to a place where there was as much untouched nature as possible. We wanted to live in covenant with the nature and that is why we today live as far away from other people as possible. Then it is easier to take care of our traditions and the way we have lived the last thousand years. ======

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It is important to remember that this is not long ago, because this took place when my great grandfather was the chief of the Gandangaras. But something good also became the result of all these horrible events; it appeared even clearer to us what we already had learnt from our ancestors about what is most important in life and in all societies and in the world as well; to help, to care and take responsibility for each other. By living after these simple rules, we built up our new tribe, and managed to carry our traditions and culture to the next generations, just as we are doing now sitting around the fire. And to you children, I want you to show to others who we are and to let other people have a look into our society. They have something to learn from us. They can get a glimpse of our way of living, our traditions and culture, but they are never getting the opportunity to destroy our people and our life again. You should always be proud of who you are and your society”. ======