E. is for an email I sent my lecturer at university...

E.

Hello Sasha

Hope this finds you well and hope you are keeping safe.

I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate learning things connected to this course. I have been so ignorant in this subject matter until now as I knew so very little of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their history, culture, and problems arising from terra-nullius. I had zero knowledge of what the indigenous people of this land have gone through and what they are going through now. It is torturous reading about it, and I cannot imagine the pain they are going through now. 

How can we live with racism like this?

We all condemn Nazi Germany for that they did to the Jewish people - what is wrong with the Australian Government not wanting to acknowledge similar issues in this country?

Coming from Argentina and knowing what our people went through with the Military Governments in the past and bringing people to account for atrocities. I cannot believe the hypocrisy that exists today here in Australia.

I hope I am not venting too loudly - but I wish I could do more now, right now.

More importantly, however, I wanted to share with you a movie I watched tonight (after having watched last night on ABC TV the Adam Goodes story - mind-blowing... ...that 15-year-old-girl... ...wow). Tonight's movie was called:

In My Blood It Runs

https://beamafilm.com/watch/in-my-blood-it-runs

It is free to watch if you log-in with your local library card where you might live: 

Dujuan is an inquisitive ten-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa boy who speaks three languages, understands his Aboriginal culture, loves his country and the natural world and seems to have a happy future in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). At home, he is bright and contented, but problems begin at his mainstream school. His teachers are not trained to appreciate the students’ Indigenous knowledge, and the books that Dujuan must read/speak of an Australia that is not his at all. As he faces increasing scrutiny from welfare and police, his family battle to keep him safe, grounded in language, culture and identity – the only solution they know works.

Thank you for preparing me to understand. I have been getting so emotional and sentimental and it's been difficult to not get angry as I am not even close to knowing what it feels like. I have myself been at the wrong end of racism but not to the extent of the Indigenous people here. I am not sure if reconciliation is enough - and unless we have a treaty, things will not change. 

...Did you know that by 1770 the British already had 173 treaties in place with indigenous people in other parts of the world? I digress...

Anyhow, on with my assignments. Thank you for reading.

PS: when do we go back to zoom class again?

🙂

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