Myth of Terra Nullius

From: The Northern Sydney Region Reconciliation Network

Dear Everyone,

At the July 03 meeting of the Northern Sydney Region Reconciliation Network (NSRRN), these two documents (each of 1 page) were discussed.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous members at the meeting approved, in accordance with NSRRN Aims & Objectives, their distribution as important educational resources towards the process of Reconciliation.

Attachment 1: 'Entering Country' : with consent - by respecting correct Aboriginal protocols.

Attachment 2: 'Entering Country' : without consent - by invasion and the Myth of Terra Nullius.

Aboriginal people resisted the invasion. No Aboriginal nation gave consent for the invasion of its country, sovereignty was never ceded and no treaty nor agreement was enacted.

In the following extract from his book 'Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place', author Mark McKenna writes -

"Reconciliation can never be achieved until the silences and denial in our history come to an end ....

... In 'Sacred Places', Ken Inglis remarked that the 'monuments missing from the landscape can be as significant as those erected'.

Inglis drew attention to the fact that throughout Australia, Aboriginal people are 'nowhere commemorated by the monumental form most attractive to Europeans in the nineteenth century' - the war memorial. In south-eastern NSW the story is the same ....

But missing from the memorials and cenotaphs is any mention of the Indigenous dead, those Aboriginal men and women who lost their lives defending their land, their people and their way of life. Remembering these fallen Australians in the form of a monument or special place is essential if history is to be a bridge to shared cultural understanding."

With Regards,

Kerrie McKenzie
Co-Chairperson

For more details, please contact:

Kerrie McKenzie
P.O. Box 41
Berowra NSW 2081
Phone / Fax: 02 9428 1197
E-mail: kerriemckenzie@bigpond.com