Missed reflection

I can't believe I forgot to post about the video we watched of Kevin Rudd's apology to indigenous Australia

My daughter is a direct descendant to the first half caste child born in Tasmania, Dolly Dalrymple. "Dolly is a Tasmanian icon who fought off marauding natives and for six hours her fighting spirit never flagged, not even when they tried to burn her out of her shack."

Mannalargenna Chief of the Ben Lomond tribe (1770)

His daughter Woretermoeteyenner (Bung) lived with a sealer George Briggs and was banished from her tribe

Her daughter Dolly (1808) was 'stolen' and taken to live with Dr Dalrymple

Dolly married Thomas Johnson

and their son, Alfred Johnson (1847) married Amelia Wells

Their daughter Florence (1875) married Herbert Rogers

and their daughter Lilian (1906) married Arthur Scurry

Their daughter Patricia  is my mother in law, I married her son Anthony and we have a daughter Claire 

So Claire is 8th Generation, that is seven generations of the Government policy of "'breeding out the colour' of Indigenous Australians to 'improve' the population."

Dr Cecil Evelyn Cook, dazzlingly qualified as an anthropologist, biologist, bacteriologist, chief medical officer and "chief protector" of Aborigines in North Australia, who pronounced there was no "throwback" to the black once enough white blood was bred in. "Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will be quickly eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white," he said.

The main thing I took from the Sorry video were the words of Nanna Fejo a great-grandmother that was stolen as a four year old in 1932 from Tennant Creek.  Kevin Rudd said, 'I asked Nanna Fejo what she would have me say today about her story. She thought for a few moments then said that what I should say today was that all mothers are important. And she added: ‘Families—keeping them together is very important. It’s a good thing that you are surrounded by love and that love is passed down the generations. That’s what gives you happiness.’

White families also had their children stolen, they call those children The Forgotten Generation, but that is another story.

Reflection - Week 3 4 5 & 6

14/3 Week 3 - I did my class presentation on an online website. I chose the Quakers in Australia, mainly because I had no idea they were active in Australia. It went well, the purpose of the activity is to show that you can use websites to source information and resources. I also like the Quakers philosophy especially this bit "Quakers believe that there is 'that of God' in everyone and that all people have the same privileges and responsibilities regardless of race, age, creed, general or sexual orientation. We value all people and affirm the power and joy of all truly loving relationships."

In our first assignment, we had to choose a federal issue and I chose Detention of Refugees. I am in a group with five other ladies, one is from Ethiopia and another from Iraq. I chose that topic as when I was working at Orica, my team 'buddy' was one of the 1970s Vietnamese Boat people and his story was sad, but inspiring.

These ladies are go-getters and by the end of the class, we had already contacted an organisation, Refugee Action Victoria and organised to join them on their rally on Easter Monday, leaving from Hungry Jacks Campbellfield and walking to the detention center at the old army camp in Broadmeadows.

We did workbook activities on the constitution and the structure of Government in Australia and electoral systems and the homework was the voting system in Australia.

One of our classmates did his individual assessment on Sri Lanka, he is active in the Sri Lankan community, the video he presented made me want to go to the travel agent and book a trip there.

21/3 Week 4 -We went over voting homework from last week, I did ok with the questions I answered, I got three wrong and left one blank. I prefer to do it that way, to see how much I really do know, rather than look up the answers and fill them in.


28/3 Week 5 - We visited Parliament House. I think I sat in the same position in the 'Strangers Gallery' that I sat in when we went there on an excursion in Primary school. The gold leaf and decorations were as beautiful as I remembered and I saw the mace that replaced the one that went  missing in 1891, which was alleged to have been used in a mock Parliamentary session at Boccaccio House a rival to the famous Madame Brussell's brothel. It is thought that it was melted down by 'persons unknown' for the value of the silver.

The two politicians we spoke to were easy going and naturally confident. They were passionate about their job, I couldn't imagine having that much responsibility.

18/4 Week 6 - We reviewed the visit to Parliament house and then had a mini open book test. I read through the questions and panicked, I couldn't answer any of them. Then I took a deep breath and went back over my first assignment and some book work and managed to answer most of them and only got a couple wrong.

Then we had a few more individual presentations - one young woman works with a group that rescues child sex slaves from the Philippines and places them in safe houses, a very dangerous and risky activity.

Another one was on the Footscray Refugee Resource Center, it was originally started by Diploma students in the West. It is a flat level organisation and funded by donations and philanthropists and works out of a shop front in Footscray.
http://www.asrc.org.au/the-centre/about-centre

We talked about ANZAC day, wars and the Government. Our teacher talked about his experience during the Vietnam War conscription (The Vietnamese call it The American War) and I remembered a story about one of my workmates. I was looking at the announcement of his 20 years of service and saw a notation that it was 'broken service', I asked if he had left the company and then returned. Someone answered, 'well not exactly' and then explained that he was a Conscientious Objector and had 'disappeared' during the ballot. I didn't ask if they meant jail, which was the penalty for resisting the draft.

High Tea at the Windsor

 Andrea the birthday girl with Mark

 Me and Jacques, we have been friends with Andrea since 1976

High tea at the Windsor was fun, I was expecting a dainty amount of afternoon tea, but it was laid on till we were groaning like this poor possum that broke into a bakery.