There have been sixty-one monarchs of England and Britain, some twelve hundred years of pomp and pageantry. And yet, all of it pales compared to Australia’s first people. A genetic study by the University of Copenhagen confirms Aboriginal Australians as having the oldest continuous culture on the planet.
Australia’s ancient past took a decisive turn when Lieutenant James Cook sent two longboats ashore on the afternoon of the 29th of April 1770. A sign now cemented in that spot declares, “Welcome to Kurnell, the Birthplace of Modern Australia”.
Cook had specific instructions: ‘with the consent of the Natives,’ take possession of territories. The Earl of Morton warned, ‘They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several regions they inhabit. No European Nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent. Conquest over such people can give no justice.’
Sydney Parkinson employed as an artist on the Endeavour noted in his journal that the local men yelled, “Warra warra wai.” He interpreted the words to mean, “go away”. In Dharawal culture, the words carry a more significant meaning. Those on shore on that day believed the ship was a low cloud, and the pale-faced northerners were ghosts.
A mere four months later, Cook declared the east coast of this terra nullius an empty land and a British possession.
However, there was one glaring problem with that proclamation: to borrow the words from Solid Rock by Goanna, ‘someone lied’.
Elder (the late) Aunty Beryl Timbery Beller said of that day, “… they were so ignorant they thought there was only one race on the earth and that was the white race. So, when Captain Cook first came, when Lieutenant James Cook first set foot on Wangal land over at Kundul, which is now called Kurnell, he said, oh, let’s put a flag up somewhere because these people are illiterate; they’ve got no fences.”
In 1992, the High Court in the Mabo vs Queensland (No. 2) ruled the lands of the continent were not terra nullius at the time of settlement.
This sentiment that indigenous knowledge and culture were inferior to the British was clear in a speech by NSW Premier Robert Askin. On the bicentenary of Cook’s landing, the premier said, “The Aborigines made some resistance and suffered from their contact with our culture. We are now trying to restore what they inevitably lost from moving out of the Stone Age and into the machine age.”
Southerland Shire acknowledged the term ‘Birthplace of the Nation’ offended Aboriginal Australians. In 2000, the council changed to a new title, “Meeting of Two Cultures”.
Since then, there has been a growing recognition among Australians that the sovereignty of the Indigenous country was never ceded to the British and the scars of colonial occupation are still raw today.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “This nation didn’t begin in 1788. It goes back some 65,000 years at least. It should be a source of great national pride. We live and share this continent with the oldest continuous civilization and culture on Earth.”
Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Sovereign of fourteen realms (of which Australia is one) for seventy, of the two-hundred and thirty-four years of colonial history, there is a call for change.
Greens Senator Marheen Faruqi Tweeted on the news of the Queen’s death, “… could not mourn the leader of a racist empire built on the stolen lives, land, and wealth of colonised peoples.”
The abuse of first Australians by governors Phillip, Macquarie, and Brisbane is well documented. Since 1993, a growing awareness throughout the Australian population of Indigenous land rights has created a re-think of reconciliation for the traditional land owners.
Whether James Cook is or isn’t to blame is argued among historians. Should Cook have documented the new land, as did Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, or Dirk Hartog in 1616, and sailed on? If Europeans stayed away from settling the continent until the mid-eighteen hundred when Pacini, Pasteur, and Koch discovered ‘the germ theory of diseases’, thousands of indigenous people may have survived—but the past is set and not stuff for speculation.
Worimi man John Maynard, professor of history at Newcastle University, wrote, “Whether he deserves this monster mantle is open to conjecture and challenge from wide non-indigenous Australia, but from an Aboriginal perspective, Cook remains the scapegoat for white invasion.”
If Australia was to become a republic, would it change in any significant way the character and nature of the land and its people? There can be no denying a dark part, just as there can be no denying a heroic background throughout the minuscule European epoch. In 1930, the Scullin government drew a line in the sand for independence from the monarchy when it defied the wishes of King George V by appointing Australian-born Sir Isaac Isaacs as the governor-general.
There are many in Australia who want to change the system of government from a constitutional parliamentary monarchy to a republic. A president would replace King Charles III. Many would argue that Australian Prime Ministers of recent years are already presidential.
This urgency for change to a republic is to insure “our future more than ever will be in Australian hands.” Such an argument assumes Australia is not an independent nation when clearly it is. Sentiment and an acknowledgment of our short European settlement link us to the British Crown. If the nation was to no longer recognise such, would it be for the better?
The King appoints the Governor-General on the advice of the prime minister of the day. He or she is the Sovereign’s representative and is effectively head of the state of Australia while holding that office. Once appointed, the King steps back from the day-to-day running of the business, leaving it to the Governor-General. While the Governor-General does have executive power, these powers are exercised only on the advice of the prime minister and ministers charged with governing the country.
In 1933, William Cooper, an elder of the Yorta Yorta people, drew up a petition to King George V. It said Aboriginal people should have a say in the laws affecting them in the Commonwealth Parliament. Cooper’s grandson passed the same petition onto Queen Elizabeth II.
Indigenous senator Pat Dobson said in an ABC documentary, “We really can’t sever our ties with Britain until there’s some restitution, some acknowledgment of how we’ve become dispossessed.”
A treaty as defined by dfat.gov.au is an international agreement between (States or organisations) and is governed by international law giving rise to legal rights and obligations. Before Australia can become a republic, the Executive power of the monarch of Australia should declare a treaty with indigenous people and have their voice recognised in parliament.
Australia would then be truly independent, not only in the day-to-day business but also in spirit.
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