A little Australian history here, condensed version
I sent off some emails to the consulate/ embassies in the region here on Sunday, as yet I have received no reply. They may have tried to ph me as I included my address, name and ph number, but I do not answer private numbers when displayed (it is another story why I do not answer private numbers). I will follow up with a phone call at the end of the week to the consulates if I receive no written reply.
Back to a little history....Australia has and had an indigenous population before white settlement, way before. European settlers treated them very badly, and still do in many areas today. English settlement in Australia was initially a Penal colony, convicts not wanted in the homeland. In those days stealing a loaf of bread put you on a ship to Australia. The English and Captain Cook did not discover Australia as far as Europeans go, the Dutch did, they landed on the west coast. Dirk Hartog placed a puta plaque on a timber post in 1616 but there was never any follow up to settlement.
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Moving on, the convicts were basically used as free labour to establish British colonies....it is perhaps why we have a peculiar attitude that other countries find difficult to understand when it comes to humour, considering it was only in the late 1700's, 1787 when the first penal colony started in Sydney. So Europeans have only been here just on 230 years. Australia has a dark past as well when it comes to using slave labour, near on slave labour. In the latter part of the 1800's we, by this I am saying they back then used Polynesian Pacific Islanders on the sugar cane farms in Queensland, known then as 'Kanakas'. A very derogatory word, part of a shameful history in the creation of the sugar industry here. I remember being taught this in Primary school, how these young men and their families were by various means forced into near slave condition contracts. We owe them so much for the wealth and beginnings of the first industries to this country.
We had in this nation a White Australia Policy. A disgusting piece of legislation that lasted into the early 50's and 60's.
During the Early years of settlement, the Indigenous population suffered horribly at the hands of early settlers. There were many massacres, and deaths by disease from European settlers which they were not immune.
I will have to leave Australian history here, as 230 years is difficult to condense. The word Orient, Oriental. As I mentioned earlier Dirk Hartog. The Europeans ran trade routes through Indonesia, Malaysia. Know by different names back then. The Orient became known as the Orient because it was the Gateway to Asia, for all the goods, silks, spices etc to be shipped to Europe. Dutch East India. Way before Australia became a European settlement. if you came from this Gateway region to Asia and the world you became Oriental. "From the East". Same meaning as Asia, they are all European words.
During the early years of European settlement in Australia, Chinese, Malayans, Philippine, Thai...Southeast Asians.. peoples travelled freely between Australia and their homelands due to their close proximity. Many country towns in Australia celebrate Chinese Luna New Year because of our neighbours countries involvement in our early settlement.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/02/12/australian-country-town-honours-its-chinese-heritage
Yes, I may criticise China in my posts these days, but the government there these days has an expansionist policy and attitude which is endangering our neighbours and world peace.
Will leave it here for the moment, please do not be to harsh or critical of my post, I am not one for long winded ones.
Thanks.
We were always taught the Orient was the gateway to Asia, it was never meant as a derogatory term here. It was a special term, not a derogatory one. I have read some on US history of Asian settlers, they were not treated very well in your colonial times. In some instances, not here either, plus, they were a long way from home.
We have many brainless morons here as well who use derogatory terms for many races, just like in every country of the world. There is not a country on this planet that does not harbour cockheads, male and female.
Yet, no-one possess a super power to change their thoughts. Yet, there are those who inadvertently stray into unknown territory that can take on board a bit of education and learn from others..
