Michelle Berkon: Australia has a problem with truth-telling

Michelle Berkon discusses Australia has a problem with truth-telling.

In colonial settler projects the world over, language and law are the tools of white supremacism, glorifying the colonial entity, erasing Indigenous ownership of coveted land and property, and criminalising resistance.

The inscription on Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s statue in Hyde Park is a perfect example.

This man arrived on these shores with child slaves — two young boys purchased in India. He authored the Appin Massacre, the murder of 14 Dharawal and Gundungurra men, women and children.

He strung up on trees the corpses of two of these men, Cannabaygal and Dunnell; and had the skull of one sent to Scotland as a trophy.

This man is described as “a perfect gentleman, a Christian and supreme legislator of the human heart”.

Emphasis Mine

As we are witnessing the genocide in Palestine, the Western media is promoting the colonial-settler project in Israel by:

• downplaying the atrocities committed by the IDF;
• portraying Palestinian resistance as terrorism;
• downplaying the confiscation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers;
• denying the existence of Palestine.

No wonder the ruling class wants to protect statues as the statues justify the current status quo of a white supremist culture.