Australia, history has its eyes on you
Susanne Newton
Senior Communications Advisor at St Vincent de Paul Victoria | Former Darebin City Council Mayor | Birth for Humankind Board Director | Mentor for women in politics
My ancestor Anne Forbes first stepped foot on this land in 1788.
With convicts and so-called ‘early settlers’ on both sides of my family, such as the ‘first white child born in Casterton’, there is no doubt in my mind my ancestors must have played a role in the atrocities that befell the people that were already here.
Our 235 years here is the tiniest speck in the history of this land and its people. Yet this short period has included dispossession and genocide, and unequal treatment of First Nations people that persists until this day.
I can’t change the past, but I know my being here now, in 2023, living on Wurundjeri land, means that at least some of the privilege I have is based on some very uncomfortable truths about our collective past.
On Saturday, Australians have a choice.
We can take the first step towards walking together into a shared future.
We can say it’s absolutely not ok that in this country in 2023 on average someone will have eight years less with a treasured First Nations relative than I will with mine. Let’s work together to change that.
We can say, I hear you, and I respect you.
We can say I’m sorry.
History has its eyes on us.
When our children and grandchildren ask us about what happened in 2023, we can say we took a step in the right direction to right the wrongs of the past.
All it takes is enough of us to take our pencils and write three simple letters. YES.
*views my own and not those of Darebin Council