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Black Armband History

November 10th 2006 06:40

John Howard: One of many who refer to a black arm band view of history

The term ‘Black Arm Band’ has been kicked around a fair bit over the years, but I imagine there’d be a good few people who aren’t entirely sure of it’s meaning. So, aren’t you glad I’m here to explain? No, no please, stop, I’m getting bashful.

Anyhow… It goes a little something like this. White people come to Australia. White people take land from Black people. Black people get cranky. White people don’t care. White people write history. History = White people came along, were attacked by savages who were treated well, when they weren’t having to shoot them, and took the land that they hadn’t done anything with and gave it gallantly to the Queen! Tally Ho!
So, what happens next? Oh yeah. TIME. It kind of passes.
So, what happens… people start to sort of figure out, oh hang on, the Aboriginals, they’re like… people. And everyone starts to work out that on around of early records being written by very biased white men, that there’s a chance that they’re not entirely accurate. So we all have a look back into the past and work out that, hmmm, it appears that there was also a lot of really, really BAD stuff done to Aboriginals. So, as it very desperately needed to be, these things were spoken about. On occasion, these things were blown out of proportion, although the proportion was already fairly incredible.

Then of course, some people didn’t like to hear these kinds of things. They can’t handle a version of Australia where their ancestors committed such atrocities. So they decide to destroy this new, horrific version of history with what they can: Words.
Read the newspapers. Critics of the government are ‘conspiracy theorists’. Snipers are ‘Sharpshooters’. And a version of history that suggests we have something to be ashamed of, is called Black Arm Band.

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Posted By: Brenton - Category: Politics

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

November 10th 2006 07:29

History is the happy hunting ground for an unscrupulas politician. For me what matter is the truth more than which side it supports.

Comment by spain01

November 10th 2006 08:33

Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.

Much of the recent debate has surrounded the works of Keith Windshuttle who maintains that reports of atrocities against aborigines have been exaggerated. No matter how it is dressed up, the actions of both settlers and Government authorities in their dealings with native people make unpleasant reading. The issue is whether the actions of our ancestors in relation to the native peoples should color the whole story. This is obviously what Howard means when he says black arm band. In other words no matter what great things were achieved in other areas, has it all been tainted by what was done to native peoples. The corollary is that no matter what they achieved our ancestors were basically bad people and should be judged solely in the light of what happened to native peoples. This can be argued until it is realized that all history every where and in every country should be judged in this light and all nations and all peoples (including native ones) are drenched in the blood of their victims. One can see this used as a nice justification for removing the discipline of history from all school curricula because history is basically the story of slaughter fest.

Comment by Jeneigh

November 13th 2006 13:41

What occured in history will always be a biased viewpoint and as such we can learn a lot about not only the actions but society's justifications of the time. We can judge all sides to every arguement from the sanctity of hindsight and distance. Perhaps a more profitable action would be to question more closely how our actions and words will be viewed as the historical viewpoint of the future.
As always a thought provoking post - keep writing! Many can write to use up ink, few can write to make others think!

Comment by Wendi

November 21st 2006 18:06

I don't know much about Australian history, but it doesn't sound too far off from America's history with natives. And I'm sure the "We came, we conquered" history isn't limited to these two countries - it seems to be the way of mankind to "discover" a land, kill what's on it, claim it as their own, and then destroy it slowly with no regard for consequence.