'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' - Part 2 : Apartheid, here we come
For some years now, we have been observing the increasing use of the term, First Peoples to collectively describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
AIASTSIS defines Australia’s First Peoples as,
‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples [who] are the first peoples of Australia, meaning they were here for thousands of years prior to colonisation’.
Politically inspired activists, as well as many of our institutions, are now more frequently using the term, First Nations. For example, the ABC Style Guide advises,
‘First Nations, Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander - All are acceptable collective references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and are interchangeable to an extent’.
A qualitative indication of the increasing use of the term, “First Nations”, in the context of discussing Aboriginal issues, is shown by the rapid rise of its use in published books, according to Googe Ngram in the Figure below. (nb: quantitative results are subject to caution)
The logical consequences of describing any group as, First Peoples or First Nations, is that, by definition, there must be at least a Second Peoples or a Second Nation. You can’t really have a first of anything unless there is also a second (and maybe a third or fourth as well), which then defines the primal position of the first. Or, in Post-modernist speak, you need an ‘other’ to define the primacy of the First.
Well, it didn’t take long for the logic of this to start dawning on some of the ‘foot-soldiers’ in the vanguard of the Progressive Left.
For example, a young intern writer for the on-line ‘newspaper’, The Echo of Byron Bay, appears to be one of the first, by referring to us, non-Aboriginal Australians as Second Peoples.
Philippa Clark is an Echo Publications intern who grew up on Bidjigal land and now lives on Wangal land - Source
Philippa Clark, in her Australia Day 2021 article, lays on the collective guilt and appeals to ‘us’ as,
‘Fellow Second Peoples, the work of justice and reconciliation is ours.
What will you do to promote justice? What is one thing you will do differently this year to promote justice and healing for First Peoples? Will you donate to support the families of those killed in custody, like David Dungay Jr?
Will you better inform yourself with a book like Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, which presents an astounding timeline of Indigenous culture, land management and enterprise that you were never taught in school?
…It is better to think in terms of responsibility, rather than fault. We Second Peoples have an advantage – in life expectancy, in education and healthcare outcomes, in our interactions with the police. That advantage exists because of the actions of those who came before in oppressing and discriminating against First Peoples…Without actively doing our bit to usher in justice for this land’s First Peoples, there can be no reconciliation and healing…’
The contents and logic of this short article by Ms Clark should be truely worrying to any Australian who values our great society and country. Ms Clark seems to be quite happy to accept the division of Australians into First Peoples (Aboriginal) and Second Peoples (non-Aboriginal people; that is, those of colonial settler, migrant or refugee heritage).
Does she not realise that this is the path to Apartheid and the politics of ‘Separateness’, so tragically enacted in South Africa with disaterous results?
Do we really want to ‘Balkanise’ our continent into First, Second, Third, or more, Nation states?
In Ms Clark’s world, if Aboriginal people are accorded First Nation status, then those descended from British settlers and migrants, arriving from 1788 onwards would presumably be of Second Nation status.
Logic would require then, that the Torres Strait Islanders, who only joined Australia (the Colony of Queensland) in 1879 would be accorded Third Nation status, after us Second peoples, the descendants of those British who arrived from 1788 onwards.
Under Ms Clark’s vision, are we doomed to become the UNA - the United Nations of Australia?
Ms Clark seems to be advocating for a ‘separateness’ which would see us Second Nation Australians strike out on our own and leave the First Nations people to develop as a separate polity and fend for themselves.
Is she is advocating the use of Bruce Pascoe’s, Dark Emu, which she says,
“presents an astounding timeline of Indigenous culture, land management and enterprise”,
as an operating manual for First Nations people to rediscover their past, ‘settled agricultural way of life’ with their, as Bruce Pascoe says, ‘democracy’ and ‘pan-continental government’?
The reason why Second Nations peoples were never taught in school about the ‘astounding’ Dark Emu story is because basically it is not true. Much better to educate oneself in real science, agronomy or history by reputable academics.
And does she really think all Aboriginal people would be happy to leave behind the material advancements provided to them by the Second Nations peoples and instead rely on a separate state run by First Nations politicians? We don’t think so.
Ms Clark will also need to explain to the Torres Strait Islanders that they are no longer First Peoples, but need to join the queue in third spot. Logically they cannot expect a say in The Voice to Parliament now, given that Second Nation peoples were clearly part of Australia before they joined in 1879. To our mind, Second Nation peoples are just as indigenous now to Australia as any Torres Strait Islanders, as Noel Pearson seems to agree when he says that, over time, all Australians, born of this land can be considered Indigenous - see here from 03:56.
To our mind, this is just one more example where Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu thesis is taken as gospel, and promoted by a young, seemingly intelligent, Australian, who might not (or maybe does not even want to) have thought through the political implications of dividing our Nation in Firsts and Seconds.
The Sorcerer drops his book and weaves his magic, again.
But will there be enough Australians of good-will and sense to hold strong, and clean up the mess that this Apprentice’s thinking is sure to make?
