The story of the granddaughter of a WWII Veteran in the British Airforce.

   The story of the granddaughter of a WWII Veteran in the British Airforce.

The daughter of a British migrant; a descendant of an early settler and an executed Scottish witch, famously touted as one of the first.

The granddaughter of a WWII Veteran in the British AirForce; a child in the Great Depression and, as an adult, kept her family safe and fed through some of the worst of WWII in East London.

 A man, also a veteran who, sadly, I did not know but who, I am told, had a brilliant mind to create, and invent, amazing things (some destructive); and a woman who bore and raised his five children, and a million cats.

I am the mother of six Australian-born children and the grandmother of Australian-born (mixed race....for want of a better word) grandbabies.

I am proud to be Australian and proud to represent Australia in the countries that I visit

I celebrate all that we are blessed to partake of living in such a beautiful country. 

I've lived in the desert; on an Island; by the ocean; in a rainforest. I have lived on my ow and I have lived communally. 

I have travelled to many foreign places and although I enjoy immersing myself in their culture, I always feel blessed to touch back down on Aussie soil.

But I do not celebrate a day that brings up pain and trauma for our First Nations brothers, sisters, Aunties, Uncles and grandparents. Ah, but didn't this all happen over 250+ years ago, you say? Well, yes but does is still happen? Also yes. 

I have personally sat with Indigenous elders (in my capacity working in aged care in indigenous communities) and I heard their stories of being rounded up, placed on "missions", had their culture Goded out of them, their language flogged out of them, sent out to work for nothing but stolen wages, given birth to babies borne of rape, many of whom were then stolen "for their own good". Then we sit back and defensively say, "Why rehash all this? Just let it go and let it be". 

But just as we understand generational trauma in our own families, and play our part in breaking the cycle, we must understand generational trauma on a much grander scale. 

If you take a child and tell them that everything about them is bad....their skin, their culture, their language and raise them with abuse and without love, how do we then expect them to have children and raise them with love and values, when all they learned of both was by example of missionaries or government officials? 

Yes, they learned how to cook and they learned how to clean and they learned how to cockey cows and mend fences but did they learn how to connect in healthy ways? 

I do believe though, that, on a personal level and a societal level, we are responsible to heal from trauma we did not create and that seems quite unfair but we can't heal and move on without doing the inner, and communal, work.

 Doesn't that healing come so much easier when we have support of those around us? Not hand outs, not enabling, not sympathy but a hand up, empowerment and empathy. 

Just change the bloody date so we all have a reason to celebrate this great nation. MAAAAAATE MAY

I Am Australian

Song by The Seekers

I came from the dream-time

From the dusty red-soil plains

I am the ancient heart

The keeper of the flame

I stood upon the rocky shores

I watched the tall ships come

For forty thousand years I've been the first Australian

I came upon the prison ship

Bowed down by iron chains

I fought the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains

I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife

On a dry and barren run

A convict, then a free man

I became Australian

I'm the daughter of a digger

Who sought the mother lode

The girl became a woman

On the long and dusty road

I'm a child of the Depression

I saw the good times come

I'm a bushie, I'm a battler

I am Australian

We are one, but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come

We'll share a dream and sing with one voice

"I am, you are, we are Australian"

I'm a teller of stories

I'm a singer of songs

I am Albert Namatjira

And I paint the ghostly gums

I'm Clancy on his horse

I'm Ned Kelly on the run

I'm the one who waltzed Matilda

I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert

I'm the black soil of the plains

I'm the mountains and the valleys

I'm the drought and flooding rains

I am the rock, I am the sky

The rivers when they run

The spirit of this great land

I am Australian

We are one, but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we comeWe'll share a dream and sing with one voice

"I am, you are, we are Australian"We are one, but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come We'll share a dream and sing with one voice

"I am, you are, we are Australian"I am, you are, we are Australian"

"I Am Australian" (or "We Are Australian") is a popular Australian song written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of the Seekers and Dobe Newton of the Bushwackers.