Happy Australia Day!

I'm back. ...and I'm not sure what happened to the last 2 and a half months either. Someone said that when you have something good enough to blog about, you're usually too busy doing it to write about it. That's my excuse too. Nevertheless, I'm here now and it has been a good holiday. If I can find the photos and stories to prove it, I will.

So today is my first post for a while; and it's going to be plagiarised. I love the way Andrew G puts thoughts into words so I'm stealing his Australia Day rant from his 365 photos in 365 days (a brilliant set of self-portraits, one taken every day for a year. Worth checking out).



"26th of January 1788 was the day that the British claimed Australia "By power of flag" (Thanks Eddie Izzard).
They also conveniently claimed the land was "Terra Nullis", meaning that as far as they were concerned, no-one lived there.

This was certainly news to the Aboriginal people, the oldest continuous culture on Earth, who at the time numbered nearly a million in population, with almost a thousand different dialects of spoken language and a rich and incredible spiritual connection with the land.

They never had a chance.
Still to this day, it's somewhat the case sadly.

I am an Australian, though I was not born there. I indeed am an immigrant - which unless you have any Aboriginal ancestry, you are too - and I'm equally proud of my country and ashamed of what happened and is still happening to this incredible culture of people.

Australia is a nation of immigrants, and that's about it.
Any kind of anger towards immigrants in Australia is nothing short of hypocritical.

Unfortunately in recent years the line between patriotism and jingoism has been blurred, with people expecting society to excuse anti-immigrant, anti-white, racist and anti-social acts under the guise of "It's Un-Australian" to speak up or deride their actions.

Fuck that, and fuck those small minded yobbos.
Read a book, learn some history, show some compassion.

We share a country that has succeeded over adversity, and was built by people from all over the world, and are ultimately visitors ourselves on land that was stolen from another society. All of these things built Australia as it is today, and should be remembered on this day.

So enjoy your day, have fun..
Share it with friends, and all of your fellow Australians..

I am rather homesick today, can you tell?

So here's a photo of a proud Australian immigrant in a pair of Chinese Jeans, enjoying a Dutch beer in an American Sunset snapped by a Japanese Camera, lit by Swedish flashes.

Happy Australia day."

I wish I could have said it that well...