The history of Melbourne and also indigenous history

What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

I am a proud Australian whom was fortunate enough to study Australian History in my final year of secondary school. I loved learning about the history of Melbourne, particularly from the 1850s onwards, the Gold rush and how Melbourne became one of the wealthiest cities in the world, with buildings of grandiose architecture.

The history of Melbourne was wonderful to study, but the indigenous history was only briefly mentioned and mostly overlooked. Our textbooks briefly said that Aboriginal Australians were Hunters and Gatherers and had been here for over 40,000 years. That was the only piece of Aboriginal history we learned.

Thank God when I got to go to university 🙏 I learned a bit more about Aboriginal history and the Dreamtime. Admittedly this was mainly in Children’s literature classes, where reading stories of the dreaming to children was becoming in vogue.

Most of my knowledge of Aboriginal history has come through watching the ABC , and also from my reading, particularly the book My Place by Sally Morgan. At university one of my closest friends was Aboriginal and I spent a fair amount of time with her in Melbourne University’s Koorie Unit. I also spent a lot of time observing how she was treated by others, and I am ashamed to say that at times she was given tokenistic support, or was downright discriminated against. I was enraged by how people could be nice to her in public, then treat her like a joke, when she wasn’t around.

I would like to learn more indigenous history and stories of the Dreaming. I would like to be better informed about the indigenous people of the land that is my home. Acquiring knowledge is how we begin to overcome racism.