Digital Story on Turrbal Nation people of Meanjin

Hello and welcome. To begin, I would first like to acknowledge First Nations people as the original inhabitants or as Traditional Owners of the land we are on today. I acknowledge all Elders past and present.
I live in Albion which is a northern suburb in Brisbane. I have been living in Australia for the last 3 and a half years, initially in Gold Coast and now, Brisbane. In my time living here, I have come across some First Nations people’s art, culture and history either though art galleries, cultural festivals, sign boards, information panels, news and social media. Once on a trip to Cairns, I had an opportunity to attend UMI Arts Big Talk One Fire Indigenous Cultural Festival which was informative and the only place where I saw a big community of First Nations people where their history and cultures were being celebrated. I thought I knew enough about the history of First Nations people but I realized I was significantly uninformed once I started this course. I had never consciously gone around looking to see if First Nations people’s cultures and values were reflected in my environment. However, this time as I stepped out in a conscious effort to see how visible First Nations people’s cultures and viewpoints were and if they were valued where I live, I was shocked to see that the suburb I live in currently, which is Albion, has absolutely no acknowledgement of First Nations people’s cultures, viewpoints and country. Turrbal Nation people are the traditional land owners of Meanjin, which is present day Brisbane. Albion is painted as a historic suburb with multiple heritage listed sites and buildings which are 100-130 years old. The Albion Hotel, Breakfast Creek Hotel and Albion Park Racecourse are heritage- listed sites which were built by white European settlers from 1850’s onwards. There is also an Amble About Albion heritage trail on the Brisbane City Council website. But no information about Turrbal Nation that acknowledges them as the traditional land owners. This is ironic because Breakfast Creek used to be an open campsite site of First Nations people before the 1800’s when the white European settlers came to Albion. Open camp sites are places used by First Nations people out in the open, rather than in a rock shelter. Open camp sites were used over many generations and were close to useful resources such as fresh water or fish. The settlers sought the best site for a Moreton Bay colony, the future Brisbane. They favoured ‘Breakfast Creek’. They promoted Breakfast Creek because there were numerous First Nations people in this area. These settlers viewed their villages as indicative of rich land. Violent police raid took place here since 1861, in which the camps were burnt to the ground. The camps were destroyed by settlers and police at least seven times, but were continually rebuilt. At least one camp was still active into the 1890s, and First Nations residents lived close by in hostels as late as 1910–14. Police regularly chased First Nations people across the creek each sundown. These camps were vital to Brisbane’s supply of fish. Regardless, of such a vast brutal history, the only glorified history is of the establishment of European colonies and the establishment of the heritage listed buildings and racecourse. There is graffiti artwork all over Albion but none of them acknowledge First Nations people’s cultures and even the artists are not First Nations people. Of the total population of 2,296 people living in Albion, only 1.2% are First Nations people. I think that ignorance, lack of initiative to learn and in general people not caring about issues that don’t directly affect them are some of the main reasons for the lack of representation and acknowledgement of First Nations people. Another thing I have noticed, is that often people only care about representation when there is a quota to be filled but not out of genuine care for equality. Coming from India, which has 200 years of colonisation history, I personally understand the socio economic and political ramifications but at the very least we got to keep our land, cultures and values unlike First Nations people whose lands were stolen, cultures and values were destroyed and are now reduced to a minority.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I want us to work together to change current practices to ensure that First Nations people get the respect, opportunities and acknowledgement that they rightfully deserve and I hope that we continue to strive for equality for generations to come. Thank you for watching.