16 July

The interesting thing about the Mabo decision of the High Court in 1992 that hasn’t really sunk in widely in Australia, is that it reversed Cook’s claiming of Australia for the Brits. Imagine landing in a country and immediately claiming it as yours, before you’d even set foot in nearly all of it. Incredible cheek. What’s also less reported was that he was told to take possession, ‘with the consent of the natives’. That consent was never sought. All of the modern claims that we’re a European nation and everybody should conform to our way of living ignore that legally, it’s actually still Aboriginal land as well. Mabo puts back in place the ‘consent’ that we ourselves required at Cook’s time, but was never done. What Cook said of the Aborigines he met is very interesting: “The natives of New Holland, they may seem to be the most wretched people on Earth, but in fact they are the happiest people I have ever witnessed.” That happiness didn’t last long.