Eve Fest's critique of British colonialism and Australian complicity

Racism

pp 1-7, 72-75.

In the section from her larger work "Conned," the Australian Eve Fest writes in challenging, angry language that Australians and other members of England's former colonial empires have been 'conned' into accepting the historical lie about excellence of British manners, more, and language. In fact, against the indigenous people of the world, in all of formerly British colonial territories, such as Australia, the British were complicit in genocidal practices, which the White population of Australia was tacitly complicit in promoting and continuing to promote.

Fest proudly calls herself a "Kiwi." She calls for a new understanding and acknowledgement of the Australian past, and an acceptance that the nation was not simply founded by the toil of former British convicts, but also sadly with genocidal practices inspired by the Social Darwinian ideology of the British Empire's regime. Fest notes that Australians despite their current independence have been too acquiescent of the British schema of the 'truth' of past historical narratives. Although the Australians may have been willing to critique British oppression, they must be equally willing to accept that native peoples were often eradicated, as white settlements took hold across the developing island.

Australians must acknowledge their difficult position in the former British Empire. True, many of the convicts did not want to go to Australia and thus the white population existed as essentially forced encroachers upon non-white territories. (2) But this does not mean they should exculpate themselves from the blame and the past, racist ideology of inferiority wielded by the British against native populations such as the Koories. Such populations were excoriated as non-whites. They were cast as inferiors worthy of subordination with the then-popular Victorian ideology of Social Darwinism. This supposed, but false misunderstanding of Darwinian science justified the survival of the fittest, of the dominant or white population over the non-white, indigenous peoples as a mirror of the waging for land and food in the animal kingdom.