A Response to 'Australia A History: How an ancient land became a great democracy'
Well, mob, gather 'round. We need to have a yarn about what happens when self-proclaimed "allies" of First Nations peoples write history books without consulting us, listening to us, or apparently reading anything we've written. Tony Abbott's new book is a masterclass in colonial nostalgia dressed up as balanced history, and it's time we unpacked this properly.
The Three Pillars That Conveniently Forget 65,000 Years
Abbott opens with his "three pillars" of modern Australia: "Indigenous heritage, the British Foundation and the immigrant character." How generous of him to include us as a pillar! Though he's quick to remind us we're "less than 4% of the population", as if genocide, stolen generations, and systematic attempts to "breed us out" had nothing to do with those numbers.
Let's be clear: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples don't represent a "heritage", we're not museum pieces or archaeological footnotes. We are living, breathing cultures that have survived and continue to thrive despite 236 years of colonisation. Our connection to Country spans at least 65,000 years of continuous culture, the oldest living culture on Earth. That's not a "pillar" supporting someone else's nation; that's the foundation upon which everything else sits, whether colonisers acknowledge it or not.
The Myth of the Benevolent British Foundation
Abbott waxes lyrical about the British bringing "the rule of law," "concepts of equality," and "scientific progress" in 1788. This is where his blind spots become gaping chasms.
The "rule of law" he celebrates? It declared our lands terra nullius, empty land, denying our very existence as sovereign peoples with our own complex legal systems. The Mabo decision in 1992 finally overturned this legal fiction, but Abbott conveniently glosses over the 204 years it took for Australian law to acknowledge what we'd been saying all along: we were here, we had laws, we had sovereignty.
As for "equality"? The same British system classified us as flora and fauna in practice (despite Abbott's protestation that no such act existed, the practical effect was the same when we weren't counted in the census until 1967 and needed permission to move, marry, or raise our own children). The Constitution, drafted in the 1890s that Abbott so admires, explicitly excluded Aboriginal people from being counted as citizens.
The Mile Creek Massacre: When Justice is the Exception, Not the Rule
Abbott spends considerable time on the Mile Creek Massacre of 1838, where yes, seven white men were eventually hanged for murdering up to 30 Aboriginal people. He presents this as evidence of British justice at work. But here's what he doesn't tell you: this was the ONLY time in Australian history that white people were executed for murdering Aboriginal people.
One instance of justice in hundreds of documented massacres doesn't prove the system worked, it proves it systematically failed. Conservative estimates suggest at least 270 frontier massacres occurred across Australia, with recent research from the University of Newcastle's Colonial Frontier Massacres project documenting systematic violence that killed thousands of Aboriginal people. Where was British justice for Appin (1816)? Bathurst (1824)? Myall Creek wasn't even the last, massacres continued into the 1920s and 30s.
The Convenient Myth of Cooperation Over Conflict
Abbott emphasises stories of Aboriginal guides helping explorers and Aboriginal workers on pastoral stations, painting a picture of partnership rather than exploitation. This narrative conveniently ignores that many of these "partnerships" were forced labour, that Aboriginal stockmen were often paid in rations, not wages (a practice that continued into the 1960s), and that the Stolen Generations were often "employed" as domestic servants, a euphemism for slavery.
Yes, there were Aboriginal people who worked within the colonial system, because survival often demanded it. When your choice is cooperation or starvation, when your children can be taken if you're deemed "not assimilated enough," when you need permission from a "Protector" to leave the mission, that's not partnership, that's coercion.
The Academic Culture Wars: Why Bruce Pascoe Threatens the Colonial Narrative
The vitriolic response to Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu" reveals exactly why works like Abbott's are so dangerous. Pascoe's crime? Using colonists' own journals and records to demonstrate that Aboriginal peoples had complex agriculture, aquaculture, housing, and land management systems. The fury this generated from certain historians and commentators’ shows how deeply invested some Australians remain in the myth of the "primitive nomad", because acknowledging our sophistication undermines the entire moral justification for colonisation.
Abbott's book continues this tradition, subtly reinforcing the narrative that colonisation was ultimately beneficial, that British civilisation "improved" our lives. This isn't just historical revisionism, it's an active tool in ongoing colonisation, used to justify everything from the Intervention to the rejection of the Voice referendum.
Wilberforce, Macquarie, and the Selective Memory of "Good" Colonisers
Abbott makes much of Wilberforce's anti-slavery stance and Macquarie's egalitarian ideals. But here's the thing about being anti-slavery while simultaneously dispossessing Indigenous peoples of their lands: it's not the moral high ground you think it is.
Macquarie, whom Abbott praises, also issued proclamations that led to the Appin Massacre. He may have established a Native School at Parramatta, but it was designed to "civilise" Aboriginal children by removing them from their families and culture, the prototype for the Stolen Generations. The feast he held for Aboriginal people? It was on the anniversary of the colony's founding, our day of mourning.
This selective storytelling, highlighting acts of individual kindness while ignoring systematic oppression, is exactly the kind of "allyship" that maintains colonial structures while claiming moral superiority.
The Judeo-Christian Foundation Myth
Abbott claims Australia's "foundational ethos remains Judeo-Christian." This casually erases 65,000 years of Aboriginal spirituality and our continuing connection to Country. Our spiritual beliefs aren't "heritage" to be acknowledged in passing, they're living practices that continue despite attempts to ban them, punish them, and "civilise" them out of existence.
The irony of claiming Christian values while presiding over genocide, child removal, and land theft seems lost on Abbott. Perhaps he should revisit "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not kill" before celebrating Christianity's role in Australian history.
"Less Than 4%" – The Mathematics of Genocide
When Abbott notes we're "less than 4% of the population," he presents it as a neutral fact, not the result of deliberate policies. Let's be explicit about how we became "less than 4%":
- Frontier violence: Thousands killed in massacres and reprisals
- Disease: Deliberately spread in some cases (smallpox blankets are documented)
- Stolen Generations: Children removed to "breed out the colour"
- Policies of "protection": Concentration on reserves, control of movement, marriages, and employment
- Ongoing impacts: Youth suicide, incarceration rates, health disparities, all direct results of colonisation's trauma
We're not a small percentage by accident or natural decline. Every policy from 1788 to well into the 20th century was designed to eliminate us, assimilate us, or breed us out.
The Real History They Don't Want You to Know
Here's what Abbott's "balanced" history omits:
- The genocide in Tasmania, where an entire population was systematically eliminated
- The Queensland Native Police, who killed thousands of Aboriginal people between 1848-1905
- The Coniston Massacre (1928), the last documented mass killing
- The Wave Hill Walk-Off (1966), where Aboriginal stockmen demanded equal wages and land rights
- The Tent Embassy (1972), our ongoing sovereignty claim
- Deaths in custody, where over 500 Aboriginal people have died since the Royal Commission
- The Intervention (2007), where Abbott's government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act to control Aboriginal communities
Moving Forward: What Real Allyship Looks Like
If Tony Abbott genuinely wants to be an ally to First Nations peoples, here's what he needs to do:
- Listen to Aboriginal voices – not speak for us or about us without us
- Read Aboriginal historians – Marcia Langton, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Tony Birch, Chelsea Watego
- Acknowledge the truth – colonisation was invasion, survival is resistance
- Support sovereignty – treaty, truth-telling, and voice
- Challenge other non-Indigenous people – use your privilege to educate your own mob
The Blurring of Lines: A Deliberate Tactic
This attempt to present "both sides" of colonisation as equally valid, as if genocide has another side, is a deliberate tactic to create confusion and division. It's the same strategy used against climate science, public health measures, and any inconvenient truth that challenges power structures.
When media and historians blur the lines between documented massacre and "disputed encounters," between slavery and "employment," between child theft and "protection," they're not being balanced, they're actively maintaining colonial power structures.
Why This Matters Now
Abbott's book isn't just bad history, it's dangerous propaganda appearing at a crucial moment. After the Voice referendum's defeat, after the Black Lives Matter movement, after mounting calls for treaty and truth-telling, this revisionist history serves to reassure non-Indigenous Australians that colonisation wasn't that bad, that British civilisation was a gift, that Aboriginal peoples should be grateful.
This is what happens when "allies" haven't done the work of unlearning colonisation. They become tools of its continuation, wrapping ongoing dispossession in academic language and selective facts.
To our non-Indigenous readers: Australia's real history includes genocide, theft, and systematic oppression that continues today. That's not opinion, that's documented fact. Until we collectively face this truth, reconciliation remains impossible.
To our mob: Keep telling our truths. Keep surviving. Keep thriving. Our existence is resistance, and no amount of revisionist history can erase 65,000 years of continuous culture.
The real question isn't whether Australia is a "lucky country", it's whether it's finally ready to be an honest one.
For those wanting to read actual Aboriginal perspectives on Australian history, I recommend:
And please, visit the Colonial Frontier Massacres map at the University of Newcastle to understand the true scale of frontier violence.
About this response: This article responds to Tony Abbott's recent interview about his book "Australia A History." As educators and First Nations peoples, we have a responsibility to counter historical revisionism with truth-telling. This isn't about division, it's about accuracy, justice, and the possibility of genuine reconciliation based on truth, not comfortable lies.
