Letter to the editor: Indigenous – born or originating a country

IN response to Geoff Drummond 7/2/24. I am a fifth generation Australian with four generations born in Australia, so I classify myself as Indigenous.

I am sick and tired of people continually supporting and defending the rights of Indigenous people of Aboriginal ancestry.

I consider myself to have the same rights as the people you keep referring to.

No Australian should have any more rights than any other Australian citizen.

The Victorian Government want to introduce to Parliament Treaty and Truth Telling.

Is this not another back door and insult to Australians who voted overwhelmingly no at the recent referendum?

Why are the people of Australia and particularly parliamentarians being so weak in even going down any of these paths?

Why are Australians being made to feel guilty about something that happened years and years ago?

Australia will never advance in outlook until we all look to the future, stop whining about the past and get on with life.

When my forefathers came to South Australia from England, nothing was given to them, they had to travel by horse and cart from a swamp infested Port Misery in 1839 (now Port Adelaide).

They had to clear land by hand with no handouts from anyone to make the land viable.

They did not ask or expect help or handouts. From sheer hard work they made their land work for themselves and able to feed others.

I am proud to call myself an Indigenous Aussie of English ancestry. It should not matter what ancestral background we come from.

We are all Aussies and should be proud of it, no matter what colour, where we have come from or what religion.

Please stop dividing this beautiful country – please.

Tony Pethick, Gawler