Of course, Australians refuse to visit the fount of civilisation, because it questions every myth we make about ourselves. For the world's oldest town, and oldest by many thousands of years, is found in western New South Wales. That the Australians invented bread and society.

That the Aztec and Mayan were as wealthy as any other nation on earth. Didn't matter that the First Nation people of the Pueblo had advanced cities. It didn't matter that the First Nation people of Vancouver built two-storey houses. The European brain was so intrigued by its own superiority that it rendered every civilisation they encountered as savages. That the Chinese visited many of those continents before the Europeans but chose to socialise and trade with the inhabitants rather than murder them and steal from them, is another story and another psychology.

Taking the land from people as the spoils of religious wars, made more efficient and lethal by the creation of great ships, allowed the Europeans to extend their influence to all continents. Preferring to express horror at the inadequacy of the Indigenous population and the need to control the destiny and band-aid the wounds, and if a crisis in health and education is perceived, it is better to send in the army than teachers and doctors. Our country has never really investigated the colonial legacy. It still has a Raj mentality and a vindictive adherence to colonial myth. There is nothing post-colonial about Australia. Some went so far as to say child abuse was one of our cultural traits. Her fellow ministers and advisors weighed in with the opinion that Aboriginal culture was flawed, because we hadn't invented the wheel, or done anything useful with the land. The Deputy Prime Minister of this country in the year 2017 said Aboriginal children should not be taught their own culture and language, because it would retard them. And I'd also like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Bunurong people and the land itself.

Bruce pascoe aboriginal