#australiamuseum

I was in Sydney to visit the Australian Museum. The Aboriginal Gallery was one of many expositions and it really does affect me and I learned a lot. I attended the talk about the forgotten Australian and Stolen Generations, I have realised that shamefully I didn't know their history. Among the first European settlers who lived together in small towns, they were British prisoners. The British used to send prisoners all the way to Australia from the year 1788-1868. Australia was used as a prison colony at that time. TMI, London was overcrowded and crimes were common, so transporting them to Australia was a really clever idea. Transportation was a common punishment handed out for both serious and petty crimes. About 60 thousand convicts were transported to British colonies in North America, and around 162 thousand were transported to Australia. Many Aboriginals weren’t considered to  be human beings until in 1967. I also learned that racism has lasted for a long time in Australia. Such as, when soldiers returned to Australia from fighting in WW1, the whites received land and money for their efforts, while the Aboriginal men received nothing since they weren’t considered Australian citizens. Many paintings of aboriginals remained.They are beautiful and expresses many feelings, gr8.