I am aware there are varying emotional responses to this day. But I can only tell you what I feel.
We are 21st century human beings with 21st century sensibilities. To us, every life is precious. We don’t care about skin colour, the language spoken or the religion practised.
Each to their own. As long as this person does no harm to others, his or her life is precious.
From our perspective, we look back on centuries past and wonder, "How could they do that? Were they animals?”
However, if we had been raised in the 17th or 18th centuries, our perspective – our view of the world and its inhabitants – would have been very different.
It was a fight for survival; a dog-eat-dog existence. Out of necessity, parents sent their children down coal mines. It is hard for us to imagine but all over the planet, countries with the ability to do so were invading others. If you landed and raised a flag, you considered the country yours.
It was awful but it was happening in country after country. North and South America were invaded, as were many parts of Africa, several island nations – and Australia. Europe was on the move.
Today, an educated humankind can see the wrong; feel the pain caused - but can’t turn back time. We can’t "fix" that now. All we can do, is try to be an example to the rest of the world with a happy, peaceful, proudly multicultural community.
I am not proud of what was done two centuries ago but I am proud – in fact, very proud – of what has happened in this land, over the last few decades. "We are one; we are many and from all the lands on earth we come.”
Despite our heartbreaking start, we have built a dream for those who come from war-torn countries, from famine, from persecution – and, on this day, many join us.
We welcome them with open hearts. We respect, encourage and applaud the First Australians.
It isn’t perfect but it’s ours. It belongs to each and every one of us. To my way of thinking, that’s worth a barby and a beer.
However, before you move outside, I do want to revisit ‘Blossom Town’ – because, well, because it continues to interest me and because I received a welcome email from Mrs Ruby Telford.
At the time of our centenary, Mabel Down and Raymond West wrote a song to commemorate the occasion and Ruby attached a photo of the sheet music.
Shortly afterwards, Geoff Allemand sent me the MP3. The music is that of the early 20th century and it takes itself very seriously, as did most of the music of the period. The lyrics, in part, are as follows.
The sunshine in the valley and o’er the rolling plainThe liquid silver splashes magic for our gainCountless blossoms scatter their fragrance through the airLife is joy and gladness. My heart is ever there.ChorusBlossom Town, Blossom Town, under the golden sunIn spring town, in swing town, enchanting Shepparton.
An article in The Age, which I quoted (in part) last week, also mentioned an art exhibition which was the work of Cr John Pick.
The exhibition was opened by the Prime Minister.
With the assistance of a couple of helpful readers, we are attempting to track down some of Cr Pick’s work and I’ll be able to tell you more about this next week.
However, our ‘Town Talk’ should not all be about the past. Has ‘Blossom Town" developed the way you would want? Are you happy with the direction Council is taking? Where do you think we should be investing our resources? Are you lamenting buildings lost? How do we strengthen our community? I would love to hear from you about these things because ‘my heart is ever there’.
Thank you so much Ruby and Geoff.
May it be easy,
- Marnie
Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.auLetter: Town Talk. Shepparton News. P.O. Box 203. Shepparton 3631.Phone: Send a text on 0418 962 507.
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