Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The arrival of Captain Cook and the First Fleet in Australia had catastrophic and tragic consequences, for First Nations peoples, that continue today. For many people Captain Cook's arrival symbolises the beginning of the brutal frontier violence and massacres, the forced removal of children from their families, indentured and slave labour and violent attempts to wipe out First Nations languages and culture. It marked the beginning of the ongoing dispossession and oppression for First Nations peoples in this country, the effects of which continue today. First Nations peoples had never ceded sovereignty over their land. We must tell the truth about our shared history, and change is possible when you tell the truth.