Discovery of Terrorist HQ Under UN Building in Gaza Means It’s Time To Reform the UN Itself
By CONRAD BLACK
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Australia Day has been a source of contention for the implied assumption that until 1788, Australia was a blank slate of a continent, empty and unpeopled, undiscovered by anyone until the British landed there.
This coming Friday, January 26, is Australia Day, commemorating the 1788 landing of the British fleet at Sydney Cove and the discovery, at least by people who didn’t already know it was there, of the Australian continent. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Australia Day was known variously as “Anniversary Day,” “Foundation Day,” and at the behest of the Australian Natives Association, “ANA Day.” From the moment of its 1935 establishment, the holiday has been a source of contention, with its implied assumption that until 1788, Australia was a blank slate of a continent, empty and unpeopled, undiscovered by anyone until the British landed there.
Thomas Henry Kendall (1839–1882), author of “The Bellbirds,” belonged to that demographic of “Australian Natives” celebrated on “ANA Day.” The Australian Natives Association, or ANA, was a “friendly society” organized for the benefit of young Australia-born men of British descent: native, as distinct from aboriginal. Henry Kendall was born near Yatte Yattah, a pioneer settlement on the coast of New South Wales, and although he was the grandson of an English missionary, Australia was his world.
Like so many poets’ lives revisited in this space, Kendall’s was a career founded on struggle and failure. Unable to live by his writing and inept at any other work he undertook, he spiraled for a time into drunkenness, poverty, mental illness, and crime. At his absolute nadir, he was arrested and brought to trial for forging a check, but the charge was dismissed for reason of insanity.
This coming Friday, January 26, is Australia Day, commemorating the 1788 landing of the British fleet at Sydney Cove and the discovery, at least by people who didn’t already know it was there, of the Australian continent. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Australia Day was known variously as “Anniversary Day,” “Foundation Day,” and at the behest of the Australian Natives Association, “ANA Day.” From the moment of its 1935 establishment, the holiday has been a source of contention, with its implied assumption that until 1788, Australia was a blank slate of a continent, empty and unpeopled, undiscovered by anyone until the British landed there.
Thomas Henry Kendall (1839–1882), author of “The Bellbirds,” belonged to that demographic of “Australian Natives” celebrated on “ANA Day.” The Australian Natives Association, or ANA, was a “friendly society” organized for the benefit of young Australia-born men of British descent: native, as distinct from aboriginal. Henry Kendall was born near Yatte Yattah, a pioneer settlement on the coast of New South Wales, and although he was the grandson of an English missionary, Australia was his world.
Like so many poets’ lives revisited in this space, Kendall’s was a career founded on struggle and failure. Unable to live by his writing and inept at any other work he undertook, he spiraled for a time into drunkenness, poverty, mental illness, and crime. At his absolute nadir, he was arrested and brought to trial for forging a check, but the charge was dismissed for reason of insanity.
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