You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it. At the beginning of 2020, our feeds were filled, post after post, with the pictures of innocent animals who have become victims of the bushfires in Australia. Celebrities, your sorority sisters, and even your conservative Aunt Karen were sharing posts on how to donate to save the koala’s and the rest of the Australian wildlife as their home and lives were taken by the tragedy that is the burning of some of the greatest habitats on earth. Some say they fell victim to climate change, I agree, but I also say they fell victim to colonization.
As of the week of January 26th, an estimated 1 billion animals and 29 people have died along with 2,500 homes and 27 million acres destroyed and set aflame. You’ve probably heard at least quite a few of these facts via either the news or the Instagram stories of celebrities like Demi Lovato and Nina Dobrev.
While you may feel up to date on everything bush-fire related, what your Facebook timeline isn’t telling you is that the Aboriginal population of Australia isn’t only losing their land and homes like the rest of non-indigenous Australians, they are also losing their heritage, again. The kicker is that through the process of colonization and the systematic removal and alienation of the Aboriginal population, Aboriginal techniques that helped prevent these bushfires from being this dangerous and long were stopped in practice in non-aboriginal communities.
Invasion Day, also known as Australia Day by non-indigenous Australians, is a day that marks the painful reminder that their homeland has been stripped from their hands. For Americans, an appropriate comparison can be that of Indigenous Peoples Day vs. Columbus Day. This Invasion Day had much more meaning this year which can be read in articles like Vox’s “Invasion Day is a day of Mourning for Indigenous Australians.”
While we mourn the loss of land and animals, I encourage my fellow college students eager to raise awareness on world issues to also pay attention to the marginalized populations that continue to be ignored in headlines and on social media. Indigenous populations are repeatedly ignored by big news outlets and celebrity Instagram stories. Just because you don’t see it in your feed, doesn’t mean something isn’t happening. Go out of your way to find the small pieces of news about communities that are suffering and not receiving the attention they deserve.