As the school term ends in Western Australia, writer Sisonke Msimang reflects on school assemblies where children often recite acknowledgments of country that thank Indigenous elders for sharing the land. While well-intentioned, Msimang argues this sanitised version of history is dangerous and misleading.
Msimang warns that phrases like 'thank you for letting us share the land' teach children that Australia was a gift from First Nations people, obscuring the reality of colonisation, dispossession, and violence. She says this 'fable' prevents children from understanding present-day inequalities rooted in that history.
The truth, she writes, is straightforward: Australia was colonised by Europeans who justified racism with God and science, treating First Nations people with brutality. The effects persist today. Lying to children makes them ignorant and unable to grasp why some people are poor or angry.
Msimang criticises the broader failure of school systems, media, and politics to confront the truth. She notes that 'terra nullius' and the myth of Aboriginal extinction were early fictions used to justify oppression, and that acknowledging this history is the only basis for addressing racism.
She concludes that a society avoiding the truth with children becomes one where adults cannot face it either. 'Sadly, this is where Australia finds itself,' she says, urging a shift from comforting fables to honest storytelling.
