Australia Remembers Melbourne Was Stolen, Not Settled
Traditional owners, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, have filed a native title claim over Melbourne, a fact presented as news by The Guardian. What's often forgotten, or conveniently edited out of the mainstream narrative, is that this 'claim' isn't some novel request, but a reassertion of pre-existing sovereignty that was never ceded. Australia's foundational myth of 'terra nullius'—land
belonging to no one—legitimized a brutal colonial theft, a historical reality rarely given prime-time air. This isn't a land dispute; it's the 21st-century fallout of a colonial invasion whitewashed as 'settlement.' When will the news cycle dedicate as much airtime to the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous Australians as it does to, say, whatever manufactured outrage is distracting us this week?
One might wonder how many centuries constitute 'just a misunderstanding,' or whether property rights only count when they're backed by muskets.