For those saying we should be magnanimous about the passing of the queen, a reminder that the queen inserted herself into the lives of Indigenous people here multiple times. She wasn't a bystander to the effects of colonisation and colonialism, she was an architect of it.
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Demanding Indigenous people be respectful about the passing of someone who intentionally made our lives worse is outrageous. It's worth considering what she *could* have done - and didn't - to effect change.
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At so many times across the 20th century, she could have intervened and reset the relationship between Indigenous people and 'the crown', because she had more than ceremonial power to do so. She did nothing.
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What she did 'do' was be an active participant in stealing our land. Instead of handing back, making reparations from her enormous wealth, her agents (that she had explicit control of, see 'The Dismissal') continued to steal land and when they had it all, they stole our children.
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She had influence over the 'commonwealth'. Her wealth is not just ceremonial, and it was not acquired passively. It was built on the pain and suffering of Indigenous people. That was the plan all along and that's the plan that she was an agent of her whole career.
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Too many people fail to understand how inaction and the gathering of wealth is a fundamental in colonial incursion. For everyone saying she was a kindly grandmother, they fail to see that she had a job for decades that oversaw actions that made Indigenous peoples lives worse.
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For people asking about examples of what she did or failed to do. See: every colonial act in the 'commonwealth' across her reign. Either you think she was a leader, or you don't. Either you think the commonwealth exists (fair bit of evidence, even a coat of arms) or you don't.
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If you don't understand why people terribly affected through her reign are using humour at the moment, you can do two things.
1. Read more about the way humour is used to flip the tables of agency.
2. Have a little think.
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Similarly if you're wondering why many Indigenous people are not commenting, try not to make this about a sign of respect and consider that the spectacle of the crown is one of the mechanisms it has used to gain power over us. Getting on with our lives in spite of it, is a thing.
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For me, I'm not here to lampoon the crown or the queen. Though I thoroughly support those who are - it's an important act of resistance. But what I will do is hold the mirror up to the crown and to the queen. She was the one who maintained a colonial rule, her boot on us.
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Settlers wanting to argue the crown or queen had no say either have no idea of the relationship between the crown, queen & 'Australia', or they choose to believe an innate benevolence where the queen would have cared but somehow didn't know. If so, points off for job performance.
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The standard response (including in comments below ) is not being able to believe that they 'let' me 'be a professor' because I don't support their hot-take on colonialism and the queen. Not to burst their bubble, but they don't just 'let' me, they also pay me for it.
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Some settlers going out of their way to come to an Indigenous account today and 'correct' it. If anyone wants a lesson in colonialism, this is it.
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This is a person who died, but the role of Queen was a job. It's her job and what she did in it that's being criticised here. For those arguing that we should be able to separate the personal from the political... ok, but you first. Her job was a political appointment.
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