Flora and Fauna Act myth

The “Flora and Fauna Act” (not amended till 1967) was a very real and very wrong piece of legislation, which still distresses affected families today.

It exercised a sheer absence of basic human rights for; and humane acknowledgement of; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their nativity.

To the racist, bigoted, low-life who dared to remove the factual, and vital information about the “Flora and Fauna Act”, only to replace the content of this historical amendment with hate, propaganda and denial - I hope you burn.

What can I say? Just another instance of the oppressors oppressing, just another day where you take our rights away.

I sincerely hope that your children never have to be pulled out of your arms and taken away from you.

I hope you never need to ask the sheriff for permission to marry the person you love.

I hope you aren't poisoned with alcohol and then ridiculed for its destructive effects on your relationship and your life.

I hope you and your loved ones aren’t shot and hung for the sake of clearing out a race.

I hope your wives aren’t stolen and raped for the the sake of breeding out the black.

I hope, you NEVER experience discrimination so severely, that a nationally recognised and enforced Act, active on YOUR land, in the place of YOUR law, (lore) needs to be amended just so you’re recognised as more than botany.

But you listen when I say:

if any human is an animal a beast - something undeserving of the most basic of human rights - it's you.

Don't you forget it.

Origin

According to academic Marcia Langton, she first heard the term "Flora and Fauna Act" mentioned by filmmaker Lester Bostock at a council meeting in Canberra in the 1970s. Langton stated that she believed Bostock meant it in a metaphorical sense and she "had no idea that this would grow into the urban myth that it is today".

According to the Western Australian Museum, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and similar acts in other states may have encouraged the development of the myth, as they included Aboriginal heritage sites in their purview. Before the creation of separate indigenous affairs departments, some states administered the area through combined departments that also dealt with wildlife. For example, Western Australia had a Department of Aborigines and Fisheries (1909–1920) and the federal government had a Department of the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts (1971–1972).