A message on Reconciliation - Australia

Hmmm...this is a serious picture that I drew that included my fursona.

Basically, the relations between European Australians and Indigenous Australians has been a very rocky, tragic and hostile one over the two centuries since European Settlement. While I still celebrate Australia Day as a day of the founding of European Settlement, I also consider the feelings that some Indigenous Australians might have up to this day about certain prejudices made by Australians in Governments past. Fortunately, since the mid 20th century from Robert Menzies' granting of Aboriginal voting Rights to Kevin Rudd's historic apology speech in 2008 (which is featured on this image), the relationships between white and Aboriginal Australians have improved, but I think we still have a lot of work to do if we truly want complete reconciliation between the two groups (Okay, I'm Asian Australian, to tell the truth, but I'm speaking first and foremost as an Australian here {but I hate Weet-Bix}).

We have welcomed a few Aboriginal politicians, athletes, business people and many more...but we still see many Indigenous Australians living in dire poverty in the vast rural outback of our country. The life expectancy and overall health of an Aboriginal Australian is still well below that of a non-Aboriginal Australian. There is a higher rate of imprisonment for indigenous Australians than non-indigenous Australians. Aborigines are more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs than non-Aborigines. And so on...

RECONCILIATION: Something that Australia needs to keep working on this very day...
(pardon the misspelling on the image, Photoshop doesn't have a spell check)

My fursona, Nobris Agni, is shown here holding both an Aboriginal and the Australian Flag, symbolizing the harmony between the two sides of Australia.

Done in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Nobris Agni done with Shinhan Markers and scanned onto image with clean-up.

Illustration and Image (c) Robin Ngai. All Quotes (c) respective owners.