Twenty-thousand-plus people massacred.

Tens of thousands of children stolen from their families.

Rightful owners forced off their land.

What event is this about?

Slavery in America? The Holocaust of WW2? Zimbabwe in the 1980s?

The current oppression of the Rohingya people in Malaysia or the Chinese brutality toward the Uyghur people?

It sounds like newspaper headlines we've read over the years doesn't it?

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Sadly, it is none of those.

This is Australia - from 1788 to 1970 - and we have to finally face that history honestly.

There has been a lot of controversy about Australia Day and what it means for 'white Australia' vs 'black Australia'.

For many of us, it is a wonderful celebration of our nation, but it is also a day of mourning and sadness for many others.

This reality must be respected and acknowledged rather than dismissed or ignored.

On Sunday morning I, along with about 1000 other people, attended the inaugural Survivors Day Ceremony at Lake Wendouree.

It was a poignant and moving ceremony.

Our Indigenous people gave voice to the atrocities and massacres that have been their history since the British first colonised Australia.

Many people were supportive of this ceremony, but I also heard and read comments like, "they just need to get over themselves," or "it's just more political correctness bullshit".

What is it that makes us so outraged over the Holocaust, the plight of the Rohingyas, and the treatment of the Uyghurs, yet so deaf and indifferent to the same atrocities suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

It is rare to hear someone in Australia suggest that anyone who has survived these other atrocities should 'just get over it' or that their stories are just 'political correctness bullshit'.

So why do we do so when our Indigenous people speak of the slaughter and injustice done to them?

Because this time, the finger is pointing back at us.

In the other human rights atrocities, the offenses occurred to other people, by other people.

Not by us. Nothing to do with us. No way.

So we are comfortable in saying, "Never again!" and "Lest we forget!".

We give voice to the voiceless.

We listen, we empathise, we mobilise, and we activate social media in positive ways.

We stand in solidarity.

But when it is US and OUR ancestors who are the oppressors, we are deaf and derisive.

We must learn. We must change. We must do better.

We must listen, truly listen, to the voices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

We must listen with compassion, with empathy and in solidarity.

Those who have lived at the time of these other brutalities and not done this, have been proven to be on the wrong side of history.

We can't change our past, but we are forging our future.

As individuals, we can talk to Indigenous people - listen to their stories, hear their concerns, get to know them as friends.

As a community, we can acknowledge the duality of what Australia Day means and advocate for positive change in our conversations with people, in our social media posts, and in representations to all levels of government.

As a nation, we need to de-politicise these issues.

We need to be willing to re-frame this discussion as a social justice and human rights issue, point the finger at ourselves, accept the gravity and seriousness of our past, and decide to create a better future.

When that future becomes history, I hope we will be on the right side of it.

- Prof Bridget Aitchison, Liveability Project Team Chair, Committee for Ballarat