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Imagine sitting in a college classroom and your professor asks to see a show of hands of students who “have a convict past” – that is, who have an ancestor with a criminal record. Without hesitation, hands shoot up in the air! More than half the class indicates they have an ancestor who has a criminal record. This would never happen in the US. First, students would be hesitant to share such information even though FBI statistics show almost 1 in 3 people has a criminal record. And second, the professor would face immediate criticism for daring to ask.
Yet this is part of the curriculum in a class taught in Australia. My daughter Cameron was enrolled in the course while studying abroad as an undergraduate (she is now in her third year of vet school in Australia).
The class explores the continent’s convict past. Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicted men and women were transported to Australia. The convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland. It’s estimated that almost a quarter of Australia’s population can trace their ancestors to these “evicted” convicts.
Australia refers to this history as its Convict Past. It is taught, starting in the primary grades, and embraced without the contaminating stigma or taint that exists here in this country.
The key word in the phrase “Convict Past” is “past.”
In this country some US legislators and educators are hell bent on ignoring those portions of the past they find uncomfortable. They don't want our children to learn about this country’s past and how racism is embedded in our legal systems and policies going back to the United States’ colonial and post-colonial foundation with its roots in slavery (can you say Critical Race Theory?)
Acknowledging a past criminal record is an acceptance that a person did something bad in their life, paid the price, moved through it, and was made stronger and wiser and better because of it, and is now paving the way for those who come after.
We can learn something from the folks “Down Under” even as they struggle with their own issues of racial inequality and discrimination. In particular, when I was recently there visiting my daughter, I learned about a set of extraordinary race-based laws that are directed at the indigenous Australians. These laws, which only recently were repealed but shockingly now have been reinstated, prohibit anyone living in an aboriginal town from buying alcohol. If it sounds familiar, in 1832 the U.S. Congress passed legislation banning the sale of alcoholic beverages to Native Americans. It was repealed almost 70 years ago. It is unacceptable that Australia’s predominately white leadership should dictate lifestyle decisions for one select group of adults, its aboriginal people. This selective legal right deprivation is a throwback to the worse days of colonialism and racism. Global communities should speak out against this appalling imposition of a set of oppressive laws to apply to one group of people based on their origin or skin color. But we can condemn one part of Australia’s practices while still admiring and following its approach to an issue that directly impacts our own country - our failure to embrace a belief in earned second chances.
We believe ours to be a religious nation with absolution, forgiveness, and redemption being central tenets of every faith, but too often we pay mere lip service to the concept of forgiveness. Too often we do not practice what we preach.
Australia has embraced forgiveness and redemption as it concerns its convict past and, despite other flaws, recognized that “committing a wrong” is part of the fabric of human existence. And in at least one instance, it has even capitalized on it: one of the most successful Australian media firms with offices in New York is named “Convicts”. Its mission statement reads:
Convicts is an independent, global creative studio. We tell stories about the characters, movements, brands, and ideas making the right kind of trouble in culture… and stir up a little bit of our own. Across our agency work and original content, we create with conviction because we believe that the stories we tell can create a better world.
Stories are powerful and can create durable and righteous change when coupled with the kind of truth that leads to a wise and compassionate acceptance.
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