She wrote: “This is a bitter irony. That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason.

“It was never in the gift of these newcomers to refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia.

NEWCOMERS

“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country.”

There is a town in County Durham in England called Crook; it is also my family name. The origins of the name Crook can be traced back to the Vikings; so it is not unreasonable to assume that I have some Viking blood in my veins.

The first recorded Viking invasion of England was at Lindisfarne Priory in 793AD. The Vikings also raided and then settled in the Shetland Isles north of Scotland. I may carry the genes of either an invader or one of the invaded.

Clitherow was my mother’s maiden name. Clitherow is an ancient English name and there is a town with that name, but spelled Clitheroe.

The family Clitherow can be traced back as far as St Margaret Clitherow, who was “pressed” to death in 1586 for refusing to enter a plea when accused of harbouring Catholic priests.

I make no claim to having a trace of a saintly demeanour, although I note the English tortured St Margaret until she died.

It’s not unreasonable to assume that my ancient English ancestry, through St Margaret Clitherow, goes all the way back to when the Romans invaded England in 47BC and to the last successful invasion of England by the French, the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Neither the Romans nor the French invaders flourished without killing a lot of the British inhabitants.

Both the Romans and the French brought great change and technology to the British Isles. The Romans built roads that are still used today, they built bridges, aqueducts, stunning frescos and practical sewage systems; the remains of their occupation are an archaeological wonderland.

The French also left an indelible mark on England. They built Durham Castle and Cathedral, the White Tower at the Tower of London and many more magnificent buildings, many of which still stand today.

In 1086 William the Conqueror ordered an audit. Everything in the country was counted, valued and recorded in the Domesday Book.

Every invader caused change in Britain, change, which eventually turned out to be for the good of the people; but Britain didn’t have to rely solely on invaders for bloodshed, plunder and change; civil war resulted in dispossession, cruelty and flight from the homelands.

My maternal grandmother was a Rankin. The Rankin Clan in Scotland was part of the larger Clan McLean; I have the blood of the Celts.

In 1746 about twenty years before Captain Cook brought the first ships to Australia, the English army supported by battalions of European mercenaries under the Command of the Duke of Cumberland, pursued and then slaughtered the proud men and boys of Scotland at The Battle of Culloden.

All because the Scots, under the command of the French Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Pretender to the Throne of England, had the cheek to invade England and try and grab the throne.

BACKWARDS

Charlie’s army got as far as Derby, which is about a hundred and sixty kilometres north of London. When they found they didn’t have support of the English people it was all too hard, so they turned, and as the Scots claim, advanced backwards to Scotland.

After Culloden the English pursued the Highland Chiefs and killed them; they stole the Crofters cattle and sheep, burnt their Crofts and seized the land for their English Lords. This dispossession continued into the next century.

My paternal grandmother was Irish, a McGonigal from the north west coast. The Great Irish Famine was caused by greed and a potato blight. By mostly foul means the English gentry systematically acquired the small Irish farmers’ land and then leased it back to some of them to grow wheat.

The Crofters that survived were allowed a small area on which to grow potatoes; potatoes subsequently became the staple diet of Irish peasants. In 1845, about a hundred years after the Scottish rebellion, the potato blight struck.

The British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, provided totally inadequate help in the form of grain; a million people in Ireland died from starvation, two million migrated; the McGonigals fled to America.

The Irish famine is a dreadful part of British history and the scars are evident to this day, with an Ireland divided and an intense hatred of the British still palpable in some parts.

That is what the English did to the Irish just a hundred and sixty or so years ago – they let them die of starvation. Now, all of Ireland is a favourite holiday destination for the British.

You would think that would be a big enough story for one person, but there is more.