Convict Creations. Com 
The hidden story of Australia 's missing links

"You feel free in Australia. There is great relief in the atmosphere - a relief from tension, from pressure, an absence of control of will or form. The skies open above you and the areas open around you" D.H Lawrence- English author

"I can personally affirm that to stand before an audience of beaming Australians and make even the mildest quip about a convict past is to feel the air conditioning immediately elevated." Bill Bryson - American author

".. but a special sort of Ocker. He lives out his own values, undeflected by the pretensions of the mighty. I have met plenty of Australians like that and I regard them as the best Australians. I have no doubt there are people like that everywhere and that is the secret of Hogan's universal appeal." Jim McClelland - Australian politician

When people think of great history, they usually think of a great man invading his neighbours and then building monuments to his glory. The closest Australia has to such a history is John Macarthur leading a rebellion to protect his interests in sheep farming. However, compared to Chaka Zulu uniting the tribes of Africa, Napoleon conquering Europe or Qin Shihuang building a terracotta army, the story of a sheep farmer seems diminutive.

Although Australia’s history may not be a great one, for students of the human mind, it is an interesting one. It is not a history of certainty, of clear lines separating right from wrong or fact from fiction. Nor is it a history that motivates an audience to put their hand on their hearts in praise. To the contrary, Australia's history is about people. It is a history that shows the peculiarities of people, the contradictions of people. It shows a diverse range of individuals reacting to novel circumstances with humour, malice, compassion, idiocy, insightfulness and most of all, novelty. It is not a history of great power being gained and used gloriously, to the contrary, it is a history of concentrated power being slowly diversified by those who have with little of their own, but want some.

Upon the urban history, a novel culture has formed. For all the peculiarities of Australian history, there just isn’t much emotional resonance in putting the old ball and chain on your leg and subsequently walking down the street in tribute to the founding fathers. Likewise, there isn't much pride in laying down in a seductive pose in tribute to the founding mothers. With Australian history failing to provide the morality tale or powerful monuments to unite people in praise, each generation of Australians have struggled to work out methods to selectively access the past or disconnect themselves from it completely.

It is the contemporary Australian's attitude to 80 years of Convict transportation that I find most interesting of all. As I read through the history, I find myself thinking that although these people were Convict in label, the label really wasn't a legitimate one. What is the measure of guilt of a 10-year-old orphan that steals to survive? An Irish Catholic that joins a rebellion after being oppressed by invading English Protestants? An English farmer forced to a life of crime after common land was enclosed and given to the wealthy? A group of people who think everyone should be given a vote? Workers who steal bread after being made redundant by new technology, but deprived of opportunities to find new work? Where few could afford a criminal attorney to defend themselves?

Likewise, what is the measure of punishment where someone can be made a slave on the other side of the world for stealing a handkerchief? Where women can be put an a ship and shared amongst the officers on the journey, sold into sexual servitude when the ship is opened on the various ports along the way and finally assigned like cattle once arriving in Australia? Where a man can have his backbone exposed to the flies for having his hands in his pocket or a woman is forced to wear a collar and have her head shaved for assuming an immoral posture? Where doctors test their theory that crime can be cured by using a special helmet that deprives people of their senses, only to then discover that sensory depravation turns people insane?

Finally, where is the moral authority of a ruling class that steals land in India, Australia, China, South America, Nth America, and Africa, but then locks someone up for catching a fish in an English stream? That asks for loyalty from its citizens, but doesn't even allow its citizens to continue to exist in their country?

The penal system of Australia showed that being a law-abiding citizen is not always the same thing as being a decent human being. Despite that fact, the label of criminality dominates and most Australians have always struggled to see past the label. The French understand the situation much better. By celebrating the storming of the Bastille, they humanise their criminal ancestors and remove the legitimacy of their subjection. Of course, the French publicly beheaded their royalty. It seems revolutions can only be legitimised after the revolution is successful. Admittedly, over the past two centuries, many Australians have found illegitimacy in the abuses of power and have looked beyond the label to change things. As a result, Australia has been transformed from a very terrible country to a great one. Most of its weaknesses have become its strengths. It is has had its revolutions, but they have been quiet ones and they are still continuing.

The Convict Creations site aims to look at these little revolutions in the realms of cultural capital, politics, military service and international engagement. These revolutions include the physical variety, such as the Eureka Stockade. The revolutions include the cultural variety, such as designing Fatso the Far Arsed Wombat to subvert the official mascots for the 2000 Olympics.

As a site dealing with the conflict of power, stereotypes, and identity, as well as the history used to justify them, Convict Creations is not a site for everyone. Any topic of contention will always elicit negative views from those who want the "truths" to be those that are favourable to them. However, for people who want to think, or who want nuances instead of political dichotomies, the site will have ideas and perspectives that not only reveal things about Australia, but about humanity itself.