I never understood this artificially forced point. Any explorer can only “explore” from the frame of reference of their culture’s knowledge. Even Australia’s indigenous population has distinct groups from different origins and necessarily different “discoveries”.
To discover simply means to find. If I'm playing hide and seek, and my location is uncovered, I might cry out "you found me!" This is not to deny that I existed or knew of my own whereabouts prior to being located.
To say that some European "discovered" Australia is simply a statement that they found something they didn't hitherto know about. There's no implication of validity.
Nobody says Europe discovered Australia. They talk about how Australia was discovered, in passive voice. And everybody knows what frame of reference you're supposed to be reading from.
Is that problematic? I'm guessing it was written in a European language, by someone with a European name, from a European perspective, as a starting point.
When I was a kid we would say "Columbus discovered America" and it definitely gave me the impression that no one knew it existed before him. It erases the fact that lost of people knew about it because they lived there for generations.
I don't think it erases anything. Most places that have been discovered by explorers have been populated. I've never in my life heard of somebody who thought America wasn't populated upon its discovery. The label used for the next group of Spanish visitors is literally "Conquistadors" which could not be more clear as to what it involved.
There isn't one. That's actually my point. America is a cultural melting pot, and I would argue that presuming supremacy of the European culture is problematic.
You're right but I think the problem is that we just day "discovered" instead of qualifying it with the frame of reference. It's an assumption of a eurocentric perspective.
I trust this is because in currently ethical standards we should trust the concept that everyone belonging modern human civilization. so talking about discovery but didn't contain local residents is not proper anymore.
