It’s Monday, and I did have a post planned, until I remembered that this Monday has a very particular date, 26th January. So, I decided to postpone that post in order to make a brief statement about this date which, for many decades, has been designated Australia Day. And we have a public holiday in its honour. The problem is that this day – 26th January – commemorates the 1788 landing at Sydney Cove of Arthur Phillip and his First Fleet and the raising of the flag of Great Britain to establish a penal colony in Britain’s name. In so doing, Britain effectively invaded Australia. (On what legal basis this happened, there is discussion, but the legalities are a distraction from the fact that the British occupied land, that was already occupied, as their own.)
Although Australia Day has been a much loved day, not all Australians have been oblivious to its origins and implications. Wikipedia’s article on the Day provides a brief history of some of this recognition. For example, in 1888, before the first centennial anniversary of the First Fleet’s arrival, Henry Parkes, New South Wales’s premier at the time, was asked about including Aboriginal people in the celebrations. He apparently replied: “And remind them that we have robbed them?” (from Calla Wahlquist and Paul Karp in The Guardian, 2018)
Wikipedia also summarises the history of First Nations people’s response to the Day, including their identifying the 150th anniversary celebrations in 1938 as an Aboriginal Day of Mourning. By the nation’s Bicentennial in 1988, they were framing the day as Invasion Day. Since then, this idea has increasingly taken hold among not only First Nations but many other Australians. With the rise of social media, hashtags like “invasionday and “changethedate have appeared and have also gained traction. Momentum is building.
So, where do I stand? I love Australia, and am very glad to be Australian. I would, therefore, like to celebrate our nation in some way on some day BUT I do not think January the 26th is the day to do it. Consequently, I am with the #changethedate proponents. And, I believe it will come. The voices are rising, and increasingly more Australians are feeling uncomfortable about celebrating a day that feels dishonest and that disrespects and brings pain to the country’s first peoples. We can find another date – that is not hard. We just have to do it.
Whispering Gums 
I am opposed to the division of the world into armed and mutually hostile communities.
I was in my 50s before I decided I could do more good by voting John Howard out, than I could by abstaining from participating in this artificial and largely non beneficial division.
So I was never a supporter of Australia Day or any other day of patriotism, but I can see a lot of merit in Invasion Day.
Thanks Bill … I always enjoy hearing your perspective, including on compulsory voting! I’m glad you came to see that voting had value, but I would say that wouldn’t I!
And I agree with you about patriotism. Australia Day started to turn ugly when the aggressive patriotism began to take over. Changing the date would not stop recognition of/marking Invasion Day, would it, but it would remove the in-your-face celebration of a day that should not be seen as a happy one.
I am in the camp of changing the date so that all Australians can celebrate what we have today. I think for our indigenous population, this may always be a difficult day no matter when it is, because the Australia of today was created through such violence. But for me, I would like an Australia day that is about multicultural inclusion and to celebrate that we are largely now an inclusive and racially accepting society. (Though I know sadly this is not always the case)
Thanks Rach. Yes, agree, any day celebrating the nation will have problems but disentangling the day from that date would (or should) at least move the discussion on to the real issues rather than that confronting, aggressive date.
Many of us in Canada have similar feelings about Canada Day. It is hard to imagine celebrating a country built on the colonization and brutalization of another culture when the practices still continue and reparations have not been made. I hope we will find a way to do both.
Thanks Lisa … agree of course. It’s so in your face here when the date chosen to celebrate the nation is the very date that colonisation and that flows from it started.