Warning: Explicit lyrics! The apology by PM Rudd was the first step, but there are still many many steps to go. There's a saying that white Australia has a black history. It can sort of be taken in the sense that it has been a dark or unfortunate history, but it's also true in the sense that we were here first.
Sometimes people think that Australian started years ago with the invasion. This is invasion day. January 26th marked the beginning of the murders, the rapes and the dispossession. It is no date to celebrate.
Poem by Raylene Campion [13]. Read more Aboriginal poems. In a controversial move the City of Sydney Council decided in July to use the word 'invasion' in one of its official documents [14].
Many white Australians were affronted by the word and felt it described the past, not the present. But, as some commentators pointed out, "if the word 'invasion' is to have any meaning, then of course it has to apply to what happened. It does not mean, Remember, 'invasion' was only used to describe the arrival of the British in , not the whole years plus. Let's get the facts right and the facts are that this country was invaded. More than a third of Australians recognise that Australia Day is no longer an appropriate day for celebrations [17] and call for a new day which includes all Australians.
Some suggest to rename Australia Day to 'Arrival Day'. People happy with the current Australia Day base their arguments often on racist grounds. But a majority of Australians actually don't care about the particular date and just enjoy the holiday. Aboriginal singer and songwriter legend Archie Roach wants to celebrate Australia, just not on January For him, "getting over it" is not an option.
Just understand that what we enjoy today came at a cost — a terrible cost — to the First People of this country. Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell believes a new public holiday should celebrate an inclusive Australia, but he calls for a treaty first.
The date of the agreement could mark a new national date for celebration, where both peoples acknowledge each other's rights and aspirations, thus avoiding the current 'whites only' celebrations. Others believe moving Australia Day would "elevate" one culture above another and "exacerbate Thousands who celebrate the day would deliver a "defiant response".
Taking issue with a single day means to "reject colonial history in its entirety". Climate change is slow and denied by some — traits shared by the political climate change that will see Australia Day moved or replaced.
In Mick Dodson, Aboriginal law professor and Australian of the Year , expressed his hopes for a new day. I firmly believe that some day we will choose a date that is a comprehensive and inclusive date for all Australians. Polls published in the Sydney Morning Herald show no clear trend. While results slightly increased for "yes" respondents in , the results in showed almost half the respondents did not want a change.
But if you differentiate the results by age group see poll in this section you notice how the younger generations are more open to a change of date, as are Australians who were not born in the country. The scale of the protests grows yearly, as more and more people come to understand the true history of Australia, and what 26 January represents for First Nations community. In , over , people took part in protest events on the day.
Many people believe that to truly celebrate this country we must find a date that includes all Australians. The purpose of changing the date is to recognise that many people value having a special day to celebrate the place they call home, while also acknowledging the traumatic context and history that 26 January in particular represents.
The proposal to Change the Date is meant to be inclusive of all people who live in Australia, including First Nations people. However, simply changing the date is not enough to change the narratives and systems in Australia that continue to oppress and disadvantage First Nations people. Further education of wider Australia on the history of colonisation, as well as understanding and acknowledgment of the issues important to First Nations people is also part of the conversation and proposal around changing the date.
Another growing movement is to abolish Australia Day. This means to cancel the national holiday, the concept of Australia Day and what it celebrates. For many people, Australia Day is about celebrating the values, freedoms and pastimes of this country. Australia Day is a national public holiday on January 26, the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia. Although celebrations originally focused on the anniversary of the British occupation of New South Wales, since , the federal government began promoting an Australia Day that was less British and more Australian in the hope of unifying Australia's increasingly diverse population.
Australia Day eventually became a national public holiday in First Nations people may be just as proud of this country, but many people see January 26 as a date signifying the beginning of dispossession, disease epidemics, frontier violence, destruction of culture, exploitation, abuse, separation of families and subjection to policies of extreme social control.
This question can be challenging, as there are many different perspectives from both First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians. However, celebrating these things on January 26 can divide us, by marginalising and offending many First Nations people who see this date as commencing a chain of events that had disastrous consequences for many First Nations people.
The negative effects of colonisation continue to have very real impact on the lives of many First Nations people in the form of intergenerational trauma, generational poverty, health disparity, disconnection from culture, disappearance of language, family separation, social discrimination and more.
This is why, for us, Australia Day is a day of mourning. There has also been a marked shift in the number of people who "strongly agreed" celebrations should move. In , just 28 per cent of respondents were strongly in favour of seeing a shift to the date, in that went up to 39 per cent. Shelley Reys has been at the forefront of the Reconciliation movement for three decades. The Djirribul woman was the inaugural co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and helped to establish the Reconciliation Action Plan RAP program, which is now used across the corporate world.
She said the change in attitude around Australia Day was a sign the country was "growing and maturing as a reconciled nation". For decades, January 26 has been observed as a day of mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Islander people. The date is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in In , Aboriginal people from across the country chose that date to meet to condemn "the degrading and humiliating" treatment of Indigenous communities.
The annual public holiday on January 26 was established in , and thousands of new Australians use the occasion to attend their citizenship ceremonies. In recent years, Australia Day protests have swelled and tens of thousands of people — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — march together all across the country.
Several local councils around the country have stopped celebrating Australia Day on January 26 — against the wishes of the Federal Government.
Earlier this year the Prime Minister said it was important to mark the day as one on which "the journey to modern Australia began". Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said he did not agree with changing the date. It compares the demographics of the 60, survey respondents with census data to weight responses by sex, age, education, language, geography and vote to ensure the views of Australians are accurately reflected. Since Australia Talks last surveyed Australians on changing attitudes around Indigenous recognition in , tens of thousands of people have marched through capital cities as part of Black Lives Matter protests.
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