Australia Day

[Malleeboy]

Today is Australia Day, the traditional time when we as a nation, yearly divide on whether our National Day should be on Jan 26th.
For some First Peoples in Australia, the date is marked as the beginning of the troubles that European arrival caused them, so they name it Invasion Day or Survival Day.
There is considerable anguish, mainly from the left that we should abolish the day or change the date. Problem being that we have no obvious day to replace it with.

So for non Australians , some history, Jan 26th is when the British governor of the new colony of New South Wales, raised a flag to proclaim British settlement.'
Note this was not the landing day, which occurred on Jan 18th. Nor is the first time the Brits claimed eastern Australia, that was in 1770 by Captain Cook. The claim made also did not include the western third of the current Australia, but it also included Norfolk Island and (they rarely like being reminded of this) New Zealand, which was not separated until 1841.

I can understand the anguish of Aboriginal Australians, and personally I could live with come sort of change, but am not sure that some of the protesters will be satiated no matter what is offered up and whatever is given will just move to the next demand.
So what are the options...
Make 18 Jan Survival Day or Aboriginal Day, as a public holiday and leave 26 Jan as is. (Invasions are marked on the day troops first land)
Celebrate Commonwealth of Australia coming into existence on Jan 1 1901, with an additional Public Holiday on Jan 2.
Celebrate opening of first Federal Parliament on 9 May, we could mark the day with balloons to celebrate all the political hot air.

 

[Philip_B]

As a child of immigrant parents from an Island off the north-western coast of Europe I was very much encouraged to treat Australia Day with great respect, as a source of pride and identity. In the last x number of years, that sense of pride and belonging has been eroded, and it has become the guilt and shame day.

I too understand the angst this day causes for First Nations Peoples, and I wonder if we have thought about what is changing. Is it a social awakening, or is it just the guilt-peddling left pushing and manipulating an agenda for whatever purpose? I don't know the answer. I do know that the last thing Australians want to give up is another public holiday. Yet somehow our national day should be more than just a holiday.

We have become a three-flag country, and this seems to bring division, rather than unity. Perhaps we need a new flag. Perhaps we need a new Day. Perhaps we need a better understanding of inclusion, of common hopes, and common future, and indeed what we used to call commonwealth.

The Spirit that brooded over the waters 'ere creation was begun, is the same spirit that whirls in the deserts of the Nullabor, and whistles in the GumTrees. God was here long before Richard Johnston preached 'How Good Lord to be Here' as he proclaimed the newfound liberty of the Gospel to men in chains!

I am sorry that we have lost this day. I think we need to find a Many Nations Day to take its place.

Most of the people who came here did not come here by choice (even my parents had limited choice). Perhaps Barrington's prologue summed it up well:

True patriots we, for be it understood
we left our country for our countries good!​

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Personally, as an Australian, I don't care what day we celebrate. If another day makes the first people feel better why not celebrate another day?

 

[Occams Barber]

Today is Australia Day, the traditional time when we as a nation, yearly divide on whether our National Day should be on Jan 26th.
For some First Peoples in Australia, the date is marked as the beginning of the troubles that European arrival caused them, so they name it Invasion Day or Survival Day.
There is considerable anguish, mainly from the left that we should abolish the day or change the date. Problem being that we have no obvious day to replace it with.

So for non Australians , some history, Jan 26th is when the British governor of the new colony of New South Wales, raised a flag to proclaim British settlement.'
Note this was not the landing day, which occurred on Jan 18th. Nor is the first time the Brits claimed eastern Australia, that was in 1770 by Captain Cook. The claim made also did not include the western third of the current Australia, but it also included Norfolk Island and (they rarely like being reminded of this) New Zealand, which was not separated until 1841.

I can understand the anguish of Aboriginal Australians, and personally I could live with come sort of change, but am not sure that some of the protesters will be satiated no matter what is offered up and whatever is given will just move to the next demand.
So what are the options...
Make 18 Jan Survival Day or Aboriginal Day, as a public holiday and leave 26 Jan as is. (Invasions are marked on the day troops first land)
Celebrate Commonwealth of Australia coming into existence on Jan 1 1901, with an additional Public Holiday on Jan 2.
Celebrate opening of first Federal Parliament on 9 May, we could mark the day with balloons to celebrate all the political hot air.

I wrote this (below) a couple of years ago the last time the subject came up. Support for getting rid of Australia Day and replacing it with a day we can all acknowledge is slowly growing. We now have a number of large commercial enterprises allowing staff to substitute a different day of their choosing.

There have been Australians in Australia for 60,000 years. That’s 60,000 years of Australian history and pre-history before the British arrived in 1788.​

​

While the arrival of British colonisation is a major event in Australia’s history, to suggest that it is the event we should commemorate as a national celebration for all Australians effectively ignores all that was before the British arrived. It also ignores the negative impact that a colonial presence has had, and is still having, on Indigenous Australians.​

​

We need a day that has a positive meaning for all Australians. As well as our Indigenous people we now have Australians who originate from all over Europe, from India, from Asia, from the Americas and from Africa. The cultural significance of a British act of colonisation is slowly being diluted by Australians for whom Britishness is not a part of their cultural heritage.​

​

We need a new Australia Day to celebrate the fact that we all own Australia.​

​

OB​

 

[Bob Crowley]

I don't see an alternative date coming up any time soon. The only other national day of any gravity is Anzac Day, which is a celebration of those Australians (and New Zealanders) who lost their lives in military conflicts. It focuses on Gallipoli which was our first national involvement in World War I. We were in the earlier Boer War, but the states sent troops as separate colonies.

We have Remembrance Day, but it's not a public holiday. It also celebrates WWI involvement, namely the date of armistice.

I don't think there is another day that is suitable at the moment. I think we'll have to wait until we face a real challenge eg. another war in which we are actually invaded.

I get sick and tired of the miserable whining black arm band view of our history. The fact is we're one of the most successful and stable democracies on earth. Whether we stay that way remains to be seen.

 

[Aussie Pete]

Today is Australia Day, the traditional time when we as a nation, yearly divide on whether our National Day should be on Jan 26th.
For some First Peoples in Australia, the date is marked as the beginning of the troubles that European arrival caused them, so they name it Invasion Day or Survival Day.
There is considerable anguish, mainly from the left that we should abolish the day or change the date. Problem being that we have no obvious day to replace it with.

So for non Australians , some history, Jan 26th is when the British governor of the new colony of New South Wales, raised a flag to proclaim British settlement.'
Note this was not the landing day, which occurred on Jan 18th. Nor is the first time the Brits claimed eastern Australia, that was in 1770 by Captain Cook. The claim made also did not include the western third of the current Australia, but it also included Norfolk Island and (they rarely like being reminded of this) New Zealand, which was not separated until 1841.

I can understand the anguish of Aboriginal Australians, and personally I could live with come sort of change, but am not sure that some of the protesters will be satiated no matter what is offered up and whatever is given will just move to the next demand.
So what are the options...
Make 18 Jan Survival Day or Aboriginal Day, as a public holiday and leave 26 Jan as is. (Invasions are marked on the day troops first land)
Celebrate Commonwealth of Australia coming into existence on Jan 1 1901, with an additional Public Holiday on Jan 2.
Celebrate opening of first Federal Parliament on 9 May, we could mark the day with balloons to celebrate all the political hot air.

It's not that long ago that Australia Day was celebrated on a Monday near the 26th. It was more an excuse for a public holiday than anything else. I am a migrant. I come from a country that was invaded, with great violence, by many countries over a period of many centuries. No one mourns these events. Bitterness and resentment are poison to the soul. No one can turn back the clock.

Changing the day will not change one moment of the events since settlement, or occupation, or invasion or however people want to describe it.

FYI, I was married to a part aboriginal woman and my children identify as aboriginal. They availed themselves of the programs that are created to overcome supposed or real aboriginal disadvantage. My daughter is married with four children and my son works for a point of sale organisation, having been head hunted from Apple.