January 26 is a divisive day around Australia. The historical significance of Australia Day being held on the 26th is thin, at best. But the calls to have it moved to a more appropriate date are getting louder and louder, and they won’t be diminishing any time soon. 70% support for keeping Australia Day on January 26. Sure, not everything's perfect in contemporary Australia; and it's possible that Aboriginal life could have continued for some time without modernity bursting upon it, had governor Arthur Phillip not raised the Union flag and toasted the king on January 26, 1788, but it's hard to imagine a better Australia in the absence of the Western civilization that began here from that date. Please consider donating and support independant indigenous media on Paypal, becoming our Patreon, or pick up some great apparel on our Redbubble page. Australia Day can be a day of remembrance and reflection, as well as celebrations. We could all make a list of the things that should be better: trust in politicians, economic competitiveness, standards in schools, safety on our streets (especially in Melbourne), congested roads and inefficient public transport, and — yes — the well-being of the First Australians, but is anything to be gained by this annual cycle of agonizing over the date of our national day? A full five days later than the 26th, this may be disruptive for business and schools. ", Another problem with holding our national day on January 26 is that it is a day that positions European settlement as the primary source of national identity and pride. The day before Australia celebrated its national day Friday, a statue of British explorer James Cook in Melbourne was vandalized, covered with pink paint and the words "No pride." Recent moves to promote changing the date of our national day are informed by the fact that many Australians - both Indigenous and non-Indigenous - feel they cannot celebrate on January 26, because that date marks the commencement of a long history of dispossession and trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Australia Day would occasionally fall on January 31. Still, there is a strong contingent of Australians who do not agree. Every year Australia Day, held on January 26, is the focus of huge controversy and debate. “We choose any date for the Queen’s Birthday,” wrote a responder from Brisbane. The sins of the parent cannot be blamed on the children. The debate to change the official date of Australia Day from the 26th of January is one which rears its head every twelve months, and in recent years, has picked up enough traction to become ‘trending’, so that mainstream media outlets now flog it within an inch of its life. The first nationally recognised Australia Day was, in fact, on the 30th of July, in 1915, as part of a fundraiser in aid of the war effort. Before then, in the lead to the 1888 celebrations, Henry Parkes the premier of NSW at the time was asked if he was planning anything for Aboriginal people on Australia, to which he simply retorted, ‘And remind them that we have robbed them?‘. Log in, register or subscribe to save articles for later. An overwhelming 60.3 per cent of our audience want Australia Day shifted from January 26, compared to the 39.7 per cent who are happy with the way it is now. The date is also known as Survival Day or Invasion Day to many. Should Election Day be a National Holiday in the U.S? The current date reflects a day of great tragedy for the Aboriginal people of Australia. We shouldn't move Australia Day, but we must change the tone of the day. It is the way Australia Day is acknowledged, rather than the date itself, that should be changed. Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove and raised the national flag of the United Kingdom on January 26, 1788. It would make more sense to celebrate it on the 9th of November–Delta Goodrem’s birthday. Just Another Australia Day Post Hoping To Make You Feel All The Feels. Aboriginal people represent 28 per cent of our current prison system, despite comprising only three per cent of our total population. The 26th of January commemorates the establishment of the first settlement in the colony of. Wouldn’t the day that Australia abolished this act and, on paper at least, welcomed non-white migrants into Australia make more sense as a day to celebrate ‘what is great about Australia and being Australian’. Given how NSW centric the day has historically been, most other states and territories also had a long history of opposition to it being the day that we celebrate Australia. Those are not words many countries could use to describe their official national day. “Unite not divide. Australia Day is a day for every Australian, regardless of creed, colour, race or origin. January 13, 2017 — 7.46pm. Since 1938, the 26 th of January continues to be commemorated as a Day of Mourning. Though yes, it is indeed the day the First Fleet arrived in Port Jackson (or Sydney Harbour, as we now know it), it’s hardly the day they arrived in Australia; the fleet had been in Botany Bay for a whole week before realising it was no good for their plans (can you imagine putting the Opera House in Brighton Le Sands?). And how will this one finish? Two prominent Australians weigh in on the debate. A protest that has never dissipated in the decades that followed. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | ABN: 69 168 933 319 PROUDLY HOSTED & MANAGED BY NGAKKAN NYAAGU. It is about the colony of Sydney, what about the rest of the country. Not until 1994 did they begin to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on that date.” That means that the Day of Mourning (1938) is only 3 years younger than ‘Australia Day’ as we know it today, and everyone having Australia Day on the 26th of January has happened notably less times than I have celebrated my birthday. Even in 1938, on the first Day of Mourning, Australia Day was referred to as the “anniversary of the whitemen’s seizure of our country”, and nothing about that sentiment has really changed that much in the decades that followed. Others just found the date inconvenient, with a responder from Adelaide saying it was: “Too soon after Christmas.”. In New South Wales, 61 per cent of respondents voted to change the date, the ACT had 72 per cent, Victoria 63.3 per cent, Queensland 56.5 per cent, South Australia 55.9 per cent, Western Australia 53.7 per cent and in Tasmania, 63.7 per cent of respondents said they favoured a shift. Polling has given conflicting results on how Australians actually feel about Australia Day. Another, from Queensland, wrote: “The development of our modern-day Australia would have to be described as a ‘warts and all’ process, especially in regard to the brutal treatment of the original Australians and the disregard for them as fellow human beings. All of a sudden, that land is forcibly removed by a strange group of people who indelibly change your culture and way of life forever. The Captain Cook statue in Catani Gardens in St Kilda is seen vandalised on January 25 in Melbourne, Australia. Increased momentum around changing the date of Australia Day reflects a growing sense that January 26 is symbolic of the Australia we used to be, not the Australia we hope to become. Every year the debate around changing the debate rears up. There is literally no other way. The 26th of January is a day that will always live in infamy. "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" It would make more sense to celebrate it on the 9th of November–Delta Goodrem’s birthday. But I can’t separate the 26th of January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to gaol than they are to go to school.”, "This is the best country in the world no doubt. “Why should we pander to a bunch of Marxist w–kers. This is why. Whatever people choose to call that day, it is not a date suitable for rejoicing. Australia is the most successful multicultural nation on Earth, so a pinch of empathy is not too hard to muster. And, to make the whole saga just a little more embarrassing, the French turned up in the same week expecting to find a thriving colony that could provide them with supplies and assist with repairs on their ship. Get The New Daily free every morning and evening. That means that the Day of Mourning (1938) is only 3 years younger than ‘Australia Day’ as we know it today, and everyone having Australia Day on the 26th of January has happened notably less times than I have celebrated my birthday. Not until 1994 did they begin to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on that date.”. The suburbs are the future of post-COVID retail, Hijacking anxiety: How Trump weaponised social alienation into ‘racialised economics’, Property market gallops into October with first national price rise since April, Job ads are on the rise, but most of the positions are part-time, The scandals, celebrities and moments that changed the Melbourne Cup, The New Daily uses cookies. A poll commissioned by progressive think tank Australia Institute found. If we want to see Australia as a colonial outpost for the British then maybe that day makes sense, but if we want to regard Australia as a ‘vibrant multicultural nation’, and if we want to regard Indigenous peoples as a core part of the modern Australian identity then it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to have Australia Day on that date. There was an error submitting the form. The date of Australia Day should be changed so the Aboriginals get their say and so they receive the recognition and respect they deserve. Report this Argument. It is a time when we are seeing rights and freedoms for all except the wealthiest Australians (and foreign companies) removed.

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