A Change of Date for Australia Day?
The Debate on Australia’s National Holiday and Indigenous Relations
Jan 28, 2009
As former New South Wales State Premier Bob Carr affirmed in The Australian, “Aborigines lived here undisturbed for maybe 60,000 years, until one particular January 26 began their dispossession, and the lesser-known story of their resistance.” [1]
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, Commander of the First Fleet arrived atSydney Cove, from Great Britain, bringing with him elevn convict ships. And so began the start of Australia's British colonial history.
Australia Day Today
Carr posits that, with all the ills the British brought upon the Indigenous land, “[o]ut of English ideas and notions we acquired, in fits and starts, the institutions of a free society. This free society that Australia is founded upon is still alive and kicking and is the reason we celebrate such a country.
We celebrate the political ideas and freedoms, the tolerance, the open spaces and laidback lifestyle, the beaches and good weather and the good old Aussie humour. It is like no other country on earth, and the argument is that this what Australians relate the national holiday to, not the colonial British acquisition of Indigenous land.
Australia is also very isolated politically and socially from the rest of the Western world, and sometimes this isolation shows in the unintentional ignorance of political issues which are occassionally shrugged off with a “she’ll be right, mate”. This also may be the source of contention between the celebration of a national day of unity and the real meaning and origin of that date.
The Australian Political Debate
Australian Indigenous Rights campaigner Mick Dodson started the debate, which is thoroughly political, to change the date of Australia Day from January 26, as this date amongst Australia’s Indigenous community is known as “the day on which our world came crashing down”, says Dodson [2].
As every year, Australia Day also marks the day for the Australian of the Year awards, to which Dodson has been appointed for 2009. The irony is rife for Dodson who has spent most of his life campaigning against the wrongs that have been conflicted against the Indigenous peoples at the hands of the state.
Dodson was appointed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner from 1993 to 1998, during the period when Indigenous relations were coming back into the policy spotlight, and the first report on the ‘Stolen Generation’, Bringing Them Home, was presented. He has helped draft the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples and he is also a member of the UN permanent forum on Indigenous issues.
Yet on receiving the title, Dodson said, “I angsted about it, I thought about it very, very deeply…I too share the concerns of my indigenous brothers and sisters about the date.” [2] From that moment, he started his campaign to the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to have the date changed. And so the floor was open.
Many other Indigenous leaders quickly followed suit and started voicing their sentiments for either a date change or a change of symbolism for Australia Day – a change which has been so far flatly refused by the Australian government.
Last year Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formerly apologised to the Indigenous peoples in the aim to mend a rift in Australian Indigenous relations. But to this debate Mr Rudd said, “[t]o our indigenous leaders, and those who call for a change to our national day, let me say a simple, respectful but straightforward ‘no’.” [3]
If a change of date is an idea shelved by the government, Bob Carr may be right, it should all be a part of the commemoration. Carr says, January 26 is “the one day that speaks of all that happened, the good and the bad, the inspiring and the shaming.”[1]
It should be approached as a part of our big story, a day to celebrate what and who we are, our diversity, tolerance and beauty, and most importantly, to remember it as Anzac Day is remembered - a day of tragedy. To stop, reflect, mourn and pay respects to the rightful owners of this land Australia.
References:
1. Carr, Bob, “The Day that Tells the Nation’s Story”, The Australian, January 27, 2009, pg.10.
2. Rothwell, Nicolas, “Bittersweet Prize”, The Australian, January 27, 2009, pg. 9.
3. Karvelas, Patricia, “PM Rejects National Day Change”, The Australian, January 27, 2009, pg. 5.
