Australia Day

The term "Australia Day" was first used in 1935 by all States and Territories to mark the 26th January, but the public holiday wasn't formally introduced until 1994. So it's a very young "tradition".

It is clear that today, many Indigenous Peoples see this occasion as a slap in the face to their experience of colonialism and call it variously Survival Day and Invasion Day. They are joined in this view by an increasing number of non-indigenous Australians.

(https://www.ipsos.com/en-au/australiaday_2024)

However, the term Australia Day can also create ideas of unity around a belief that Australia is a unique aggregation of peoples from all over the world; that our First Peopless are magnificently unique in continuing to hold out their hands in friendship and collaboration; that slowly, incrementally, we are all working to create one community.

However, the date itself raises too many feelings of repression, defeat, barbarism, control and death (of culture as well as of individuals) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. 

Being non-indivenous from migrant parents, I experience none of this! I can only try to put myself in their shoes. I believe them when they tell us this.

Nationhood, nationalism and patriotism are all creations of society. They are not ideas that are inalienable. We created them for many reasons. These variously stem from our deep need to belong, be accepted, feel good about ourselves, unite in a common endeavour, feel safe and free and to contribute to something greater than ourselves. There are certainly other possibilities.

But these desires are mostly based on FEELINGS, and they are important, no doubt. But they don't last: they are fleeting, ephemeral, momentary at best. 

I must ask myself: What legacy will I be recognised for in the years after my death, after my physical existence is no longer discernible? What will my daughters, my grandchildren,  think I stood for?

Unity or division?

Recognition or rejection?

Understanding or egotism?

Opening a hand or clenching a fist?

Open-heartedness or opposition?

Pushing through or pushing back?

Curiosity or arrogance?

Possibility or power?

Australia's future lies in the recognition that being Australian means embracing the whole, in being excited that we are walking into a new understanding of our collective identity.

This requires radical thinking and a radical change of heart.

Don't call it Australia Day.

Name it Reconciliation Day (because reconciliation requires all parties to have the courage to let go).

And find a new date - perhaps Sorry Day, on May 26.