As 26 January approaches our communities are once more gripped by polarised views of the date. Recent decisions from supermarket giants to not stock the Australia Day merchandise has been met with calls from the opposition leader to boycott the moguls and has incited violent attacks on stores. This has reawakened divisive debate centred around patriotic ideals of Australia Day vs the Change the Date of Invasion Day campaign. Somewhere in the centre many Australians are calling for a day that celebrates unity and finds common ground. For there to be true unity in Australia there must be recognition of the true history of this nation, and their needs to be justice.
For First Nations Australians the date represents the celebration of the beginning of occupation and enduring genocide against our peoples, our culture and our Country. It is a day loaded with mixed emotions for the continued violations against our lore, life and ways. Many Australians believe the atrocities to be in the past and that is time to move forward, however, the human rights violations against First Nations Australians continue to be well documented. On 14 October 2023, the Referendum to recognise First Nations Australians delivered a resounding ‘No’ result.
No matter which side of the debate, this was a slap in the face for First Nations people, reinforcing the status quo which is failing First Nations Australians. The continued over incarceration of Aboriginal people and deaths in custody, and the high rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care are clear indicators of the ongoing institutionalised racism.
Stolen generations continues
SNAICC (Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care) the National Peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and family released the Family Matters report in November 2023. The report presented the shocking outcome regarding the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across all jurisdictions and showed that the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is at a higher rate now than when the Bringing Them Home Report was released in 1997.
In 2023, 22,328 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children were in the out of home care system.
Incarceration nation
It is a horrific indictment on all Australians that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remain the most incarcerated people on the planet (by percentage of their population). There have been 527 people who have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody brought down its findings in 1991 (Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Deaths in Custody Program).
The same week the crushing delivery of the ‘No’ decision in the referendum, a 16-year-old First Nations boy died after self-harming in pretrial detention in Western Australia. Even though he was under 18 he was being held in a maximum security prison for adult men. Alarmingly the Australian government has not become a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child which precludes minors from being detained in adult detention centres.
In 2022–23, there were 31 First Nations deaths in custody (Australian Institute of Criminology Dec 2023) although this rose to 33 by the end of December. This included the death of a 46-year-old Aboriginal man who died in WA prison on Christmas Day.
Aboriginal people made up 29.7 per cent of the adult prison population in NSW in February 2023, which is the highest proportion on record. In March 2023 it stood at 29.5 per cent. Meanwhile, 56.7 per cent of imprisoned children in NSW are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. (NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research May 2023).
Despite the continued escalation of these horrific statistics governments of all jurisdictions continue to fail to invest in programs that focus on healing and prevention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These statistics are due to the ongoing unresolved impacts of intergenerational trauma from the impacts of genocide. Australia is the only colonised nation that does not recognise its First Nations People in the constitution and is one of the only Commonwealth Nations without a treaty. Lets call for an end in the celebrating of genocide. We, as a nation, need to elevate the voices and choices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples towards self determination on matters that affect our communities.
Australia is the only nation which places the beginning of its own colonisation as the central day of national celebration. 26 January marks the beginning of the penal colony in Australia, a colony which was built on the criminalisation of poverty and the forced removal of the poor to these lands and waters. It’s is a dark day for all Australians aware of its true history, a date not to celebrate, but to mourn for the wrong doings of the past. Lets talk about changing the date when we are talking about celebrating a National Treaty Day that recognises and addresses the injustices of the past.
On 26 January you can show your solidarity with First Nations people:
Day of Mourning or Invasion Day 11am–3pm. An invitation to sit in solidarity to celebrate our survival of the genocide that was committed to our ancestors and continues to impact our people. Main Beach Byron Bay (across from the Beach Hotel). Parking is always an issue so please be prepared.
At Brunswick Heads River there will be an inclusive event that encourages unity and respect and aims to create a platform where the community can come together as one mob, 10am until sunset.
January 26 is Australia day celebrated by the great majority of this nation, get over it, the majority are quite happy the way it is thank you very much.
We celebrate Anzac day too, and pay respects to those that gave their lives for this country. But hey, lets ignore the first nations people that died bcoz of the poor white mans ego.
How do you get the idea it was ‘ego’?
First Nations People, coming last and staying there but hey lets party 26th January and pretend everything is sweet.
Lot of tax money goes into NAIDOC week, and it’s non-inclusive, and hateful. We should think about abolishing it, and other Aboriginal privileges not afforded to the rest of us.
How can one suggest to “change the date” without a proper proposal for another?
If the date changes, can we just get along and share a laugh then without further protests on a day for ALL?
We recognise inter-generational trauma….anyone want to recognise the same for the descendants of convicts, suffering by the hands of the crown, transported to another country against their will? Forced labor, deaths in custody, horrible treatment. Will there be justice for them?
We now have campaigns suggesting that anyone celebrating Australia Day is a w(&(^(*&…nice way to get people on-board…not.
Most just want a day to celebrate the good things of Australia with fellow Australians.
This “day debate” really is about the ills of the crown upon traditional owners, but those ills were also forced on all of us.
Disproportionately to Aboriginal people yes, and there has been some terrible actions by Governments past, still is some going on.
Chris Minns is placing a lens over corporate owned jails thank goodness (Completely ridiculous that correctional centres are owned by private corporations which seek more profits/customers rather then rehabilitation), hopefully some positives come from that.
I’m happy to replace the union jack within our flag, with the Aboriginal flag.
I’d be happy to fly that one and reckon it would be a great way to show some respect of the past, to help heal a little maybe. I’m sure there would be a few that didn’t like that either.
What do we do? I don’t know, but a simple “change the date” with no real plan does not appear to be working very well at the minute.
youtube: ‘Activist Backfire: Australia Day more popular than before’
Invasion day as a headline screams division not unity. Seems like it’s a never ending story that will go on every year until I leave this earth. I would guarantee that even if the date was changed, the past remains just as tainted and the headlines will remain the same.
“… anyone want to recognise the same for the descendants of convicts, suffering by the hands of the crown, transported to another country against their will? Forced labor, deaths in custody, horrible treatment.” Sure, as I’ve said elsewhere Stevo, I’ve recognised it since I learnt Australian history at school. It’s another reason I think it’s a bloody silly day to celebrate.
There have been plenty of dates suggested as alternatives. Some have suggested the date of Federation, Jan 1 – which makes lots of sense – but it’s a pity the fathers of Federation (and yes they were men) lacked the foresight to know we’d be reluctant to double up on an excuse for a party and public holiday – and have hangovers already in any case. Think of the money we’d save on fireworks though!
A alternative could be July 9 when Queen Victoria signed the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK) into law. Yes it’s a nod to the monarchy, but no good hiding from the fact that our Constitution needed Royal assent and no good denying our head of state is the queen or king of England. We could replace it when we finally cut the umbilical cord.
It’s working already !
I can’t help agreeing with you.
The British were and are abominable, the situation in the 1820’s when we arrived here, was horrendous and not a lot was better in the 1950’s , of course, the sixties and seventies was the ‘Aquarian’ age of enlightenment things have changed and I don’t believe it serves anyone to wallow in the injustices of a quarter of a century of British Rule.
Australia Day should be the date when we divest our nation of parasitic Pommies, and that is the only decent aim of all this contrived agression, directed to install apartheid and racism .
Cheers,G”)
Taking exception to Jan 26th isn’t about creating apartheid, it’s about not adding insult to the injury of the “ injustices of a quarter of a century of British Rule” (although I’m not sure which 25 years you’re referring to?) The only thing going for it is it’s another chance at a bit of summer freedom when a lot of people are mourning a return to work. We could shift the King’s Birthday holiday to that date
I can’t believe all the red-blooded, patriotic, proud boys who think so little of Federation. I wonder if they give it a thought each year. We speak of First Nations people because they were many nations but Jan 1 1901 was truly the birth of the concept of one Australia as a nation state.
2001, the centenary of Federation went by without a whimper. By contrast, remember the three ring circus for 1988? What does that really say about us, about our knowledge of our own history and our values?
I know there are distractions at that time, but any true patriot would forego getting pissed on New Year’s Eve so they could front up properly the next day. Or, if not, we could make Jan 2 a holiday in lieu, AND Australia Day, in the proud Aussie tradition of workplace rights to a set number of scheduled public holidays.
Sounds like you are bucking for Dec 3rd?
Please explaaain!
“The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat between the rebels and the colonial forces of Australia.”
It popularised the Federalism Movement.
Against British administration of the colony or against paying a mining tax? Perhaps the start of a proud national tradition of plundering the country’s resources without wanting to pay anything for the privilege?
I’d rate of equal importance the shearers’s strikes of the late 1800s, taking on the squatocracy and the formation of the Labor Party.
Agree, but Federation may not sit well either.
I suggest the date and terms need to be proposed and agreed upon by indigenous first and foremost.
Terms should suggest “this is it”, ala happy now and won’t protest the day of celebration for all, at all, in future.
I agree with that. I’m just bemused at all these true blue nationalists thinking they’re celebrating being “Australian”. That concept didn’t exist before 1901.
“The Australian Natives’ Association (ANA) was a mutual society founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871….The A.N.A was a driving force behind federation, and the creation of a single, unified border which could be used to stem the tide of Chinese migration into Australia”
“The Australian Federation Flag, also known as the New South Wales Ensign, was the result of an attempt in the 1830s to create a national flag for Australia, which was divided at the time into several British colonies.”
Matthew Flinders first used the name. He was the first to circumnavigate the continent in 1803, and used the name ‘Australia’ to describe the continent on a hand drawn map in 1804.
We weren’t Australians however until 1901.
Invasion day,?, please.
Alright then try, Survival Day, Day of Mourning, Colonists Day, Stolen Land Day, the choice is yours.
Emigration Day.
Terra Nullius Day
I didn’t think you liked emigration. These were doozies- refused to learn the language, live by the local laws, adopt the new culture or move outside their own enclaves. Disaster!
Off-shore Detention Day?
Joachy, terms used by relevance deprived activist’s, you still can’t accept you are a noisy mischievous minority that just cannot get it. Go try to tell the majority, you know the 60/40, the silent achievers.
Ivor, your 60/40 reference, do you even know what you voted for?
You one of those who didn’t know, still doesn’t know and will never know but hey, Just Say No, anyway, yeah.
Aboriginal people’s belong to the lands
Always have Always will..!
..And now that we own the land, I assume we own the ‘Aboriginal people’ and always will ?
Cheers, G”)
Did not imply that Ken ! What i did infact
Imply was no matter what race of People’s
Knowone owns anything ..! You cannot
Take it with you ..once again we belong to
The lands all People’s..
“Thou shalt not steal”? Lost in translation?
Joachim, how dare I question your ideology, your naive nasty comment demonstrates exactly why the vote went 61% NO. Albo, corporate Australia, sporting organisations, universities, charitys, and more took that very same approach and who would have guessed, the majority would not be spoken down to by the likes of those so called elites. You arrogant lot will never learn. So I will not be lectured to by an alarmist lefty nor bullied…