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.
Belle Budden is a local dubay of Wakka Wakka descent. ‘Living off country I pay my respect to the Arakwal people and the wider Bundjalung people of this land,’ says Belle.
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