It was January 26, 2023 and Bulagahn was walking on country.
‘I was watching as some people celebrated, some people mourned and some people felt guilt and shame, and it really affected me,’ the local Bundjalung/Minjungbal man said.
‘I got together with a few elders later, and we were talking about this day and it just made me think, “How is it possible to celebrate a day like this? I don’t want to hate. I don’t want to be traumatised…”.’
That conversation gave rise to an idea: that January 26 could be reclaimed by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as a Celebration of Country.
That idea will be brought to life on January 26 this year at an event in Brunswick Heads.
What we love about country
As the high tide flows beneath Aboriginal flags flying above the Brunswick River, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people will gather to share what they love about country.
There will be a welcoming ceremony at around 8am, dancing, music from different cultures, artworks, and a barbeque.
A key element of the day will be an open mic session, in which all people are invited to share and reflect in whatever way feels meaningful for them about their love of this land.
‘It’s not about celebrating what happened 200-plus years ago like we did in the past, it’s about celebrating this land and what it means to each of us,’ Bulagahn said.
‘It’s about sharing the oneness of spirit that comes from living on this land. We want to invite people to come together – black, white, red, yellow – to celebrate Australia for the things that we love, not the things that we hate’.
Addressing trauma
‘We understand that there’s trauma on this day for many people, and that there’s shame on this day for many people. But the thing about trauma is that eventually you have to dance with it. If you don’t it just sits there.
‘We don’t want to be stuck in the trauma, and we don’t want people to be stuck in guilt and the shame. We want to bring people together to celebrate the things which we all love about this country.’
Bruns event
The gathering will take place in the park on South Beach Lane from around 8am.
Everyone who wants to respectfully celebrate a mutual love of country is welcome to attend.
Bulagahn works as a local artist, and it also the co-founder of the Merriging Foundation, an outreach group that works with young men who are at risk.
‘Merriging is an Aboriginal word that means turning one whole being around, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
‘We’re trying to turn these young fellas around,’ he says.
‘We get them involved with art, with culture, we go camping, we connect with the land.’
There’s healing in the land, in being on country – it doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white.’
I’ve never been a flag waver. I’ve always seen it as representing the government more than the people. But I’ve gone way out of my way this year.
At my great age, I don’t remember anything but the celebration of Australia Day ( before that Empire Day ) as anything but a community celebrating what was good about living in this great land, and as an excuse to play with lots of fire-works at an inclusive bar-b-que for all.
It is only recently that this has been destroyed by Aborigines determined to act in bad faith.
This kind of hostility, and of course, the nonsense of ‘the voice’ and ‘treaty’ will sour what was ‘multi-culturalism ‘ for at least another generation.
Well done, idiots. G”)
Excellent satire, thanks.
Exactly. Making out that this isn’t multiculturalism at work, and then reminiscing for the ‘multiculturalism’ of Empire Day. Angles, Saxons, and Celtic living in harmony. Classic J P Sears type material.
This is brilliant. I’ve supported changing the date for quite some time – I’m going to have to rethink that.
I’m not at all interested in attending an event where the high tide flows beneath Aboriginal flags flying above the Brunswick River. I could be easily persuaded to attend an event where the Australian and Aboriginal Flags fly side-by-side
Give them an inch…
This is an incredibly ironic comment regarding the Australian flag!!! Perhaps this can help you to see how it’s felt for the Aboriginal people for 200 years (and the flag is just one tiny aspect).
I think it is a wonderful idea to create a day that celebrates Country. Great thinking!
Could we have an Australian flag flying as well as the Aboriginal flag to represent unity in this great country?
That’s what the blue one is supposed to be for. It was introduced when all this nonsense was just getting started. When we had an homogenous, peaceful, connected society, the flag was red.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I absolutely refuse to have the establishment of a wretched British penal colony as any kind of National day. I find it completely ridiculous as it is insulting. If Dutton’s Noalition LNP gullible monarchist followers want to wave their British union jack colonial flags and be servile subjects to a foreign monarch King Charles 111, well good for them. The 26th of january serves only one purpose, for the Dutton Noalition LNP to misinform, divide, obstruct and to keep Australia British, period.
The rest of us want a real Australia day, for real Australians to celebrate the real Australia together.
Dutton needs to be informed that we are Australians, not British!
A nation divided cannot stand and Duttons divisive LNP Noalition is that constant division. And that, like the 26th of January cannot stand!
Well said Tweed!
We are one and we are many …..
26th January 1949 is also the date that all people living or born in Australia jettisoned British citizenship and recieved Australian citizenship and could travel with Australian passports for the first time and be recognised as Australians .
Looking forward is the only answer for a harmonious future together.
Hopefully we are one – so let’s have a day that doesn’t would surely be offensive to the original inhabitants. Let’s not kid ourselves – the dates is chosen as it celebrates the planting of a flag and a declaration of ownership transfer. Nothing to do with Australian, as opposed to British, citizenship or passports.
March 3 was the date of enactment of the Australia Act of 1986, which meant that the British Privy Council no longer held sway over our High Court – of probably greater significance.
Looking forward? Easier for the victors than the dispossessed, I’d suggest.
It’s lucky for me that, for most of my life, there has been little fuss made about Australia Day. In my very monocultural youth it hardly occurred to me to see anything from the perspective of our indigenous population. Learning at school though the cruel circumstances surrounding the landing of the first fleet, the thought of celebrating human misery was absolutely repulsive.
More recently seeing all the crass merchandise in the stores, and the flag bedecked cars, I’ve just been left wondering what the occupants really feel committed to celebrating. For a more uplifting and unifying day, if we want to recognise our British roots, I’d suggest some significant milestone in the success of the local movement to end transportation.
dictionaryofsydney.org contains the following: “ The anti-transportation movement was one of the first and strongest political movements that bound the people of Sydney. Henry (later Sir Henry) Parkes cut his political teeth in the anti-transportation speeches of the late 1840s. On a wet day in 1849, between 7,000 and 8,000 Sydneysiders turned up to an anti-transportation rally held at Circular Quay to protest at the landing of the Hashemy, a convict transport.”
I’d happily celebrate that day as symbolic of a new population, who saw their new home as more than a convenient dumping ground for the problems emerging from a rigidly enforced class system in Britain.
A few points about flags:
1. Flags are an unlawful imposition of Maritime Jurisdiction (Vatican See) extended onto land by fraud from the B.E.I.T.C. Admiralty Officers, Agents, Assign and any Delegated Authorities, as there was already a well-known established Law of this Land, that has endured over 2 ice ages and it was and IS an Oral Law and Elders hold it, and lore/law people held it as they lived it and learned it.
2. Colin is a nice bloke he gets out and about, he wants peace and friends but he doesn’t speak for the whole story or for Minjungbal, for he also doesn’t know that the “Aboriginal Flag” is also a corporate flag bought by the “government” in 2022 operating as an occupying force belligerently and forcefully for 235 years here as “Crown” without respecting the superior Law of the Land.
On land, shields and Houses are the logical extension of a peacefully integrating settler society.
3. The Red Flag is for the Commonwealth and the Date originally was in July, then changed around…so none of it has been settled or truthful yet a lot of steam gets blown off about this infuriating sore-spot every year – but no resolve or decent conversation, just more divides and fear.
4. Our solution is “SovereignTree”, postliminy and new terms for new living. New Way – Old Way together which you can look up online.
Oh the ‘Blak Sovereign (sic citizen) Movement’.
The Romans were carrying flags (standards) into battle before Christ was born – on land.
Don’t forget that all the Aboriginal Tribes are also corporations with ABNs.
Tell me more about this ‘July’ thing. I’ve never heard that one before.
You should look into the reality of the old ways before attempting to resurrect them from the dead.
There was no law hear that Hammurabi would recognise.
SBS.com.au reports the following:
“Australia Day – 30th July
“The first ever official national day that was actually named ‘Australia Day’! On July 30 in 1915, the first official Australia Day was held, which was actually to raise funds for the World War I effort…
” … 30 July 1915 was the date agreed upon, and events were held across all of Australia
“ Australia Day – 28th July
“In 1916, the Australia Day committee that had formed (to organise the war effort fundraising the year before) determined that it would be held on July 28.
“Anniversary Day – 26th January (NSW)
“Previous to 1888, New South Wales was the only place that celebrated Australia Day (then called Anniversary Day) on January 26.
“These celebrations were all Sydney-centric (other states and territories had their own celebrations to mark their founding)”
What is the meaning of “ Blak Sovereign (sic citizen) Movement” ? The appropriate use of “sic” could be exemplified by quoting something like: “ There was no law here (sic) that Hammurabi would recognise”.
Whoops – that last bit should be: The appropriate use of “sic” could be exemplified by quoting something like: “ There was no law hear (sic) that Hammurabi would recognise”.
Don’t know if it was autocorrect or an automatic reflex!
Thanks for your research to correct such rubbish
👍
The correct spelling of the organisation is Merrigingi Foundation. The founder runs men’s wellness groups and is the organiser of the Crabbes Creek NAIDOC week event. This is a great day bringing all people together to celebrate original culture of the great southern land.. the actual meaning of the word Australia. No one made a hoo ha of the National day when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. As with all things it has been commercialised and the usual crass marketing has ensued, which in some cases has become the propaganda of the ‘white is right’ movement. They do actually exist. The day can be interpreted as reflection of colonialism and the British ‘invasion’ . I’m sure this is not hard to understand if you were seeing it from a First Nations persons perspective. It is day that celebrates Nationalism, this can’t be denied. The event needs remake to reflect new and old Australians. The g’day mate, throw a chop on the bbq is a bit outdated.
“The day can be interpreted as reflection of colonialism and the British ‘invasion’ “….no ! No interpretation required, it is a celebration of the coming of Civilisation and Nationalism, ” They do actually exist” for the first time in 70,000 yrs .
… so celebrate, and if “a chop on the bbq is a bit outdated.” you’re welcome to bring a Goanna, garnished with Witchetty grubs.
Cheers, G”)
You call what was happening at Sydney Cove “civilisation”?
Hi , would be nice to send this to Pat Cummins / Steve Smith at the Australian cricket team and any other sports person .