Aboriginal/Australian flag
I’m aware that this makes me a hypocrite, having already joined in a synchroblog for “Australia Day”, but I think that this is an issue that rates a mention. I was spurred into posting this after getting hassled by little Paulie for having a reference to “Invasion Day” in my Instant Messaging status.
I think that it is a disgrace that our national holiday occurs on a day that commemorates white settlement in Australia. I am deeply proud to be an Australian, and I think it is a very important thing to have one day in our year that we can sit back and be thankful for the wonderful country that us good guys live in. But I think it stinks that our only real chance to do that is on the day that white people came to settle in Australia.
Reconciliation with our indigenous people in Australia, both on a practical as well as a symbolic level is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) and most important issues facing our country over the next couple of decades. But a mindset that says that we should celebrate the birth of our nation on the date of the arrival of the first fleet (because like it or not, that’s what Australia Day is saying), is a mindset that alienates and increases the psychological and idealogical gap between indigenous Australians and the rest of this nation.
It’s time for this nation to grow up, to recognise that not everything great that happened in Australia was brought about by European settlement, and to find a national day that can unite, rather than divide this beautiful and great nation of ours. I’m suggesting Federation Day, which given that it falls on January 1, should have the holiday landing on January 2. What’s more Australian than giving an extra day to recover from your New Years party with a national public holiday?
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