January 26

Should the celebration of January 26 cease?

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Cmarsh

Cmarsh

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Lots of local councils now not holding their citizenship ceremonies outside January 26, including major metro councils of Sydney and now Hobart city council voted to change its date of the citizenship ceremony.

Melbourne cancelling its parade and Perth cancelling its fireworks.

Even cricket on Jan 26, which used to be a staple of the summer calender, is now being criticized as being inappropriate.

Federal Government is holding out calls to change the date, and there is no obvious date to change to what could be considered a more unifying National celebration. Jan 1 would recieve alot of flack as a symbol for colonalism.

Personally I think the Republican movement could recieve a boost by aiming a target for a new National day if and when that occurs as a potential replacement for Jan 26.

Currently the mood for celebrating Jan 26 seems to be at a low. Is there room for even celebrating it any more, given the nature of its recognition seems to be changing.

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I'm not particularly attached to the 26th of January. If celebrating that day is hurtful, then change it. To what date? I don't know. There is no standout candidate. 27 May is a candidate because that was the date of the 1967 referendum, but is late autumn or early winter going to be accepted as a national day people are used to celebrating at the beach, pool or parade?

Certain sections of the community, especially older and more Anglo-Saxon sections, remain attached to 26 January. But you know when a few people leave a party, then suddenly everyone else leaves because the social cue has been given? I think Australia Day on 26 January is rapidly losing critical mass.

Like same-sex marriage, I think the writing is on the wall and it will be changed some time in the next five to twenty years. It could take as long as twenty due to politicians generally being older and whiter.
 
Australia Day on 26th of January works as the national day if either there were no people here before that date in 1788 or that was the date the nation of Australia was founded as an entity. If neither of those things are true then what the hell are we celebrating?
 

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Jan 26 will need to change but we need to find a positive reason to change rather than a negative reason.

Saying Jan 26 was invasion day ignores there were over 500 indigenous peoples with their own language and culture. I'm not sure how many indigenous nations there were in the late 18th century but I'm confident the english didn't invade them all on one day. Meaning there are many dates we need to be mindful of if we were to focus on a negative date (unless we are saying all blacks are the same - which is offensive).

Further indigenous groups would have attacked other groups over years, including invasions as it is not reasonable to say migration happened all at one time. Meaning, if we are not to focus on the racial issue (only looking at whites) but the invasion issue (include indigenous conflicts), we have another whole range of dates to consider.

We shouldn't be embarrassed by our history, but rather stand confidently with our past and own it. For me if we keep the 26th this isn't just about celebration of a nation on a day but also a day of remembrance of the cost and sorrow.

If we move the date we should choose a positive date for "all" and not just one race. My gut feel is this positive date doesn't exist yet but perhaps an event will happen in the future which becomes a clear choice.
 
Baltimore Jack said:
View attachment 1592236

www.sbs.com.au

The many different dates we've celebrated Australia Day

Many Aussies are adamant Australia Day has always been celebrated on January 26, the moment British boots landed on Aussie soil - but this isn't actually the case.
www.sbs.com.au www.sbs.com.au
Click to expand...

Just an interesting fact:

it is worth noting "australia day" wasn't australia day (celebrated across the nation) until 1935.

what you are referring to is a state promotion of a holiday, perhaps NSW?



but yes it wasn't until the 90s when the date became the 26th
 
Coolangatta said:
Why does it have to be the same date every year? Make Australia Day a long weekend on the last Friday of January.
Click to expand...

probably a good solution as it then has no meaning and therefore avoids debate

then by having no meaning, it actually promotes discussion (different from debate) that australia has baggage, that it isn't confident enough to own......which is true
 
Coolangatta said:
Why does it have to be the same date every year? Make Australia Day a long weekend on the last Friday of January.
Click to expand...

So basically go back to a pre 1994 model where it was on the closest Monday?

Used to love a long weekend in late Jan :cool:
 
Power Raid said:
Jan 26 will need to change but we need to find a positive reason to change rather than a negative reason.

Saying Jan 26 was invasion day ignores there were over 500 indigenous peoples with their own language and culture. I'm not sure how many indigenous nations there were in the late 18th century but I'm confident the english didn't invade them all on one day. Meaning there are many dates we need to be mindful of if we were to focus on a negative date (unless we are saying all blacks are the same - which is offensive).

Further indigenous groups would have attacked other groups over years, including invasions as it is not reasonable to say migration happened all at one time. Meaning, if we are not to focus on the racial issue (only looking at whites) but the invasion issue (include indigenous conflicts), we have another whole range of dates to consider.

We shouldn't be embarrassed by our history, but rather stand confidently with our past and own it. For me if we keep the 26th this isn't just about celebration of a nation on a day but also a day of remembrance of the cost and sorrow.

If we move the date we should choose a positive date for "all" and not just one race. My gut feel is this positive date doesn't exist yet but perhaps an event will happen in the future which becomes a clear choice.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you just want more "details".
 
Power Raid said:
probably a good solution as it then has no meaning and therefore avoids debate

then by having no meaning, it actually promotes discussion (different from debate) that australia has baggage, that it isn't confident enough to own......which is true
Click to expand...
I like it - eliminates jingoism and just represents what being Aussie really is about - having a day off in summer. :)
 

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Australia Day will change and it will not be in January.

It is only a question of how long a bunch of racist history denying middle class white men can delay the change. They have been very effective to date but the boomers are dropping off, and their grand children and great grand children will be taught a much different and infinitely more accurate history of Australia than their grandparents were.

Ignorance cannot and will not prevail forever.
 
I'm happy to change it if it's going to help. The issue is it seems to bring out the racists in mass force.

I'm all for changing the date to a meaningless date. Make it a revolving Friday or Monday so people still get their public holiday and long weekend.
 
Great quote from a great article:

"The truth is Australia’s story is way more complex than either a triumphal colonisation or a crude act of dispossession. The real story of Australia is the contradiction at the heart of this false binary.

Australia is home to both the oldest living culture on earth and one of the youngest democratic nations, one that is still legally tied to a fading European colonial power.

We are a nation born of both bloody frontier wars and a world-leading experiment in social democracy, driven by a workers-led government which pioneered female suffrage and a living wage.

We are the nation of the transformative Snowy Hydro scheme built by migrants escaping war and poverty, but also the architects of the openly racist White Australia policy.

We are a nation at once the most highly urbanised and most sparsely populated continent on earth, seeking national security from one global super-power while deriving economic security from trade with their rival.

We zealously guard our borders while building our national wealth by digging up our land and offering it to the highest bidder.

We aim to protect our own with Medicare and the NDIS, while tolerating the cruelty of boat turn-backs and children in detention.

In 2023 we are a nation that has a chance to resolve the silence that lies at the heart of so many of these contradictions by accepting the generous invitation embedded in the Uluru statement from the heart to walk forward on common ground.

Thankfully, the passage of this referendum won’t be determined by the angry voices on either extreme but by the majority of Australians who are capable of reconciling their own regard for this nation, the reality of our shared heritage."

www.theguardian.com

Until we agree on what we are celebrating, it’s hard to have a sensible discussion about the date of Australia Day | Peter Lewis

The real story of Australia is one of contradictions
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
About 8 years ago Australia Day was different.

Most people, including regular left wingers, would observe the day, get decked out in cheap plastic Australian flags with the Union Jack in the corner on their boardies and bikinis, fireworks, alcohol, bogan-ness etc. Corporations ran advertising campaigns around the day. Only activist Indigenous and some more socialist members of the Greens took part in protest.

Then events started to change. Activist groups managed to influence and change opinions from the left towards the centre. Triple J was pressured to change the Hottest 100 day, which they did in 2018. Over those few years attendances at Australia Day events plummeted, corporations abandoned ad campaigns around Australia day so much by 2022 only 1 out of the top 100 ASX listed companies mentioned Australia Day in social media.

Now corporations are offering people the chance to work on the day, and take another day off. A lot will take it this year to get a 3 day weekend. Personally i don't know anyone doing an Australia Day BBQ, it just seems to be restricted to the more nationalistic bogans.

So we as a society have rapidly moved away from celebrating Australia Day. I don't think yet we are mature enough to choose a new national day. We really need to sort ourselves out as a nation, shed our Anglo identity (new flag, Head of State, Republic), embrace our Eurasian identity and come to peace with our Indigenous history, maybe even a formal treaty but an acknowledgement of the violent disposition of the Indigenous population (the "truth" from the Uluru statement). Only after that is achieved, on the day we can simultaneously sign a treaty with Indigenous Australians and declare ourselves a Republic, then we can declare that our national day. Until then we're just going to be in a strange holding pattern where the 26th of January is going to be a weird culture war.

The most likely short term outcome is whilst 26th of Jan is still the national day when the awards are handed out, and some citizenship ceremonies happen, the legal public holiday is shifter the either the last Friday or Monday in January, and then we get a 3 day long weekend at the end of summer school holidays, just like it was before 1994.
 
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The West Australian (by no means a "leftie" paper, they constantly endorse the Coalition at Federal Elections) have written an editorial calling for a change of date:

www.perthnow.com.au

Why Jan 26 date MUST CHANGE: The West’s powerful editorial

Read The West Australian’s editorial on why we need to move the date of Australia Day as soon as possible so we can finally put division behind us and truly unite to celebrate wholeheartedly.
www.perthnow.com.au www.perthnow.com.au
 
kickazz said:
I like it - eliminates jingoism and just represents what being Aussie really is about - having a day off in summer. :)
Click to expand...
This is a serious consideration. 26 January hasn't always been Australia Day, but people are used to having another public holiday in summer. Warm weather leisure is part of our culture. Also having a floating day eliminates the issue of only having a long weekend if it falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
 
Rotayjay said:
This is a serious consideration. 26 January hasn't always been Australia Day, but people are used to having another public holiday in summer. Warm weather leisure is part of our culture. Also having a floating day eliminates the issue of only having a long weekend if it falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Click to expand...
The Poms just call it the August Bank Holiday and give themselves a day off before winter hits. We could call it the Summer Long Weekend.
 
Schneebly11 said:
The West Australian (by no means a "leftie" paper, they constantly endorse the Coalition at Federal Elections) have written an editorial calling for a change of date:

www.perthnow.com.au

Why Jan 26 date MUST CHANGE: The West’s powerful editorial

Read The West Australian’s editorial on why we need to move the date of Australia Day as soon as possible so we can finally put division behind us and truly unite to celebrate wholeheartedly.
www.perthnow.com.au www.perthnow.com.au
Click to expand...
The article makes a good point about the lack of unity.

A national day loses its function and, more importantly, its spirit, when a significant portion of the population can't get behind it. The consensus on 26 January is dead. It's a dead holiday walking.
 
Rotayjay said:
This is a serious consideration. 26 January hasn't always been Australia Day, but people are used to having another public holiday in summer. Warm weather leisure is part of our culture. Also having a floating day eliminates the issue of only having a long weekend if it falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Click to expand...

At the end of the day (pardon the pun) that's what'll probably happen. The questions about a new national day based on past events like Australia Act enabling on March 3, Parlaiment first sitting May 9, or Tenterfield Oration on October 24 or a future date like becoming a Republic or signing a Treaty with Indigenous Australians will be too complex for most to comprehend and a unified position put through.

We aren't a particularly nationalistic nation, so the floating public holiday for a long weekend in January is the best bet. But which government will bite the bullet and enact it? Labor is burning a lot of culture war capital with the voice so no. The current Liberals have lurched right so never. It'll probably be up to individual states to do it. Given they are almost all about to be controlled by Labor maybe they'll do it together? I predict within 5 years SA and Victoria will formally ament their holiday to a long weekend, all other states following suit within 10 years.

There's another big advantage. Another confirmed long weekend will always be better for the travel industry, more people travelling and spending their hard earned. A single day off isn't enough to get away with.

www.smh.com.au

The economic case for a guaranteed Australia Day long weekend

Australia’s public holiday schedule is confusing and inconsistently applied across states, creating significant headaches for businesses and failing to give workers optimal breaks throughout the year.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
 
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