Nah. There's been a few back And this one since 79?
And also to those of us that don’t have indigenous family but understand what our friends their families have gone through and continue to do so it is also highly offensive.
Amazing arguments
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Australia Day was first celebrated in 1915.
Over the years it stopped and started and every state had a different day.
1935 it was settled as 26th of Jan.
It’s interesting that even the Nationals don’t really understand what the day represents.
Photo shows the real story behind Australia Day
THERE’S been a lot of anger about the idea of changing Australia Day but even some our politicians don't understand why we celebrate January 26.www.news.com.au
For me it’s a date that causes phycological damage to the original inhabitants of this land. So it needs to be changed.
And changing a simple date to be able to inclusively celebrate the greatest country in the world shouldn’t be that hard.
Changing a day doesn’t physically hurt anyone, doesn’t cause financial or emotional distress to anyone.
It really is simple and should be done.
Its going to change, deal with it.
No date stands out because we only consider history from the 26th Jan 1788 onwards. We don’t consider Aboriginal history and culture.
Pretty sure the Gregorian calendar didn’t even exist in this country prior to the arrival of the First Fleet.....so whatever date is chosen will be reflective of something that occurred since British settlement. There is no one specific date that anybody can remotely agree on that achieves that.
Yes but that’s a different topic and possibly still ten or more years away given how hard it has proven over the years to change the constitution
Think it’s plenty relevant to the nation we’ve become. If it wasn’t the British on 26th Jan it would have been someone else. Possibly, but not necessarily the Dutch. Maybe different European countries settled different areas of Australia and the Australian continent would be made up of countries not states. We wouldn’t have the queen as head of state, wouldn’t be a commonwealth country, both of which may have impacted the structure of parliament and decisions of parliament. Would the white Australia policy have occurred, would indigenous rights have been better or worse, would someone else have arrived and signed a treaty? We also likely wouldn’t be an English speaking country, have different place names and state/city boundaries. Would the Aussie spirit be the same without the convicts or ANZACs? Without the English cricket would Aussie rules footy have existed/grown, similarly in the northern states would rugby be the established code. Sport seems trivial, but it’s part of the fabric of Australia.
I’m not questioning the important influence of Britain on our development as a nation.
My posts in previous years have pointed to a shifting of the Australia day occasion to one closer to ANZAC day. Remembrance and recognition in the morning; celebration of the nation we’ve become in the afternoon. Even if 26 January didn’t impact the majority of mobs directly on that date it’s became representative of the beginning of bad treatment and policies for some. For others they don’t think any date is appropriate.
ANZAC day is fundamentally different because its a nation remembering its own losses. Australia Day would be more akin to Turkey celebrating their military victory over the ANZACs and if such a day was celebrated in Australia by families of Turkish background you could see how it would be a kick in the guts to the ANZACs
There in lies the problem in the views of many it’s not a matter of defeat or victory or sides. As a nation we need to be united in recognition of the past and celebrating the nation we’ve become. Until everyone can get past the divisive mindset of us vs them it won’t matter what date we recognise/celebrate Australia day.
