Society & Culture January 26

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FootyJunkie said:
Bunch of Americans go on an anti Confederate tirade, Australia has to be a copy country again, monkey see monkey do, and protest their own history

I guess the 1988 Bicentennial I celebrated as a kid was a racist event
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I hate identity politics and the race baiting that goes on these days, and I used to push back against things like changing Australia Day too. But put yourself in other people's shoes. Maybe not celebrating the country we have today using the day colonists landed here and declared the indigenous people irrelevant is a good idea. It's just not particularly nice is it? It's also not relevant to Australia, since the country was only founded on 1 Jan 1901, making it pretty illogical too.

Celebrating federation instead of colonisation makes a lot more sense and is actually a positive cultural step for indigenous people. Everyone wins.
 
Sainteric said:
You do know Palestinians who live in Israel are citizens? I leave the rest of your political views wrapped up as fact alone.

And the end result is what the same
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Yes, there are Palestinians born on the right side of the fences.
 

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Greens the vanguard as usual

The Greens are planning to use their numbers in local governments across the country to spearhead a push to move Australia Day, following successful moves to cancel celebrations in several council areas in Melbourne and Western Australia.

Three Melbourne councils last year decided to stop holding future celebrations on January 26, following the lead of the WA's Fremantle council.

Moreland, Darebin and Yarra councils argued the date was offensive and inappropriate as it marked the beginning of what they called an invasion, and the oppression of Indigenous Australians at the hands of the British.

Federal Greens Leader Richard Di Natale said the council decisions marked the start of what he hoped would become a national movement.

"We've got over 100 Greens councillors right across the country and we're making sure this is a conversation the entire community engages in," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"It's got to be done at a grassroots level, working through local government.

"We've already been leading the way at Darebin council, Yarra council, Fremantle council, where we've got a strong Greens presence, and we'll continue to have those sorts of conversations right across the country."

[...]

"I want to be able to celebrate all the great things about this country — it's a country that's given my family a new start, as a son of migrants," he said.

"There's so much that we've to be proud of, but we do need to come to terms with the original act of dispossession.

'The day that we celebrate Australia Day is a day when there was a violent act of dispossession and Aboriginal Australians are experiencing the ongoing effects of that today."

With less than two weeks until Australia Day, former tennis champion Pat Cash also took up the cause to change the date this morning.

Speaking to Channel Nine about his association with the charity Children's Ground, he could no longer support the date having witnessed how Indigenous people are treated.

"I've got to a stage now where I just can not celebrate Australia Day. As an Australian who brought two Davis Cups home, represented my country, January 26 is not a day of celebration for me," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-...bers-australia-day-changethedate-push/9329266
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Quivorir said:
No, no. Just that day. We can go back to ignoring it ever happened after that like we do for the other 364 days in the year.
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No one is asking you to acknowledge it ever. They just don't want you celebrating and defining Australian national identity based on the day white people first rolled into town, killed a bunch of people and took their land. A date with more positive connotations would surely be more appropriate, or so the argument goes.
 

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I honestly think people would care a lot less if Australia Day was in May and people wanted it moved.

I think people just love the public holiday in the middle of summer, right before school starts.
 
radiojake said:
There are only two reasons why you wouldnt support changing the date of our national holiday

You either enjoy being deliberately contrary

Or you're a daft nationalist
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Surely you can be flat out racist too? Or a traditionalist? Or you might believe that a minority shouldn't be given so much say. Or you might believe that every race in the world has been conquered at some point in their history and you either adapt or perish, the winners make the rules .... I'm sure there are plenty of others.
 
Papa G said:
Surely you can be flat out racist too? Or a traditionalist? Or you might believe that a minority shouldn't be given so much say. Or you might believe that every race in the world has been conquered at some point in their history and you either adapt or perish, the winners make the rules .... I'm sure there are plenty of others.
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The Aboriginal people are now acknowledged as part of Australia's national identity and included in Australian society. Why shouldn't they be taken into account when considering celebrations of national identity?
 
Biggy_Boy said:
No one is asking you to acknowledge it ever. They just don't want you celebrating and defining Australian national identity based on the day white people first rolled into town, killed a bunch of people and took their land. A date with more positive connotations would surely be more appropriate, or so the argument goes.
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This is a circular argument.

No 'invasion', no Australia to celebrate. Every date after January 26 1788 represents European colonisation. Every date before is meaningless because indigenous cultures didn't use the Gregorian calendar. There was no January 26 massacre and every day since has been rainbows and cuddles. That's not how it went down.

PP34 said:
I honestly think people would care a lot less if Australia Day was in May and people wanted it moved.

I think people just love the public holiday in the middle of summer, right before school starts.
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People want a public holiday first and foremost. After that they'd prefer it was in Summer then after that they want a national day. If Australia Day wasn't a public holiday no one would really GAF. See ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day.

I'd be on board with a better day than January 26 if a better option was actually proposed but 'not January 26 - racist' isn't an alternative.

Richard Di Natale said:
There's so much that we've to be proud of, but we do need to come to terms with the original act of dispossession.

The day that we celebrate Australia Day is a day when there was a violent act of dispossession and Aboriginal Australians are experiencing the ongoing effects of that today
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This is populist horseshit. The * are we celebrating then? Everything from January 26 1788 to today in Australia is the fault of European settlement.
 
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It was explained that Australia wasn't one indigenous nation but many (around 500).

So we should carve out every date white man invaded a nation. Then carve out every day a indigenous group invaded another indigenous nation.

This should isolate what days are available to celebrate. Or are we just worried about the black white thing despite being a multicultural society?
 
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