Australia Day In Retrospect
Comments (6) January 26 is Australia Day, officially our nations birthday. It’s also a day for tradition and being the height of summer, the backyard barbie (bar-b-que for the uninitiated) is the choice for many Australians.
What are we celebrating? I said it was our birthday and it is. January 26 was the day that Europeans, more precisely the British, established the first settlement on Australian shores.
For our indigenous population, some consider it invasion day. For others, it is considered dumping day – the day the English ‘dumped’ their unwanted on Australia. We have a reputation for being a nation built on criminals – convicts to be precise, many of whom were sentenced to transportation to Australia for simply stealing a loaf (or less) of bread. This included homeless children who could only eat and survive by taking what they could find.
Some senior leaders of our indigenous community have called for a change of date for Australia Day. Rather than holding a celebration on invasion day, they would rather select another important date.
I think the argument is moot in today’s modern society. We no longer celebrate Australia Day for the events of the past, we now celebrate it for today, the here and the now. We come together as one nation, as ‘mates’, hence the backyard barbie.
Thousands of immigrants choose Australia Day to become Australian citizens. I am sure the events of a couple of hundred years ago are irrelevant to them – what is important is they now have a new nation to call home – and they are proud of it.
I am proud to be an Australian. ‘When’ we celebrate Australia Day is not as important as the why and how. The way we come together as one, many indigenous peoples as well, is a reflection of our strong modern society. We may be young as a nation, but we are strong.
We have been able to avoid many of the worlds financial ills to date – we won’t avoid them for much longer – but, we will be one of the last to fall and one of the first to recover – it’s the Australian way – the Aussie battler way. Australia Day is not about dates, or the events of the past, it is about all of us coming together as one nation – and growing stronger because of it.
