Australia Day
Yes, I am going to open up this can of worms and look at Australia Day and what it means to all Australian peoples.
Australia Day is celebrated on the 26th January annually. It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. All Australian states started using the term 'Australia Day' around 1935, and it wasn't until 1994 that all states and territories officially marked Australia Day with an official Public Holiday.
Dating back to the 1930's, some Indigenous Australians have also marked Australia Day as a day of mourning as they see it as the day that European settlers invaded and took their lands from them. There can be no argument that Indigenous Australian culture changed since European people settled Australia. Although the official statement from Britain was for a 'peaceful settlement', indigenous peoples ultimately suffered at the hands of introduced diseases which they had no immunity from and from the introduction of alcohol. There are also many incidences of violence towards the indigenous population and some areas of Australia even saw the collection and removal of people from their land so they could be occupied by the European settlers. Some sections of the indigenous community term Australia Day as 'Invasion Day', in reference to the 'invasion of their lands'.
Over the years there has been an increasing chorus for Australia Day to be moved or re-named as it recognises the day that Europeans came to this country. Some local councils have even gone as far as cancelling official Australia Day celebrations in recognition of the day's significance to indigenous Australians.
Should the date be changed?
The question then arises as to whether we should be celebrating Australia Day on the day that the First Fleet arrived on our shores and Europeans settled the eastern seaboard? We didn't officially become a Federation of states until 1st January 1901 and this date has been suggested as an alternative to the 26th January. Most Australians support the current date of 26th January, however, it is deeply offensive to our indigenous community so should we not at least debate the possible change of date, after all, it is just a date that commemorates something significant for the white population of this country?
There are a lot of reasons why we should change the date and many for why we should just keep it as the 26th January. I believe that as a forward-thinking country, we should be able to have a debate that is backed by reasoned arguments and not fuelled by bigotry views as has occurred in the past.
I think that this debate will need to be addressed eventually as more and more sections of the Australian public start to compose their own opinions on when Australia Day should be.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts and get the community on Steemit debating this polarising topic.
Thanks for reading.
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