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[THE TRUTH ABOUT AUSTRALIA DAY]
- Reflections of a High School History Teacher.
- Reflections of a High School History Teacher.
Today I’ve spent my morning reading and reflecting about our past and our present. Our history is complicated, and people will try to tell you that it was either a great success (white blindfold) or a horrible tragedy (black armband).
It was both and it was neither.
It was both and it was neither.
Regardless of the historical perspective (see Windschuttle, Blainey, Reynolds, Manne, Ryan, etc) it’s foolish to think that the issue of January 26th is about the date. Captain James Cook claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia for Great Britain on the 22nd August 1770.
Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788 (not January 26th, this is when they landed at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson), while the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia on the 1st of January, 1901.
If we #changethedate to January 1st (as @RichardDiNatale has suggested), or let’s say we changed it to August 22nd (common suggestion) or May 8 (as @JordanRasko has suggested), we would see the same people impose the same symbolism on those dates as they do to January 26th.
That's because the real issue, the real hurt, is all that came after. Disease, frontier violence, Native Police, the Aborigines Protection Act, Stolen Generations, land dispossession (through displacement and disconnection), etc, and that, sadly, isn’t exclusive to a single date.
We cannot change our past, but we can address our present.
The real issues we should be protesting, learning about, donating time, money and resources to, is better access to education, housing and health services for remote Aboriginal communities (as @JNampijinpa and @Anthonywodillon rightly suggest).
We should be fighting for better employment opportunities for Aboriginal people, especially in remote communities, while also tackling the high rates of gambling, drug and alcohol addiction/abuse, as well as the high rates of domestic and family violence, in those communities.
And yet, on today (January 26th), inner-city activists and establishment media will promote the notion that people are “celebrating genocide”. To challenge this narrative, I thought I would share why I celebrate today and what this date means to me as a non-Aboriginal Australian.
Despite what you will see on social media, January 26th has always been celebrated in Australia. In New South Wales (since 1818; possibly as early as 1804) it was called "First Landing Day" or "Foundation Day", and by 1838 it had officially been acknowledged as a public holiday.
In 1888, representatives from Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand joined New South Wales leaders in Sydney to celebrate the Centenary (which had now been referred to as “Anniversary Day”).
What had begun as a New South Wales celebration was now becoming an Australian one.
By 1935, all states and territories* had adopted January 26th as “Australia Day” (though celebrated the occasion on the nearest Monday, granting everyone a long weekend), and by 1994, January 26 was established as a national public holiday.
*Except New South Wales who continued to celebrate “Anniversary Day” until 1946.
When we talk about changing the date, we are talking about the erasure of a tradition (steeped in history and culture) that goes back centuries.
And so, on today;
• I celebrate that of the 146 countries rated by the Social Progress Index, Australia ranked #9 in 2017, #15 in 2018, and #12 in 2019.
• I celebrate that of the 146 countries rated by the Social Progress Index, Australia ranked #9 in 2017, #15 in 2018, and #12 in 2019.
• I celebrate that according to the Global Liveability Index (2019), three of our capital cities (Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide) are in the Top 10 most liveable cities in the world!
• I celebrate that if you earn Australia’s minimum wage ($740.80), you’re in the top (economic) 1% of the world!
• I celebrate that according to the OECD (2018), Australia is the fifth most prosperous (level of GDP per capita and productivity) country in the world.
• I celebrate that we spend $30.3 billion each year (as of 2012-13) on direct and indirect services for Aboriginal people and their communities, and spent $4.044 billion on foreign aid (in 2019).
• I celebrate that Australians such as Professor Graeme Clark, Ian Frazer and Howard Florey, invented the cochlear implant, the HPV vaccine (against cervical cancer), and penicillin respectively (the latter of which saved an estimated 200 million lives!).
And of course;
I celebrate Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace).
I celebrate Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace).
Does this mean Australia is perfect? Of course not! But on today, January 26th, I choose to be thankful to be living in "the Lucky Country" while affirming my commitment to work towards making it the lucky country for all.
Happy Australia Day! 
