Ahead of Australia Day I’d just like to say:

I am white. My heritage is British, but not early colonialist or first fleet. My relatives were running pubs in Chester. But I still enjoy the privilege that comes with being white in Australia.

I don’t care what day we set aside >>>

<<< for celebrating what it is to be Australian. I think any date that is put forward is going to be problematic due to the pervasive nature of the horrors of the treatment of the Aboriginal peoples and the white Australia policy, etc.

My point is, this is not my fight but >>>

<<< I would absolutely support retaining Jan 26th as a day of commemoration, of mourning, of public education of the woeful history of white settlement in Australia, and finding a different day to celebrate what it means to be a current Australian - that melting pot of >>>

<<< immigrants and indigenous peoples and all the wonderful things we have achieved.

And let’s recognise this countries long indigenous history properly by making the Monday of NAIDOC Week a public holiday. I would love to be able to have a day off work to listen to local >>>

Dharawal people talk about their connections to the land, their contributions to art and culture, their voices on climate change and the environment.

I don’t think it’s that hard to be inclusive. And for any white people who think this is dismissive of your culture, >>>

<<< being white is not a culture. Being Irish or French or Russian is your culture. So, you can be proud of your cultural heritage, just as aboriginal people are proud of their cultural heritage, but you don’t get to be proud of being white because it is not a part of your >>>

<<< cultural heritage and it has not been a symbol of your oppression in this country.

You might face hardships and poverty, you might get ahead in life, but that has nothing to do with the colour of your skin. White privilege doesn’t mean you live an easy life, it means you >>>

<<< live an *easier* life than if you were a POC. Statistically, you’re less likely to be incarcerated and more like to attend higher education. That is white privilege. You are more likely to get a job and less likely to lose that job. That is white privilege.

So, this is >>>

<<< me, your friendly white person, telling you that if you want to celebrate the day that led to a stack of atrocities perpetrated by other white people, you go ahead but don’t hide that behind some false patriotic narrative.

After all, Australia Day has only been a >>>

<<< national day (Anniversary Day) since the 1930s - only a few years before my mother was born - and a national public holiday since 1994 - that’s within my lifetime.

Let’s grow as a nation and make peace with our past - both the glorious and the horrific.

/end