Advance Australia Fair

Australia Day- A national public holiday in Australia, commemorating the founding on 26 January 1788 of the colony of New South Wales

Invasion day. Survival day. Australia day.

This is the date white Europeans decided this land belonged to them.

This is the date of the beginning of one of grossest atrocities in human history.

This is was not the day Australia was founded or created.

When Europeans conquered this once sacred, harmonious country, when they choose this great red rock as a place worthy of dumping their criminals. They also choose to destroy its’ rightful owners.

No matter what peace, what co-existence between aboriginal and European people there ever was or ever will be, we cannot burl the scars of our history.

We raped them. We tortured them. We murdered mothers in front of their children. Tried to assimilate, to exterminate the most ancient living human cultures.

The 26th

And how do we commemorate it?

As a day to celebrate our nation’s identity. Identity? Identity Crisis.

We claim this day as one of binge drinking and radio listening. Not of recognition. A day to parade around wearing the Australian flag, marked with the same Union Jack that created more pain for Aboriginal people as the blade of a sword.

The white faces of Australian identity clutch to their cases of VB like the children that, stripped of their families struggled to hold on to their heritage.

How deeply do you resonate with lamingtons and barbeques?

Are “Crikey and G’day” your ancestor’s mother tongue?

How do you feel about our ‘new’, ‘young’, ‘lucky’ country?

The 26th

What happened to their culture doesn’t matter when celebrate ours.

Ignore the spirits in the rocks, the voices beneath the red sand, the traditions that rest in the flames of the ceremonial fire, and the culture that is buried with the bones of the ancestors of this land. Being inclusive means grabbing our culture and shoehorning it into something else. It means doing a quick "acknowledgement of country" then carrying on with the celebration of colonisation.

For the people who have walked the earth of this country for 60, 000 years:

A day of protest.

An hour long church service.

A minute of silence.

Minutes, hours, days, try years.

Try over 200 years since colonisation. Try 200 years of destruction, of butchery, of pain.

"It's not our fault, why should we be sorry for something we didn't do"

People also use the excuse that it was not them who created this suffering, however all Australians regardless of their age have benefited from the dispossession of indigenous people. We now enjoy what we call 'Australia' at the expense of another culture, and that is something that needs to be acknowledged. Our nations dark past can not be swept under the rug any longer, Australian's need to acknowledge the price others have paid for their Privilege.

It might not have been your hands around the neck of a Aiabakan mother, not your eyes burning holes into the bond between a Jabuda brother and his sister as you pulled them apart, not your house where a Nmatjera man stayed not long after his abduction, not your church where a Yandairunga woman was forced to pray to a god that was not hers.

It might not have even been your ancestors.

But it is your country, your history.

And it is not yours to ignore

The 26th

The day the indigenous people started to face our disgusting, embarrassing attempt at genocide. The day we need to say sorry for what we did and what is still happening today.

Raise your awareness instead of your beer.

Be thankful for a beautiful country, but sorry for its people.

What we are proposing is that Australia day is not day dedicated to celebrate Australian “Culture”, nor dedicated to mourn the genocide of a race and culture, but rather a celebration of the land.

The rich soil on which we stand. Show our grace and praise for the opportunity to live in such a culturally diverse nation to recreate a cultural identity which recognises our history, and also acknowledges we are a country that is just shy off the Asia Continent. Papua New Guinea is Australia’s brother and sister, bound by the same waters and rocks and we too fail to respect and acknowledge this.

Australia day, is a day to celebrate the red earth.

Australia day, to celebrate the traditions and culture ingrained in the sand, and pay our respects to the mothers of the land.

Australia day, a day to celebrate our diverse and multicultural country.