Why I worked on Australia Day.








January 26.

 

This is always a date of contention for Australians.

 

Is it a day to celebrate, a day to commiserate, a day to mourn, or a day to celebrate resilience and survival?

 

 Why it's important for us to observe those things that make us proud to be Australians, it is also a good time to stop and reflect on what celebrating this day means for some Australians.

 

January 26 is meant to observe the day that captain Arthur Phillip founded the penal quality of NSW on already occupied aboriginal land in 1788, by raising an oversized Union Jack at Sydney Cove. Phillip was tasked with finding a suitable location to relocate convicts that had been exiled from Britain and in doing so disturbed, invaded, and occupied what we now know as Sydney.

 

It is important to remember that Australia was not the undiscovered, empty continent that we are sometimes led to believe.

 

On the 22nd of August 1770, Captain James Cook landed on Gweagal Country and called it Botany Bay, claiming the discovery of what we now know as Australia, implementing the doctrine of terra nullius which translate to ‘land belonging to no one ‘.  It is important to remember that cook understood the country was occupied, as a journal entry just one day before reads ‘in the PM we saw the smoke of fire in several places: a certain sign that the country is inhabited’.

 

To affirm that Australia was discovered is to actively erase history and perpetuate terra nullius. Archaeological evidence ties Aboriginal people to the mainland of Australia for over 65,000 years. It is estimated that between 1778 and 1900, the population of Aboriginal people decreased by their devastating 90% and despite the sugar-coated narrative of a peaceful British settlement, Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people actively resisted the British from the moment they invaded the country.  This resistance, however, was met with brutal and calculated massacres against average on tourist rate island of people, including children.

 

Research from the University of Newcastle has found that there were at least 270 state sanctioned massacres over 140 years in an attempt to eradicate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

 

By 1911, every state and territory in Australia had introduced ‘protection’ policies which gave the government almost full control over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

 

In 1915, the NSW government gained the power to remove Aboriginal children from their families at any time and for any reason. It is estimated that as many as one in three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were stolen from their families.

 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were subject to harsher policies of segregation and assimilation. This included controls over movement, where they could be, where they could live, the right to marry, and the right to speak their own language and their own family members. They also had limits on their right to practise culture.

 

Under this approach there's been the assumption of black as inferior and white is superior. The government attempted to assimilate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into settler society, believing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would die out through natural selection, and the ‘half castes’ (sic) could be converted to a ‘white citizens.

 

It is funny, how many Australians are fixated on the concept of this national day. In fact, the first official National Australia day was observed on the 30th of July 1915 to raise funds for World War One. Over the years, States and territories have held celebrations on varying dates, and it wasn't until 1994 that all States and territories across Australia landed on the national holiday - just a mere 29 years ago.

 

In 1930 8, as governments across the country insensitively prepared to celebrate 150 years of European settlement, a large group of Aboriginal people wore black clothing, as a sign of mourning. They gathered in Sydney to protest the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the ‘white man's seizure of this country’.

 

The day of mourning was one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world. It succeeded in raising national awareness about the conditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander l people. However, plans to boycott ‘Australia day’ celebrations were blatantly ignored and continued to be ignored to this very day.

 

I am a proud Australian. I am proud of this country and all that we have achieved. However, there are parts of our history that I am not proud of.

 

Australia day is not a harmonious celebration for all.

 

Australia day does not foster truth telling.

 

Australia day does not provide an appropriate reflection of history.

 

Australia day does not provide a day to gain a greater understanding of aboriginal tourist Rhode Island of people.

 

Australia day does not celebrate diversity.

 

Australia day does not respect all people, nor does it address the continued impacts of colonial violence and continued oppression.

 

When our highest average Ontario state Islander rates are not in suicide, prisons, and death in custody - then we may be a nation worth celebrating.

 

Let's call Australia day for what it is: it is invasion day.




 

  Niki Gent is the Principal Consultants for Family and Child Consultants.  With close to 20 years experience working with families and children Niki is passionate about empowerment and social justice for individuals, families and communities.

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