Crimes against Australia: Why we should change the date for Australia Day
By Arshia Rana, Glen Waverley Secondary College
In order to understand the crimes that we celebrate on the 26th of January, I’d like to recite to you a story I once heard in a YouTube video. Imagine you live in a share house and your housemates want to hold a house party on Saturday night. You say, oh can we not do Saturday night, that’s the day that my dad died. Now a good roomie would say, of course, my condolences, let's change the date. But here’s the plot twist. Your roommate moved in without your permission, by declaring the house unoccupied and they don’t pay rent and their dad killed your dad. Now they can’t change what their dad did. But they can show respect and change the date of that party.
The 26th of January is celebrated every year as Australia Day. It’s supposed to be a day that we can come together, respect our diversity and take pride in our Australian identity. However, not every Australian is able to do so on the 26th of January.
When I say that the date for Australia Day should be changed, what I am fighting for is not the denial of history. But rather quite the opposite. In fact, I want history to be acknowledged for what it is. And the fact of the matter is that on the 26th of January Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney Cove and raised the Union Flag, wrongfully taking ownership of a country that has always belonged to the indigenous people of this nation.
What follows is often described as the exploration and colonisation of Australia, but what this day truly marks is the beginning of a genocide. And to deny that is ignorant of the loss of life sustained by the aboriginal population as a result of British settlement. Research conducted by the University of Newcastle estimates that after the 26th of January more than 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were killed in 403 massacres. This meets the definition of genocidal killings.
The day that Eddie Mabo won his case, is when terra nullius was acknowledged as false, that our country always had and will belong to indigenous Australians. It is the day when Australia acknowledged that the so-called colonisation was based on a lie, it was an invasion.
I’d also like to address that politicians have made many insensitive comments about British settlement that highlight their lack of understanding of the issue. For example, a frontbench, Minister in the government has said that British settlement in Australia and I quote “may not have gone perfectly well”. I thank the minister for this wonderful insight. I’m inclined to agree that the theft of land from and massacres of the native peoples of Australia was not quite perfect. In all seriousness, as I’ve pointed out earlier, this is a gross understatement.
This minister has also flippantly stated that of course, British settlement had, quote unquote “implications for aboriginal Australians”. Need I remind, you that these implications include the loss of sovereign rights to their land, loss of rights to practice their culture, loss of family and loss of life. It is absurd, for a seemingly progressive nation like Australia to continue to celebrate a day that is a commemoration of deep loss for many.
Those that are opposed to changing the date, seem insistent that although, settlement was not carried out in a moral way, life today is still substantially than it would have been without colonisation. Mr Tony Abbott himself said that “not everything’s perfect in contemporary Australia…but it's hard to imagine a better Australia in the absence of the Western civilisation”.
And while some form of advanced technology would have still found its way to our shores at some point, it is true that our industrialisation wouldn’t be at its level without colonisation. We wouldn’t have our economic trade partnerships and our privilege to enjoy goods from other countries had it not been for settlement. However, we also wouldn’t have a whole generation of indigenous children stolen, separated from their parents, stripped of their culture and assimilated into “white” culture.
And it’s not just in the past, but the long term effects these actions have caused trauma, trickling down generations, leading to a decline in emotional, spiritual, social, even physical well-being for Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal Australians have some of the worst mortality rates, life expectancies, substance abuse and crime rates.
So yes, Australia would not be what it is today without colonisation. But reflecting on our history should include not just celebrating how far we’ve come as a nation, like Tony Abbott suggests, but also acknowledging that things could be better. Non-indigenous Australians can’t change and are not responsible for what the early settlers did. But we are responsible for what our future looks like. And that involves respect, an honest reflection of our history and modern day and initiating actions to amend mistakes.
I do acknowledge, that changing the date can be tokenistic when it comes to reconciliation, meaning that it has no substantial effect on improving the lives of indigenous Australians. However, consider this, the speech which former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made in 2013, officially apologising to the First Nations people for the Stolen Generation, was also intangible. But this event in our past has proved the importance of the Government admitting the wrongs of ancestors even if it is intangible.
Australia Day is symbolic of our Australian identity, and what does it say about our culture to tie our identity to British settlement. Australia Day should be about celebrating our diverse people, not about the landing of the British. Australia’s whole personality at this point is kangaroos, koalas and British colonisation. Changing the date is also something that we can do right now, to show the nation that we concede the wrongdoings of our early settlers and are willing to take steps to right those wrongs.
Now, a more appropriate day to celebrate the unity of our nation would be the 6th of July, where the constitution of Australia, the document that governs our policy and practice, was officially recognised in 1990. This date fits the formal criteria, in that it holds meaning to us politically that our constitution was officially recognised, one of the biggest steps towards becoming our own nation.
For most Australians, the actual date doesn’t really matter. Australia Day is just a day to get together with your mates, have a barbie and have a day off work. And we will still be able to do that on a different day. Australians will still be able to throw a frisbee on the 6th of July.
The only difference is that all Australians will be able to truly enjoy it. In 2017, ex-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said that “most Australians accept 26 January as Australia Day” but an integral part of them, more than 40%, don’t. Changing the date is a simple decision that we can make immediately. To those that it doesn’t affect, the change will not be too significant and for those that it does affect, the change will be a meaningful step towards acknowledging the impact of colonisation on indigenous Australians.