12yo: “What is Australia Day even for? What is it even celebrating?”
16yo: “Violence, theft and murder. Basically the invasion of Australia and the attempted wiping out of a whole race and culture.”
12yo: “Why would anyone want to celebrate that?”
16yo: “It’s so stupid and pointless.”
Are we even listening to our young people anymore? They won’t be continually fooled by “boomer” mentality. Get with the program. This date will change and so will how Australian History is taught in our schools. Our future is about truth, justice and empathy. I love my young people. 💚💛♥️🖤
As a boomer I've got to say that it was regarded as uncool and unAustralian in my youth to be jingoistic in the manner of the bogan flag-cape wearers of the past few decades. As a teacher (mostly retired except when I need to repair my home) I've got to say that the content of Australian History taught in schools changed dramatically in the 38 years of my permanency, but I'm not 100% sure of the damage inflicted by the conservatives trying to reimpose an English-centric white-washing of the past 200 years or so in the last 8 years or so. As someone fed-up with trying to explain what 26th January really means on social media, I usually now simply suggest listening to this tune, which your kids might know:
Trundling my suitcase along Turton Street to Central Station in Brisbane's CBD yesterday I wondered why so few folk were pouring out of the station to head to work. Working from home? Not until on the Skytrain to the Airport did it dawn on me that it was January 26. As my wife drove the 50+ km from Newcastle's Airport to home - she suddenly gasped: "Well, there's an Australian!" A huge flag of the kind much beloved as a backdrop by politicians naked without appeals to blind patriotism was fluttering from the side of a 4WD tradie's vehicle. "Oh!" I replied. But it was the only one we saw. We lived once in a place called Anna Bay (part of Port Stephens). Two houses before ours had a huge flagpole and an always fluttering flag. They must be "real" Australians - we would muse - and they were - of some local pentecostal cult membership. Even during all my years in Japan I could not take seriously those who on official public holidays would prop a miniature national flag alongside their letterboxes. And of those I could identify - they were generally of the nationalist right - just like here. After the evening news we watched the concert from Sydney's Opera House forecourt - were there any singers who did not have First Australians ancestry - if so they were in the tiny minority or with deep connections to their First Australians buddies. Invasion Day sits very well with me - and I was upsetting members of my First Fleet family by employing exactly that term nearly 40 years ago. So bravo, John - and for your dextrous employment of English - flights of phrases to freedom from euphemism!
It's bloody simple, isn't it? Celebrating the national day on Jan 26 rightly upsets the dispossessed part of the population, so how about we choose another day where we can celebrate UNITY? Nah, let's make it a culture war proxy instead, like gas stoves, utes, and roast lamb. Fuck me humans are brilliant at making things difficult and being cockheads to one another. Fuckin seriously.
PS I've got the day for you - July 9, the day the Constitution of Australia was enacted in 1900. Let's have a mid-winter public holiday celebrating the inauguration of what later became a semi-successful multicultural nation.
Good point JB mind you I have a couple of interesting observations like everyone else. I do some volunteer work with a group that provides first aid at events like Australia Day and ANZAC Day and so on. I am in the ACT, so we were given the National Australia Day event at Lake Burley Griffin. The crowd at the event was and usually is small to medium. It goes from 8:00 am to 11:00 roughly.
We had the usual Fleet Air Arm helicopter flying the flag doing laps of the lake. Some people from the local indigenous community doing the raising of the Aboriginal flag and some people from the Torres Strait Islander community raising the Torres Strait Island Flag. The ACT government got people from the RFS and SES and some of the local Nurses and Paramedics to raise the Australian Flag. Once the service was done I went home and had to cross Commonwealth Avenue. The local invasion day protest went through and it dwarfed the crowd at the Australia Day Ceremony.
I went into the suburbs to a shopping mall. To get some groceries and was greeted by a few young guys wearing the flag as capes ala the Cronulla riots. One held his hand up for a high five. Not wanting to cop crap from them I high fived him and went about my day. I noticed that the shopping mall was busy with people shopping and browsing. I also suspect that the roads to the NSW south coast will be busy. Personally I think that the date will change. Hopefully we will get over the culture war shit and have the "National Day" on a day we can all enjoy. last day of January would be a good day given it can be the start of the serious working year and of course the academic year and a last opportunity to enjoy the summer.
I abandoned any semblance of celebration for 26 January many years ago when the dessicated coconut turned the day into bogan ritual piss up. With generational change so called Australia Day will go down the same path as the Liberal Party, extinction, the sooner the better.
Australia Day in its current form is doomed because the younger generation just don't believe in it. It is an idea whose time has gone. 26 January does have a future though, as a day of sober reflection, when we consider what the arrival of the First Fleet has meant for the First Nations of this continent.
You know there might be something to run with in this statement. Combined with the above transcript of a couple teenagers perspective it seems that the general population is already moving at pace to a new paradigm on this topic. It is certainly the case in my social circles and corporate life (we also have the choice to move the PH to another day).
Perhaps that is the way forward, an unofficial subversive takeover of the day, eventually the pollies will catch up
The most recent justification I've heard for keeping it on 26th is some blather about the Act that turned us into Australian citizens instead of British citizens came into effect on 26 Jan in (I think) 1947.
That's technically true, but, especially considering that Aboriginal groups have been marking it as Invasion Day since at least 1938, it's post-facto bullshit.
I thought we because Australian citizens in 1988 with the Commonwealth of Australia Act. 1947 was when we passed the Statute of Westminster, and we backdated the effective date for that to 1939 to fix some administrative Whoopsies with WW2
During the very early 90's (I started going to Invasion Day al La Peruse and learnt myself a lot of stuff) Since then I've been increasingly bleugh about the whole Australia Day thing). Then when John Winston helped turn it into a cross between a British National Party piss up and the US's 4th of July) I went into full "This is for the racist Bogans, the very old, the intentionally ignorant mouth-breating lamp post lickers and the RWNJ grifters only, so fuck you all!"
But as many others here have mentioned, the tide is turning, and most of the younglings aren't buying into the whole white colonisationapallooza malarkey.
In Melbourne the invasion day rallies the last couple of years have so dwarfed the Australia Day parades that the state government announced a week ago that there wasn't going to be an Australia Day parade this year. Which highlights your point above that the tide seems to be turning that more people see it as a divisive date, not one that unites.
Countries celebrate decolonisation, independence. I'd appreciate someone pointing out who else celebrates thier successful invasion. Select company of our own stupidity.
The problem I have with all the politics about Invasion Day, the Voice and a Treaty is the stunning lack of awareness on how law (both international and domestic) the constitution and treaties work.
Let's look at the Voice. What the Uluru statement wanted was recognition in the constitution and a voice. While it can be implemented right now without changes, adding text recognising first Australians is desirable, and the proposed amendment rightly leaves details to Parliament, who can determine how it runs itself.
The Australia Day celebrations can be any day, it is only in NSW where Jan 26 was the date fixed as it is also foundation day of the NSW colony. The timing is convenient but you could go back to the old NSW method of having the day set as a Monday around that time.
The Treaty is more problematic for numerous reasons. Are First Australians sovereign? No, via international law of Conquest. Can they sign a legal treaty? No, unless there is a mechanism to bind the First Australians to any agreement made by representatives. The only person recognised under international law at the moment is Charles III, via rights bestowed by conquest. This is not a result that works well in solving the issue.
The only other way is the Waitangi method, a dubiously legal document that only became more valuable than the paper it's written on by both sides acting like it is valid. And given how much fun partisan politics is in Australia, can we expect all political parties to act as any treaty signed is valid? We can see now people on all sides of the political spectrum see opportunity in denigrating the Voice now, so my guess is no.
There needs to be some action to heal the wounds, but unless people understand how the constitution and treaty law works, I can't see any remedy
In remote Australia we'd just like some dentists, meaningful help with our foetal alcohol syndrome epidemic and some good employment opportunities for young people please. We've got more than enough Zacharys, judges and lawyers thanks. I'll vote for the voice because a fine gentleman called Tom Calma says that it will go a way to delivering the above and I trust him completely.
While watching the ABC Australia Day extravaganza last night (until I could no longer bear the overenthusiastic celebration of ... nothing really) I realised that an unexpected benefit of retiring this 'celebration of a nation' will be that such TV excess will no longer be tied to Sydney Harbour. Cue the outrage at Aunty! On whatever day we decide different localities can take ownership each year and we will no longer have to suffer the sequined jetski/sailing boat/motorised surfboard bs that passes for entertainment while erstwhile sober ABC presenters try waaaay too hard to sell an idea we are all done with. Bring it!
12yo: “What is Australia Day even for? What is it even celebrating?”
16yo: “Violence, theft and murder. Basically the invasion of Australia and the attempted wiping out of a whole race and culture.”
12yo: “Why would anyone want to celebrate that?”
16yo: “It’s so stupid and pointless.”
Are we even listening to our young people anymore? They won’t be continually fooled by “boomer” mentality. Get with the program. This date will change and so will how Australian History is taught in our schools. Our future is about truth, justice and empathy. I love my young people. 💚💛♥️🖤
As a boomer I've got to say that it was regarded as uncool and unAustralian in my youth to be jingoistic in the manner of the bogan flag-cape wearers of the past few decades. As a teacher (mostly retired except when I need to repair my home) I've got to say that the content of Australian History taught in schools changed dramatically in the 38 years of my permanency, but I'm not 100% sure of the damage inflicted by the conservatives trying to reimpose an English-centric white-washing of the past 200 years or so in the last 8 years or so. As someone fed-up with trying to explain what 26th January really means on social media, I usually now simply suggest listening to this tune, which your kids might know:
https://youtu.be/878H2fkw3L8
Trundling my suitcase along Turton Street to Central Station in Brisbane's CBD yesterday I wondered why so few folk were pouring out of the station to head to work. Working from home? Not until on the Skytrain to the Airport did it dawn on me that it was January 26. As my wife drove the 50+ km from Newcastle's Airport to home - she suddenly gasped: "Well, there's an Australian!" A huge flag of the kind much beloved as a backdrop by politicians naked without appeals to blind patriotism was fluttering from the side of a 4WD tradie's vehicle. "Oh!" I replied. But it was the only one we saw. We lived once in a place called Anna Bay (part of Port Stephens). Two houses before ours had a huge flagpole and an always fluttering flag. They must be "real" Australians - we would muse - and they were - of some local pentecostal cult membership. Even during all my years in Japan I could not take seriously those who on official public holidays would prop a miniature national flag alongside their letterboxes. And of those I could identify - they were generally of the nationalist right - just like here. After the evening news we watched the concert from Sydney's Opera House forecourt - were there any singers who did not have First Australians ancestry - if so they were in the tiny minority or with deep connections to their First Australians buddies. Invasion Day sits very well with me - and I was upsetting members of my First Fleet family by employing exactly that term nearly 40 years ago. So bravo, John - and for your dextrous employment of English - flights of phrases to freedom from euphemism!
It's bloody simple, isn't it? Celebrating the national day on Jan 26 rightly upsets the dispossessed part of the population, so how about we choose another day where we can celebrate UNITY? Nah, let's make it a culture war proxy instead, like gas stoves, utes, and roast lamb. Fuck me humans are brilliant at making things difficult and being cockheads to one another. Fuckin seriously.
PS I've got the day for you - July 9, the day the Constitution of Australia was enacted in 1900. Let's have a mid-winter public holiday celebrating the inauguration of what later became a semi-successful multicultural nation.
Good point JB mind you I have a couple of interesting observations like everyone else. I do some volunteer work with a group that provides first aid at events like Australia Day and ANZAC Day and so on. I am in the ACT, so we were given the National Australia Day event at Lake Burley Griffin. The crowd at the event was and usually is small to medium. It goes from 8:00 am to 11:00 roughly.
We had the usual Fleet Air Arm helicopter flying the flag doing laps of the lake. Some people from the local indigenous community doing the raising of the Aboriginal flag and some people from the Torres Strait Islander community raising the Torres Strait Island Flag. The ACT government got people from the RFS and SES and some of the local Nurses and Paramedics to raise the Australian Flag. Once the service was done I went home and had to cross Commonwealth Avenue. The local invasion day protest went through and it dwarfed the crowd at the Australia Day Ceremony.
I went into the suburbs to a shopping mall. To get some groceries and was greeted by a few young guys wearing the flag as capes ala the Cronulla riots. One held his hand up for a high five. Not wanting to cop crap from them I high fived him and went about my day. I noticed that the shopping mall was busy with people shopping and browsing. I also suspect that the roads to the NSW south coast will be busy. Personally I think that the date will change. Hopefully we will get over the culture war shit and have the "National Day" on a day we can all enjoy. last day of January would be a good day given it can be the start of the serious working year and of course the academic year and a last opportunity to enjoy the summer.
Absolutely on the money JB.
I abandoned any semblance of celebration for 26 January many years ago when the dessicated coconut turned the day into bogan ritual piss up. With generational change so called Australia Day will go down the same path as the Liberal Party, extinction, the sooner the better.
Yep same.
Australia Day in its current form is doomed because the younger generation just don't believe in it. It is an idea whose time has gone. 26 January does have a future though, as a day of sober reflection, when we consider what the arrival of the First Fleet has meant for the First Nations of this continent.
Jan 26 is cruel and needs to be abolished. End of story.
It's already transforming into something more like ANZAC Day (or what ANZAC Day should be) - a day to remember the history in all its complications.
You know there might be something to run with in this statement. Combined with the above transcript of a couple teenagers perspective it seems that the general population is already moving at pace to a new paradigm on this topic. It is certainly the case in my social circles and corporate life (we also have the choice to move the PH to another day).
Perhaps that is the way forward, an unofficial subversive takeover of the day, eventually the pollies will catch up
The most recent justification I've heard for keeping it on 26th is some blather about the Act that turned us into Australian citizens instead of British citizens came into effect on 26 Jan in (I think) 1947.
That's technically true, but, especially considering that Aboriginal groups have been marking it as Invasion Day since at least 1938, it's post-facto bullshit.
I thought we because Australian citizens in 1988 with the Commonwealth of Australia Act. 1947 was when we passed the Statute of Westminster, and we backdated the effective date for that to 1939 to fix some administrative Whoopsies with WW2
I'm just reproducing what I remember of something I read the other day. You may be correct about the finer details.
Although I'm pretty sure the effective date wasn't back-dated to 1939.
During the very early 90's (I started going to Invasion Day al La Peruse and learnt myself a lot of stuff) Since then I've been increasingly bleugh about the whole Australia Day thing). Then when John Winston helped turn it into a cross between a British National Party piss up and the US's 4th of July) I went into full "This is for the racist Bogans, the very old, the intentionally ignorant mouth-breating lamp post lickers and the RWNJ grifters only, so fuck you all!"
But as many others here have mentioned, the tide is turning, and most of the younglings aren't buying into the whole white colonisationapallooza malarkey.
In Melbourne the invasion day rallies the last couple of years have so dwarfed the Australia Day parades that the state government announced a week ago that there wasn't going to be an Australia Day parade this year. Which highlights your point above that the tide seems to be turning that more people see it as a divisive date, not one that unites.
Countries celebrate decolonisation, independence. I'd appreciate someone pointing out who else celebrates thier successful invasion. Select company of our own stupidity.
The problem I have with all the politics about Invasion Day, the Voice and a Treaty is the stunning lack of awareness on how law (both international and domestic) the constitution and treaties work.
Let's look at the Voice. What the Uluru statement wanted was recognition in the constitution and a voice. While it can be implemented right now without changes, adding text recognising first Australians is desirable, and the proposed amendment rightly leaves details to Parliament, who can determine how it runs itself.
The Australia Day celebrations can be any day, it is only in NSW where Jan 26 was the date fixed as it is also foundation day of the NSW colony. The timing is convenient but you could go back to the old NSW method of having the day set as a Monday around that time.
The Treaty is more problematic for numerous reasons. Are First Australians sovereign? No, via international law of Conquest. Can they sign a legal treaty? No, unless there is a mechanism to bind the First Australians to any agreement made by representatives. The only person recognised under international law at the moment is Charles III, via rights bestowed by conquest. This is not a result that works well in solving the issue.
The only other way is the Waitangi method, a dubiously legal document that only became more valuable than the paper it's written on by both sides acting like it is valid. And given how much fun partisan politics is in Australia, can we expect all political parties to act as any treaty signed is valid? We can see now people on all sides of the political spectrum see opportunity in denigrating the Voice now, so my guess is no.
There needs to be some action to heal the wounds, but unless people understand how the constitution and treaty law works, I can't see any remedy
In remote Australia we'd just like some dentists, meaningful help with our foetal alcohol syndrome epidemic and some good employment opportunities for young people please. We've got more than enough Zacharys, judges and lawyers thanks. I'll vote for the voice because a fine gentleman called Tom Calma says that it will go a way to delivering the above and I trust him completely.
I'm good with the 26th so long as we rename it to Invasion Day. Don't come to my BBQ if that makes you sad.
While watching the ABC Australia Day extravaganza last night (until I could no longer bear the overenthusiastic celebration of ... nothing really) I realised that an unexpected benefit of retiring this 'celebration of a nation' will be that such TV excess will no longer be tied to Sydney Harbour. Cue the outrage at Aunty! On whatever day we decide different localities can take ownership each year and we will no longer have to suffer the sequined jetski/sailing boat/motorised surfboard bs that passes for entertainment while erstwhile sober ABC presenters try waaaay too hard to sell an idea we are all done with. Bring it!