The Australia Talks National Survey 2021 has revealed a majority of people now believe Australia Day should not be celebrated on January 26, given the historical significance of the date for Indigenous nations. The number of people who agree with that sentiment has jumped by 12 percentage points since the last Australia Talks survey in 2019 one of the biggest moves in public sentiment between the two surveys. // console.log('Changed ' + all_links.href); s.async = true; A protest that has never dissipated in the decades that followed. Get the latest inspiration, intelligence, events & more. As more organisations seek to observe the history of the date, his two teenage daughters, Sienna-Swan and Krystal-Rose, perform at multiple ceremonies each year. A day we come together and reflect on our collective national history. Crazily enough, it wasnt until 2008 that the then prime minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized to the Aboriginals for the atrocities committed against them, like forced child removals and cultural destruction through assimilation. His view is that Australia Day should remain on January 26, but he wants to see a national holiday on January 25 to honour Indigenous communities. Six years later, triple js Hottest 100 is just as popular, despite not occurring on January 26 and theres barely been any discussion about the date change since. And they are wrong for seven reasons. Thats a full 64 years before the day became an official holiday. // console.log('Changed ' + all_links.href); The annual public holiday on January 26 was establishedin 1994, and thousands of new Australians use the occasion to attend their citizenship ceremonies. Australia Day does not exist on January 26. One is to scrap the celebration completely, which, given that Australia is rooted in colonialism, and any celebration of it would be celebrating this fact is a fair argument. Several local councils around the country have stopped celebrating Australia Day on January 26 against the wishes of the Federal Government. } j = d.createElement( s ), dl = l != 'dataLayer' ? More and more Australians continue to change their minds over whether this date is an appropriate time to celebrate Australia Day. While marketed as a day of celebration, January 26 marks the day that Australias First Nations people lost their country. Today is not a protest: we gather to reflect on why this date is better than any of the other 364 days. I got a column called timeentered from table table_test which is stored in date format (Australia time). It is NOT a deportation letter to those who dont identify. Change the Date and we will dismantle the systems and structures that oppress us.. And, now the insensitivity is well known, its selfish not to change the date again. Write letters to your elected officials and demand change. display: none; In 2004, a Newspoll survey that asked if the date of Australia Day should be moved to one that is not associated with European settlement found 79 per cent of respondents favoured no change, 15 . We cannot seek an end to the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by cajoling the broad majority of Australians with soft entreaties of change the date. It will always be the day that the First (not really) Fleet came to Australia. .podcast-banner.show_mobile { January 26 does have historical significance. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and thank them for protecting Country since time immemorial. Info here. The colonisation of Australia was done through force, displacing Indigenous communities from their ancestral homelands. if(all_links.href.search(/^http/) != -1 && all_links.href.search('www.pedestrian.tv') == -1 && all_links.href.search(/^#/) == -1) { Like Christmas Day, Australia Day is a holiday where most. Having an alternative date will still mean they are celebrating the colonial project here in so-called Australia, Ruby Wharton, (Gamilaraay Kooma), member of the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance and the Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy, told Clothing the Gap, a Victorian Aboriginal owned and led social enterprise. // Load Wouldnt that send a better message to everyone that Australia Day is a day intended for ALL Australians to celebrate? Each year a person is named Australian of . Not until 1994 did they begin to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on that date." Its also not like this day has been celebrated for a very long time. Tales of white benevolence, whether real or imagined, will not obliterate stories of what was stolen or lost. Traditional low carb, high fat keto s primary goal is usually rapid weight loss keto diet philosophy weight loss motivators or a reduction of . Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents agreed the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained renewed tractionlast year after the murder of George Floyd in the US, was making an important contribution to conversations about racial injustice in Australia. There are many things we want to celebrate about Australia, but 26 January doesn't represent an inclusive day for everyone. But thats inaccurate. According to SBS, Yarra Council and Darebin Council in Melbourne also voted to cancel citizenship ceremonies on this date for the same reason. Ive written about that date before, its origins and forgotten storiesand recent almost-comical attempts to protect a public holiday. It will always be a day of protest for as long as there are things that need to be protested against. It was inconsiderate to have changed the date in 1994 to the 26th January. There are many other options that would be far more unifying and inclusive, Duke said. You can buy her debut book How to Win Every Argument (from $4.99) here. The Australia Talks National Survey asked 60,000 Australians about their lives and what keeps them up at night. On January 26, 1788, Arthur Phillip, who had sailed into what is now Sydney Cove with a shipload of convicts, hoisted the British flag at the site. w[ l ].push( { 26 January is an important day in our history, but it is not a day for celebrations. I believe were almost there which explains the frantic push back. .postid-1764461 .sidebar-widget.popular-jobs-widget{ Australia Day should be a day that reflects what our ideals are and how we imagine our country. To many Australians, Australia Day is just another day off. 18 January 2018. change_link = false; if(change_link == true) { "A celebration of Australia should happen on a different date so we can have a day of reflection on 26 Jan for the broad Australian population to become familiar with the atrocities that have been committed to the Aboriginal people since white settlement." Many responders said they just wanted a public holiday. window.dm.AjaxEvent = function(et, d, ssid, ad){ We hope that a constructive conversation can continue with the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander groups so we can find an inclusive day to celebrate our Australian Day. And how can we celebrate our nation on a date that so many mourn? For many people, January 26 means two things: a public holiday and a boozy BBQ celebration. And why would the Australian government want to remind them every year of what was done to them? Below is an excerpt from Crystal Andrews book How To Win Every Argument: A No-Filter Guide To Being Right About Everything. Crescent Foundation Its like ignoring the pleas and plights of the biggest populace of what makes Australia uniquely Australia. Indigenous groups have been protesting against celebrating January 26th as any sort of public holiday for90 years now!!! breadboard. func(); The marking of 26 January is an important date in Australia's history and has changed over time: starting as a celebration for emancipated convicts and evolving into what is . Celebrating on this day is an acknowledgment of the first time Europeans inhabited Australian land: men, women and children. Even though many Australians are apathetic about the date that Australia Day should be held (56% polled saidthey didnt care about it), other Australians, including Aboriginals want the date changed. So, before you get into a Facebook comment war with a profile picture of a V8 Commodore, read the below excerpt from How to Win Every Argument: A No-Filter Guide to Being Right About Everything. Our treatment of Indigenous peoples, of asylum seekers, of the homeless, of the unemployed, of women, of veterans, of pensioners (the list goes on and on) is not great. For all the outrage seen from politicians at the time, this change hasnt undermined Australia Day or caused them to rethink the conversation. 4. In fact, if you consider that the Aboriginals are the backbone of the Australian nation, then its actually beinghighly patrioticto support this change the date Australia Day to some other day. For First Nations people, this is a day of mourning called Invasion Day. window.onload = function(){ Nayuka Gorrie, No Matter Which Day the Country Chooses to Host Its Australia Day, I Will Not Be Participating, NITV, 24 January 2019. Already others have suggested alternative dates such as ANZAC Day on April 25th. Social structures implanted by the new arrivals were not beneficial for First Peoples, who were barred from economic participation and denied genuine access to education, health and justice until approximately the 1970s. Found a perfect sample but need a unique one? We hope that soon Australia Day will be a celebration for all Australians, by all Australians, and one that embraces, or at least doesnt neglect, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures. Just Another Australia Day Post Hoping To Make You Feel All The Feels. It involves an active commitment to reform, which includes paying the rent. change_link = true; January 26 is the legacy of the horrific past and the connection of this trauma to the present. May 27, to mark the day in 1967 when Australia held a referendum to include Indigenous Australians in the census. This movement sparked a number of much-needed conversations including the ways in which systemic racism operates within this country. Its important to understand that colonialism is still ongoing. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed on May 9, 1901, when Australia's first parliament convened and the six British colonies merged to . Mr Wyatt questioned the Australia Talks findings. Our work is only made possible because of you. .postid-1764461 .panel-signup { Although we acknowledge that changing dates will by no means address or make up for the full detriment of non-Indigenous actions, nor will it solve the long term, ongoing impacts and complexities of colonialism, we do believe its a step in the right direction towards reconciliation. Join us! The history of Australia, and the history of its national day, is fraught with controversy and suffering.There are a tonne of good reasons why the calls to change the date get louder each year and there is growing recognition amongst the non-Indigenous population that January 26th is not the date to celebrate. document.links[t].removeAttribute('target'); According to the official Australia Day website, all states and territories didnt use the name Australia Day to mark the occasion until 1935. It would be ideal for all Australians to celebrate Australia Day together but for our First Peoples, 26 January is a Day of Mourning which signifies the beginning of. Does Medical Insurance Cover . For First Nations peoples, changing the date would acknowledge the pain associated with January 26. At the time, many people pledged to educate themselves on what it takes to be an effective anti-racist ally. 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