
January 26th. Australia Day. Invasion Day. Survival Day.
No matter what you call it, we can all agree there’s no other date on the calendar that divides the country with the same intensity as this one. This debate over what day of the year is most appropriate to celebrate Australia on – or in fact, whether Australia is worth celebrating at all – is one of the most emotionally distressing and socially ostracising topics that myself and most of my Indigenous brothers and sisters are forced to face every single year.
WATCH: Why January 26th is one of the most complex dates in Australia. Post continues below.
Quite often it feels as though, as far as our governments and a portion of non-Indigenous Australian’s are concerned, we Indigenous Australians should “get over it”, with all the “handouts” and special considerations we’re supposedly overwhelmed with, how dare we ask the generous white hand that feeds us for more, right?
And the mere suggestion of changing our national celebration from a date that marks the moment over two centuries of oppression began its infliction on the nation’s first people, is “Un-Australian.”
Don’t get me wrong, I am unequivocally proud to call myself an Australian. I have been lucky to travel to many parts of the world, and each time I do I am only reassured that we live on the most beautiful continent on the planet. But, I am also certain in my belief that the state of Australia today remains to systematically discriminate against and consciously situate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, below the rest of the population.