Australia Day
Whether you do or don’t celebrate it is important to understand what actually happened on the 26th of January.
Words by Kailani Petkovic
Every January on the 26th a very similar debate divides the nation, Australia Day. Some set up their BBQs on the beach, some take to the streets in protest and others ignore the day completely. Whether you do or don’t celebrate it is important to understand what actually happened on the 26th of January and why that is Australia Day.
On the 26th of January 1788 Arthur Phillip, a British Royal Navy Officer, lead 11 British ships into Sydney Cove and raised the United Kingdom flag to declare the land as a British colony. Slowly all areas of Australia started to recognise this as the National Day of Australia and by 1935 every Australian State had officially declared the 26th as Australia Day. In essence, it was chosen as Australia was first a colony of Britain and the 26th was when it was first named as such. But do not be fooled, Arthur Phillip and his ships were not the first to call that patch of land home, they were just the first to raise a big red and blue flag there, which for the British declares ownership of land.
It does beg the question, if the 26th is when Australia became a British colony when did it become its own country? Australia is certainly not a British colony anymore. Well, it is the 1st of January 1901, but that’s New Years Day, so it never stuck with Australians that this day is the day we became a country. So, the 26th is it then?
However, many Indigenous Australians have been campaigning for many years that the 26th is not a day for celebration, it is a day of mourning. A day that started a snowball effect which led to an attempted genocide and pushed the narrative that Ingenious people are ‘inferior’. When the people in those 11 ships set up camp in Syndey Cove, they were setting up camp on other people’s land. It is the literal definition of someone coming into your backyard and setting up shop because you aren’t there 100% of the time. How would you feel if they celebrated once a year that they moved in?
Now, I’m not writing this to tell you not to celebrate being Australian, you are allowed to celebrate the country you live in. My point is to instead bring light to the fact that when other people, other Australians, tell you that they are in a time of mourning you shouldn’t eat a sausage in their face and tell them to ‘get over it’. Maybe listen to their stories and their voice to move that date to any other time of the year, cause really, is your Australian identity that weak that it can only be celebrated on one day of the year.