Australia Day in question

[Violet_Crumble]

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/01/25/wbOPspooner2601_wideweb__470x289,0.jpg

John Hirst
January 26, 2008

It is the nation's special day, but it is surrounded by division and has a contrived air about it.

AUSTRALIA Day has to have a council to promote it. That makes it unusual among national holidays. The trouble with this national holiday is that the event it celebrates has very little to do with the nation. The Australia Day Council's efforts at promotion are now closer to success, an outcome achieved

by forgetting the event and promoting celebration.

The event in question is the landing of Governor Phillip at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788, and the raising of the flag. The space for the flagpole had been cleared by convicts who comprised the majority of the first European settlers. For most of our history, the presence of the convicts made this a very difficult event to celebrate. At the 150th anniversary of this event in 1938 the organisers of the celebrations ruled that the convicts were not to be mentioned.

It was easy for three of the other states to avoid the convict taint of January 26, Victoria South Australia and Western Australia had their own foundation days that did not involve convicts. They were not keen to celebrate the foundation of convict Sydney.

<snip>

The day is now celebrated on the actual day, not the nearest Monday. It is a public holiday but if the day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, a Monday holiday is still thrown in. But the modern success of Australia Day has depended on shifting the focus from what happened on January 26 in Sydney; we are back to not mentioning the convicts. This gives it a contrived air: it is not anchored in a meaningful event fixed in popular imagination. There is the danger that in the celebrations that the Australia Day Council does not control, it becomes the occasion for a mindless national assertiveness.

We can be fairly confident that the move to an Australian republic will be unhurried. If the republic is proclaimed on January 26, the civic element of Australia Day will be better guaranteed.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/australia-day-in-question/2008/01/25/1201157665401.html?page=2

[Matilda]

1. I don't agree with the writer that the republic should be proclaimed on January 26th.

I've been thinking about that topic today - I know you don't follow
cricket, Violet, but as Australia plays India in the current Test, much
was made of the fact that while we celebrate Australia Day, India is
today celebrating Republic Day. How embarrassing for us - we're like the
kids who haven't yet grown up enough to rule our own country.

If January 26th is contrived for Australia Day, how much more contrived
will it be to call it Republic Day or whatever? I think when we're
finally ready, the Republic should just be proclaimed on whatever date
is convenient. It should have its own day, one that doesn't have any
association with colonial Australia, or any event that's gone before.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. I couldn't agree with you more on that...

I watch the Readers Digest condensed version of the Test on the nightly news, so I miss all the commentary, but I know what you mean. Back far before India was struggling to get its independence from Britain, we were being offered Dominion status and were rejecting it out of hand and in the end it was basically forced on us...

I think whatever date in the future is the date we become a Republic, that should be the date for Australia Day (as long as it falls on a day that's most likely to be a weekend so we can get a long weekend out of it!). Personally I find it impossible to celebrate a date that meant the beginning of the end for the indigenous people of this country, and even though one of my ancestors 'migrated' here on that date, and I think all that convict 'taint' stuff is nonsense, I don't see anything to celebrate about our colonial past. We should be celebrating what we are now, and it should be inclusive of all Australians....