Australia Day: What's In a Date?

 Greetings,

Every year when the 26th of January rolls around there are celebrations and protests about "Australia Day", or what some people now call "Invasion Day" in empathy for the indigenous peoples who were present on the continent when the Europeans arrived and settled. This is a contentious subject of dates and questions of what will make people happy, and in the end there will always be a group of people who will be unhappy about the date or the celebrations.

26th January is commonly known as "Australia Day" and the beginning of the country, is not accurate, even from an historical perspective. It may have been the date of arrival for settlers to the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. I say "may" because unless someone pulls the logs from Captain Arthur Philip's ship or his personal diary, or some equivalent, we will never know the date of disembarkation.

Either way there is a problem, I say the Colony of New South Wales because "Australia" did not exist until 1901, when it was federated, so historically there is kind of a problem to start with. "Australia" cannot technically count its birth-date back to 1788, but only 1901. Federation, the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia occurred on 1st January. This is kind of an inconvenient day for a celebration of national pride considering the celebrations that already occur on that day.

Almost 100 years before Federation, the 26th of January was more significantly as it marked the beginning of the Rum Rebellion, Australia's only coup d'état, where Governor Bligh (Yes, that Bligh, the one infamous for the mutiny on the "Bounty") was forcefully removed from office by the next governor Governor Macarthur. Australians tend to only get up in arms when they really have had enough, have a look at the Eureka Stockade. Maybe the date should be set to the date of either of these, well it is for the first, 3 December is the other end of the year, for Eureka. Again, not Australia, all before Federation. They do, however point toward the Australian psyche as the larrakin.

Consider that one of the most famous, and beloved folk-heroes in Australian history is one Edward "Ned" Kelly, a bushranger (who attempted to start a rebellion of his own, according to his letters and some of his most ardent historians), and you have much of Australian mentality down; rebels, but lazy ones. Fight for the underdog, but not quite enough energy to stand next to them all that often.

Any date that is chosen is going to annoy some one. There are some who are campaigning to change it to May 8, "Mate Day", Australians are colloquially known as saying "G'day mate." and calling each other "mate" so it is trying to harness this idea. It will coincide with World Red Cross Day and also VE (Victory in Europe) Day, among other days. If it is left the same it will annoy, if it is changed it will annoy. As with any matter of contention, it is a matter of choosing who you are going to annoy, and what's the point of doing it in the first place?

Personally, I think it is more the purpose of the day which is important, not its date, not the remembrance of some small fleet of boats which arrived in some bay some 200+ years ago. It is the gathering of all the people of a nation together, regardless of where they originally came from, where their ancestors were from, and recognise that we are all from here, this is our nation, this is a place which we hold dear to our hearts. Find the things that we have in common with one another, not the differences; find the ways in which we can work together, not against one another; find the ways that we can truly be friends and communities together for the benefit of our nation.

Cheers,

Henry.