Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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We’ll never have unity around January 26, argues Jeff McMullen. So it’s time to start talking about a new national day.
There is something absurd about celebrating Australia Day on January 26th. It’s even crazier in this important year when there is intense national debate about Treaties, Sovereignty and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want to be recognised.
We pretend as a nation to care what our First People say and want, but since 1938 when Pearl Gibbs, Jack Patton, William Cooper and Bill Ferguson led the first Day of Mourning by Aboriginal people, it has been perfectly clear that most cannot and will not joyfully celebrate a day of dispossession.
The whole thing is a tragic hoax that began when Sydney wanted to assert its superiority over the rest of the country by commemorating the day the English fleet sailed through the Heads. I am surprised Queenslanders fell for it.
Most of the country showed common sense for years by ignoring January 26th and it was not until 1994 that the whole country joined in this phony national holiday.
To choreograph a shallow display of unity and nationalism, somehow expecting the First People of this land to ignore the history and the enormous injustice, shows we have not yet matured. We need to set a lot of things right and be serious about unity.
Most of the First Peoples have long said that they want something better, a recognition of the land and its people, a history that is at least 2,000 generations old, not the few hundred years since the English Fleet.
The National Hoax: How Did Queensland Ever Fall For Australia Day? - New Matilda
The author said a republic is coming sooner than people think.
There is something absurd about celebrating Australia Day on January 26th. It’s even crazier in this important year when there is intense national debate about Treaties, Sovereignty and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want to be recognised.
We pretend as a nation to care what our First People say and want, but since 1938 when Pearl Gibbs, Jack Patton, William Cooper and Bill Ferguson led the first Day of Mourning by Aboriginal people, it has been perfectly clear that most cannot and will not joyfully celebrate a day of dispossession.
The whole thing is a tragic hoax that began when Sydney wanted to assert its superiority over the rest of the country by commemorating the day the English fleet sailed through the Heads. I am surprised Queenslanders fell for it.
Most of the country showed common sense for years by ignoring January 26th and it was not until 1994 that the whole country joined in this phony national holiday.
To choreograph a shallow display of unity and nationalism, somehow expecting the First People of this land to ignore the history and the enormous injustice, shows we have not yet matured. We need to set a lot of things right and be serious about unity.
Most of the First Peoples have long said that they want something better, a recognition of the land and its people, a history that is at least 2,000 generations old, not the few hundred years since the English Fleet.
The National Hoax: How Did Queensland Ever Fall For Australia Day? - New Matilda
The author said a republic is coming sooner than people think.