Changing Australia Day

“I think we should change the date of Australia Day. We were invaders and conquerors in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived and we took this land from the Aborigines. January 26 just doesn’t sit right with me and I’d prefer it were changed.”

Others have suggested February 13 would be appropriate as the anniversary of the federal Parliament’s apology for the Stolen Generation. Personally, I am not so keen on this date, as the history regarding the Stolen Generations is only part - and far from the worst part- of the injustices inflicted on Indigenous Australians.

Despite Kevin Rudd having already said the answer is “no”, I agree with Prof Dodson, and others like the chair of the Australia Day Council, Adam Gilchrist, that it is good idea to have this conversation and become more aware of our own history and what being Australian should be about.

However, I very much doubt there will be any movement on this topic until after the Australian people have agreed for Australia to become a Republic. Once that last major symbolic linkage to our colonial past is gone (apart from the Union Jack on the corner of our flag), perhaps we will be more capable of the sort of mature debate Prof Dodson has called for.

If Australia does become a republic, the anniversary of that date could also be a candidate Australia Day. Of course, it would be easy to have a Republic commence formally on January 26, but one of the other dates mentioned might be more suitable.

For me, the ideal day would be the one marking when the Australian nation finally adopted a Treaty with Indigenous Australians, to mark us finally coming together as a united, reconciled and settled nation. We will never really be into the post-colonial era until this happens.

However, despite this also being one of the recommendations of the final report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation which Labor’s National Platform promises to implement, if we wait that long before looking to change the date of Australia Day, we could well be waiting a very long time indeed.