As a young Australian, I’ve always seen the 26th of January as a day of lamingtons, barbecues and national pride. But as I got older, and as society progressed, I came to realise the darker side of this date. January 26th 1788 marks the day the British invaded Australia and made it their own. Without this happening, I wouldn’t be here, and this invasion has never come to mind on Australia Day. This time last year, I was only just becoming aware of the feelings of Indigenous Australians surrounding the date. I can imagine it would be upsetting to see your country use the day as an excuse to celebrate, fire up the barbecue and have a beer on the day that marks the minoring of your community. Buzzfeed Australia posted a YouTube video last year to give aboriginal people an opportunity to voice their feelings about the day that celebrates their loss of the rights to their land, their rights to practice their culture and the loss of family.
The reality is that the British did invade the Indigenous people’s land, and they showed little remorse in simply ridding the land of those who stood in their way to protect their home. It was a time of loss and fighting for the ATSI community, and it’s time to change the date.
There has been uproar over considerations to change the traditional day, but we’ve progressed to be more racially sensitive over time. This brings us to the current state of the debate, which is mostly fought out on platforms like Twitter – there are people who don’t want to lose the tradition of the date itself, and there are people who want to make a new tradition that does not remind them of loss. But it’s just a date. There would be no loss of the traditions of celebration, just the date itself. For those who want to keep the tradition of the date, it’s time to sit back in a dark room and think about why you’re using that poor excuse to hide your lack of care for surrounding communities.
Controversy has boiled over after the release of the new Australian Lamb ad by the Meat and Livestock Association, which markets the meat and lamb industry to Australians at peak barbecue season. The ad has received mix responses, with many indigenous people speaking out about how they found the ad an offensive play on historical tragedy. Many felt the MLA used the British Invasion as a point of controversy to accelerate publicity – I personally feel it’s a far cry from an ad selling lamb. And let’s leave Sam Kekovich’s (the face of Australian Lamb) idea that vegans should just “get a life” and “try” meat because “your life will change” for another article.
I’d like to know your thoughts as young people both Australian and international, is it time to #Changethedate?
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