Happy Australia Day! I’ve been relaxing and listening to Aussie rock songs and just come back from a Malaysian cafe for a late Laksa lunch. The first song I heard on the radio this morning was Great Southern Land. Such an appropriate song for the day.
I’m over on Mamamia today talking about what Australia Day means to me. I’m in good company with Jess Rudd, Anita Heiss, Benjamin Law, Bern Morley, Aminata Conteh and Susan Carland.
I wrote on Mamamia how the ‘us and them’ mentality on Australia Day (and beyond) saddens me. Today Facebook and Twitter is awash with the ‘real Australians’, ‘we grew here, you flew here’ and ‘invasion day’ statements. Nationalism/patriotism/racism seems more prevalent in this past decade, though it may be that way because everyone seems to express an opinion on social media. There’s a belief among some that if a person’s heritage doesn’t date back to Captain Phillip and his settlement who arrived here on 26 January 1788, they’re not a true Australian.
As my friend said, it’s Australia Day, not “people I choose to recognise as Australian” day.
My wish for Australia Day and the year ahead is for the us and them mentality to become less prevalent, and fears of other cultures to dissipate.
Great post, Carly!
SSG xxx
oh i cannot tell you how much i am over hearing how we should rename Australia day either Invasion or Survival day – i mean seriously?
why can't we just celebrate being Australia – ALL OF US?
xx
I hate Australia Day. Not because it is a day celebrating Australia – that concept is wonderful! I hate it because every year I have to hear otherwise intelligent & rational people spouting racist vitriole in the guise of being patriotic. Why can't we all just celebrate for one day that we live in an awesome country, and we're all pretty damn lucky?
I completely agree with you. I hope the "us and them" diminishes with time, and we start to see the good things other cultures can offer.
"oh i cannot tell you how much i am over hearing how we should rename Australia day either Invasion or Survival day – i mean seriously?
why can't we just celebrate being Australia – ALL OF US?"
Because the fact remains it is celebrated on the anniversary of a very painful day for a section of our society. Who are we to say 'just get over it and CELEBRATE?' There's no reason we couldn't celebrate 'Australia Day' on a different date – I've never met anyone who uses Australia Day as a celebration of the First Fleet – but suggest to people (read: White Australians) that we should move the date to make it more inclusive, they baulk 'how dare we pander to Aboriginals', The date itself doesn't actually really mean anything to most people, but suggest moving it, and whoa!
Geez, I count myself as Australian even though I wasn't born here. I arrived as a baby in 1953, less than a year old. I've been here ever since, as far as I'm concerned that makes me Australian. I fail to see that my brother is any more Australian than me just because he was born on Aussie soil, we have the same parents….
People can get so nit-picky!
Oh wow, I just wrote a very similar post – I really don't know what to think and feel about Australia Day anymore…
http://jouljet.blogspot.com/2012/02/australia-day.html