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Last Updated : 2024-04-30 21:28:00
27 January 2024 08:20 am - 24 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sydney, Jan 27 (CNN) — “Australia Day is Dead!” Indigenous activist Gwenda Stanley chants into the loudspeaker, as a crowd of thousands breaks into applause.
It’s Australia’s national day, but the crowd in central Sydney seethes in anger and cheers in solidarity with Indigenous Australians, many of whom view January 26 as nothing but the anniversary of their colonial dispossession, 236 years ago this Friday.
“Australia is stolen land and we need to be united and firm in our resistance and sustain that resistance until justice is achieved under our terms,” protest organizer Lynda-June Coe, a Wiradjuri woman, told CNN.
The Sydney crowd is diverse, and it’s replicated in Australian cities nationwide.
Each year an increasing number of non-Indigenous Australians find it impossible to celebrate Australia Day, in the knowledge that many of their Indigenous fellow citizens treat it as a day of mourning.
“I think it’s important to show up for the First Nations people in this country,” says Grace, from the crowd on a hot, humid morning in Belmore Park near Sydney’s Central Station.
“I think that there are plenty of other times that you can party if you want to celebrate the lots of good things about this country,” she says.
Elise wears the black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag on her earrings, as her friends hold a sign saying said: “Put down ya beer, pick up a banner. This is not a day to celebrate.”
Nearby, Kevin Shaw-Taylor agrees January 26 is “absolutely not” an appropriate day for national celebrations.
On the other side of the city, the Australia Day party was in full swing. The public holiday gives Australians a three-day weekend in the height of summer just a month after Christmas. Millions took full advantage.
Nowhere are the celebrations more colorful than Sydney Harbor. The city’s iconic yellow and green ferries were decked out in Australia Day regalia to take part in the annual race across the very same water that British Royal Navy officer Arthur Phillip crossed in 1788, planting the British flag at Sydney Cove to proclaim the new colony on January 26.
Frank Bongiorno, a history professor at the Australian National University (ANU), says its “pretty creative” to connect that colonial date to the modern state of Australia – which was founded on January 1, 1901.
That’s why many of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, and an increasing number of the non-Indigenous or “settler” population, have long dubbed the national holiday “Invasion Day” or “Survival Day” – acknowledging British settlement as first and foremost an act of Indigenous dispossession.
This year, the often toxic argument over the colonial past and continued disadvantage for Indigenous people has taken on a new dimension – it’s the first Australia Day since voters rejected a proposal to acknowledge the nation’s first people in its constitution.
Last October, Australians were asked in a referendum whether the country’s constitution should be amended to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders through the creation of an Indigenous advisory body – the Voice to Parliament – to advise on matters directly impacting Indigenous people.
Supporters said the Voice to Parliament would give First Nations people a say in efforts to remedy issues such as the eight-to-nine year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians or disproportionately high Indigenous incarceration rates.
But more than 60% of voters said no.
A study by the ANU found that most voted against the proposal because they didn’t want division and were wary of giving some Australians rights not held by others – arguments promoted by the referendum’s most vocal critics.
Professor Chelsea Watego, executive director of Queensland University’s (UQ) Curumba Institute for Indigenous research, says the result reflected the Australian public’s attitude toward Indigenous people, who make up just under 3% of the population.
“It was a test for the Australian people to finally come clean and maybe have an honest conversation about racism in this country. But they can’t and they won’t. They will never let go of it because it enables them to occupy stolen land and not feel guilty about it,” says Watego, a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman.
Instead of guilt on Australia Day, a vast number of Australians “associate it with summer fun,” says Bongiorno, from the ANU. “Its particular cultural and political implications for many people are rather muted.”
But that is changing, according to both professors, who see an increasing number of non-Indigenous Australians choosing to use the day to mourn Indigenous loss and advocate for better outcomes.
Bongiorno says one ramification of a bitterly fought debate over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which descended into a swirl of misinformation and ugly rhetoric, is a sense that political capital can be won by stoking the culture war.
“The main impact has been on the domestic politics,” he said.
“Clearly the (center-right) Coalition parties (led by) Peter Dutton believes they got an advantage from their opposition to the Voice and now they are attempting to squeeze further advantage out of controversies around Australia Day.”
Dutton, who serves as federal opposition leader, this month called on Australians to boycott the country’s largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, over its decision not to sell cheap Australia Day paraphernalia ahead of the holiday. Dutton labeled the firm’s decision an “outrage” and “against the national interest.”
A Woolworths store in Queensland was vandalized in the wake of Dutton’s comments – spray-painted with curses and the nationalistic sporting catchphrase: “Aussie Oi Oi Oi.”
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci took out full-page advertisements in national newspapers explaining the decision was a commercial one and appealing for the company’s staff to be kept safe.
One prominent commercial television breakfast host goaded Banducci for serving up “wokeness on aisle 3.”
“They are proud, hardworking Australians,” Banducci said of the Woolworths workforce. “For them to be seen as anti-Australian or woke is fundamentally unfair. Fair to address it to me but not to them.”
As emotions run high, vandalism has gone both ways. A century-old statue of Captain Cook was found face down in the grass in Melbourne on Thursday, his severed feet still attached to the plinth that celebrates his charting of Australia’s east coast and his proclamation of the land as British in 1770, almost two decades before the colony was established. Red paint was also splashed over a monument to Queen Victoria.
With all the toxic rhetoric, the hurt feelings and damaged pride – there has been little room in the mainstream post-referendum debate for new initiatives to remedy the very modern, very tangible problem of Indigenous disadvantage.
Instead, the notion of the Blak Sovereign Movement has gained traction among Indigenous people who do not want to have to ask the settler population for their rights, instead vowing to empower themselves to control their own affairs.
Many proponents of Blak Sovereignty voted no in the referendum for that reason.
“I’m always excited about the way in which Blakfullas clap back, often under the most oppressive circumstances,” said UQ’s Watego, using a term by which many Indigenous Australians self identify.
“The 26th of January is when we come together each year, to remember not just what we’ve lost, but to make a powerful statement to settlers that we’re not going anywhere, we’re not a dying race and we’re not going to be absorbed into the general population.”
Terrence K Saturday, 27 January 2024 09:12 AM
If the First Nation settlers were given to rule Australia it would have been like Veddhas ruling this country which would have reflected 500 years backwards. We have to raise our hats to the British who have changed the landscape of Australia in 1788 providing tremendous development in every sphere for the last 236 years bringing in new talent from the outside world which has culminated in what Australia is today which the citizens of Australia cherish. Wishing the Australians on their National Day a Happy and Prosperous future.
Wickrama Wijayasiri Saturday, 27 January 2024 10:59 AM
Who invited you to come and develop somebody else's land? Likewise, US, Canada, and NZ also belong to their natives. Just because the British stole the land and massacred the natives, it does not belong to the criminal British. Most of the contemporary land disputes are because of the bastard sons of British lords', who had no education, subdivided and relocated their borders with their peanut brains. Development is a concept for the thieves. I am sure, the natives would rather see them leave.
Sokrates Saturday, 27 January 2024 10:33 AM
This also applies to Sri Lanka in a similar way. Here, too, the indigenous population group is not granted the rights to which they are entitled. For example, mandatory parliamentary seats and ministerial positions. Financial support that allows them to live a carefree life. And in any case, their human dignity must be guaranteed by showing them respect. It is also shocking that the number has decreased enormously since independence. Not that they were murdered, but that their living space was robbed.
Rajitha Saturday, 27 January 2024 10:59 AM
There have always been a small group of indegenous protesters and their supporters on Australia day. Nothing new.
Dee Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:51 AM
This can be a good strategy to reduce immigration.
Single Cell Sunday, 28 January 2024 01:45 AM
Misery loves company …. immigrants hey … hmmmm wonder how many immigrants that are talking all these tough words have served the great southern land? phew for a veteran Australia Day is everyday!!!! True Blue Aussie Day is ANZAC day . I’m sure if you are an Australian you might agree with me.
Single Cell Saturday, 27 January 2024 01:09 PM
Aboriginal and Torres straight islander peoples and all indigenous peoples including all First Nations people are well represented in Australia and their national federal budget allocation as latest figures suggest us over $40.03 Billion AUS . Yes recondition is coming slowly, but I guarantee anyone that is a fact that they are looked after awesomely compared to the misfortunate in Sri Lanka . That is a fact .
Double Standards Saturday, 27 January 2024 01:22 PM
Totally Agree with comments by #Wickrama. The offspring’s of these invaders are now preaching the world invading countries such as Ukraine etc are not acceptable. See the double standards played here!
Roisin Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:24 PM
Obviously you are clueless about Ukraine. This is a totally different subject.
Terrence K Saturday, 27 January 2024 02:33 PM
@Wickrama Wijayasiri - Before trying to solve the First Nations problems why not look at the comments made by @soccrates comments and bring out a suitable solution as you belong to NATO (NO ACTION TALK ONLY) '
Ram Saturday, 27 January 2024 03:54 PM
This is all politics. We are a bankrupt country now and it we say Independence Day is dead our laws and the culture is such that the person will be arrested.
DOT Saturday, 27 January 2024 03:56 PM
Old hat!
Ceylonese Saturday, 27 January 2024 06:04 PM
If the Aborigines of Australia were treated the same way as the aborigines of Sri Lanka there won't be any Parliamentarians Supreme court judges scientists sportsmen senators musicians engineers doctors etc. of aboriginal origin and Austalia would still remain an under developed country like Sri Lanka. Despite all the previlages and incentives they enjoy there are some sections of aborigines who expect more and more freebies from the Federal and State Governments of Australia for doing nothing to help the economy of the country.
DOT Saturday, 27 January 2024 07:14 PM
Survival of the fittest !
Rupee Sunday, 28 January 2024 06:22 AM
Happens once a year. Most of them are unemployed and not contributed any thing to the country. Biggest reveivers of tax payers money.
Jeanne Sunday, 28 January 2024 02:04 PM
@Rupee: Hear! Hear! Best comment EVER.
Sri Lankan immigrant Sunday, 28 January 2024 07:45 AM
You only need to take a good glance at the picture on this page to realise the plight of our Vedhas who still move around semi clad even after 2500 years of civilisation compared to the aborgines of Australia who are smartly dressed in western clothing and speak good english to realise the plight of the Vedhas the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka..
VJ Sunday, 28 January 2024 08:23 AM
The Brits invaded countries to occupy and steal all its resources. It was not their intention to develop the land. It was very clear from the beginning, find a home for the convicts, use their killing skills to commit genocide, clean the country of non Christian population and establish their will. The country may have evolved into a developed nation today and are taking in a lot of migrants to fill the shortage of labor. There are plans to totally eliminate the natives by offering them duty free alcohol and tobacco disguised as concessions to the natives. The deeds of the invaders will come back to haunt them. What exactly is development?
Jeanne Sunday, 28 January 2024 09:55 AM
@VJ : Enough already with these indigenous population band wagoners. The cold hard facts are that, if these countries, including our lovely Ceylon or Sri Lanka depending on which side you are on, carried on without enterprising explorers, we would still be wearing loin cloths and sharpening our arrows. People who dare comment on this topic and criticisig "Brits" for invading their country should take stock of what Sri Lanka has become today. We are slowly descending into a country where genocide has still not been addressed. Talk about ethnic cleansing. What was 1983 all about? What was 1958 all about? So, VJ, please shut up and be grateful for the language in which you communicate, the laptop or electronic device on which you spout your senseless rhetoric, all of which would not have been possible if not for the Brits who invaded "your" country.
Sri Lankan Sunday, 28 January 2024 01:32 PM
Well said VJ, Australia still does gimmicks to eradicate the Aboriginal community.
Jeanne Monday, 29 January 2024 02:03 AM
People in glass houses should not throw stones. Let's first eradicate social marginalism in this country before you spout your rubbish comments. And, if you live in Australia and are commenting on this subject, feel free to pack your bags and return to your native homeland. No one is forcing you to live in Australia if you don't like it.
Terrence K Sunday, 28 January 2024 04:01 PM
@Wickrama Wijayasiri - @VJ - I endorse what Jeanne has stated. Now these Bath Gottas say that the Brits robbed this country who had given us a wonderful Tea Industry, Roads, Victoria Dam, the English Language the Queens Language, dress pants, Western medicine, etc and many other things. Today most of the children of this country go to Western Countries why ? What do you say of the robberies of our Legislators who have ruined the livelihoods of many who put this country to bankruptcy. What have these so called rascists done to the Veddhas of the country they have only brought more misery and still the people carry axes on their shoulders what a life! Look at the First Nation natives they are living in style. Don't croak like frogs in wells who have never seen the world especially Australia, New Zealand etc. These very people who insult the British donne the dress pants of the westerners and think they are the brown sahibs who are only BOASTERS and LOTUS EATERS!!!
The facts Monday, 29 January 2024 10:46 AM
When we are still struggling to grow our own food crops and even import eggs from India I wonder what could be our fate if the British never invaded this country and built all the infrastructue like roads bridges railways hospitals school etc. and opened up tea plantations our main export earning the country billions of dollars since indepencdence 75 years ago?
P. Wijenayake Monday, 29 January 2024 11:14 AM
My allegiance is to Britain and Australia for my support in higher education and employment. Don't forget when the British finally left Sri Lanka they left a good Bank Balance and it is our Sinhalese Politicians that vandalized. Apart from the Dams, Railways, Roads, tea Industry, they reclaimed the marshy land in Colombo .Also remember one does business to make money.
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