Australia Day - Invasion Day

We Aussies are struggling with what to do with our national day.  We want to be 'one and free', as the change to our national anthem suggests. How can our national day reflect this?

Transcript

I, like so many other Aussies are struggling with what to do with our national day, Australia Day. It is changing because we are all changing. We are no longer "Young and Free" but "One and Free" according to our recently edited national anthem. I like the change. It represents where we are at historically. But does it describe how we are: "One and free"? 

We don't all agree on January 26th. For some it is a day to tell the story of pioneering moments, national losses and triumphs that have formed us. For others it is a story of thankfulness for freedom found here, and hard work to build a life. For others is the beginning of a long tragic, brutal dispossession and destruction of life that was already here. In many ways the dispossession and pain continue to this day.   

How do we avoid digging in to our own story at the dismissal of the other stories that make up Australia? How do we start humble, and acknowledge the sorry business openly and fully, and then acknowledge and celebrate the other stories who are here? 

I reckon something has to happen around January 26th. It was those 48 hours that changed everything and started everything - good and bad. Seems a bit 'cancel culture' to simply ignore those 48 hours as being very significant, for good and bad.  

I like Dr Noel Pearson's suggested approach he offered a few years back. I see hints of this approach beginning to take shape in snippets of conversations in the media these days. I am glad about that.  

The idea would be to FULLY acknowledge January 26th with the three main stories that flow like rivers across our history so far.  

Story one is the first nation peoples. Story two is the Colonial and pioneering story. Story three is the migration story, particularly after the World Wars. All three are 'us'. All three need to be told and celebrated by all story holders.  

Why couldn't we make January 26th more than just about one story (the colonial one) and go for more than one day? Why couldn't we start slow and sombre to fully acknowledge the hard story of dispossession and destruction of our first nation - maybe on the eve of Australia Day? Reminds me of ANZAC Day. And then why couldn't we then tell the colonial story as the morning arrives, and then finally the immigration story which leads us on to where we are now? 

I like this idea. I hope something like it comes to fruition. I hope it might help to shape us the way our ideals take us in the now changed anthem - "one and free", rather than 'splintered and enslaved' to the gaining of power over each other, and endless over-competitiveness of each of the story holders, as if one story is more important than the other in who we now are.  

What do you think?