Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Australia Day was not celebrated consistently on 26 January until 1994
Australia's national day of celebration has drawn much criticism recently from those who say it causes unfair hurt to indigenous people. But the controversy, like Australia Day itself, has evolved over many years, reports Sharon Verghis from Sydney.
More than most other nations, perhaps, Australia has a relaxed relationship to its national day.
Australia Day, on 26 January, commemorates the day in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of 11 British ships, arrived at Sydney Cove to signal the birth of the colony.
On Friday, many in this nation of 24 million people will once again gather on beaches and around barbeques to celebrate.
From regattas to camel races, flip-flop-throwing carnivals to outdoor concerts, Australians will mark a public holiday more popularly treated as a late summer festival than the solemn national day its founders intended it to be - a unifying celebration of the good fortune of being Australian and the values that bind the nation: democracy, freedom, independence, a fair go, mateship.
But what does 26 January really mean for Australians and how did it come to be?
An old and new celebration
Like all national days, the significance attached to Australia Day has changed over time.
It is also, in its current form, relatively new. Not until 1994 was there consistently a national public holiday on 26 January, rather than on the nearest Monday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Australia Day controversy - Hywel Griffith on last year's event
In 1818, New South Wales (NSW) formally marked 30 years as a colony with a triumphant 30-gun salute, the first official celebration of the date. It became an annual public holiday there in 1838 and remained a NSW-centric commemoration for many years.
But by 1888, 26 January had become known as "Anniversary Day" and was a public holiday in all capital cities except Adelaide.
The inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 reinforced momentum for a foundation holiday. By the 1920s, Anzac Day had become a national holiday but was regarded as a day of sombre commemoration of Australia's war casualties rather than a celebration.
The search for a national day that fit this latter description continued - ending in 1935 when all states of Australia agreed to adopt a common name and date.
In the 1980s, the Australian government began to take an increasingly prominent role and established the National Australia Day Committee. By 1994, all states and territories began to celebrate a unified public holiday on the actual day for the first time.
How opposition was voiced
Australian historian Prof Kate Darian-Smith, from the University of Tasmania, says that Australia Day, now far from its roots, sparks a sometimes heated annual public debate about cultural identity, history and what it means to be Australian.
"In the commemorations in 1938, and then in 1988, there were restagings of the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia - and we would not see this now," she says.
"Australia Day had become a politicised flashpoint for discussion about how we should celebrate the past, and recognising what the day means for indigenous people."
For indigenous Australia, a historic protest came during sesquicentenary (150 years) celebrations in Sydney in 1938, when more than 100 Aboriginal people gathered for a conference to mark the "Day of Mourning".
But the notion that indigenous Australians had been "robbed" of their land by the colonists was even acknowledged in the 19th Century by Henry Parkes, a NSW premier.
In 1988, a protest march of more than 40,000 indigenous and non-indigenous people took place in Sydney, entrenching a tradition of "survival day" and "invasion day" concerts, marches and protests which continue today.
Image copyright EPA Image caption A protest against Australia day in Canberra in 2016
Indigenous protest has continued to grow, mirroring similar movements surrounding days commemorating European colonisation, such as Thanksgiving in the US. It has dovetailed with heightened political and community activism coalescing around a "change the date" campaign.
The push has been spearheaded by the left-wing Australian Greens and others who regard the date as more divisive than unifying, making Australia Day the antithesis of the harmonious national festival organisers had intended.
Grassroots protests within the last year have ranged from some local councils in Melbourne dropping their Australia Day events, to radio station Triple J moving the unofficial soundtrack for Australia Day - its iconic Hottest 100 - to a different date.
Patriotism for Anzac Day
Australians don't appear to be particularly fixated on maintaining the 26 January date.
A recent poll found that 56% of those surveyed didn't mind when it was held as long as there was a national day of celebration. Nearly half (49%) believed Australia Day should not be on a day that is offensive to indigenous people.
Over the years, suggested alternatives have included 27 May, the date in 1967 when indigenous people were finally allowed constitutional rights, and 1 January, the day Australia's constitution came into force. Even 8 May - a pun on "mate" - has gained popular support.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ruled out any changes, expressing his disappointment at the "divisive" actions of Australia Day reformists.
Interestingly, says Prof Darian-Smith, there has been an upsurge of millennial-fuelled patriotism for Anzac Day, a day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand forces who served and died in military conflicts.
"In fact, Anzac Day, sometimes called Australia's secular holy day, has increasingly become the day that national fervour is most expressed," she says.
To many, it holds less historical baggage, is more inclusive of migrants and indigenous veterans, and "is a day embraced very much by a younger generation - the turnout at Anzac ceremonies has become bigger and bigger each year".
But Australia Day retains support from the nation's biggest political parties. "A free country debates its history - it does not deny it," Mr Turnbull has said.
Sharon Verghis is a freelance writer based in Sydney
Australia Day Opinion The Guardian view on Australia Day: we need to debate our history, not deny it The conversation about 26 January has to be part of a big, honest discussion that might just lead to lasting reconciliation Polls suggest the movement to #changethedate is not yet backed by a majority of Australians, but every year the momentum builds. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said last week that “a free country debates its history, it does not deny it.” He was right. But he did not appear to be listening to himself. With his next breath he sought to dismiss the growing discussions about whether Australia Day should be moved, portraying advocates as sowers of discord. Yet to ask whether the anniversary of the first fleet’s arrival in Sydney Cove in 1788 is appropriate for the national celebration is precisely to address the most consequential questions about the country’s past. The meaning of 26 January has to be part of the big, honest discussion that just might lead to a lasting reconciliation.
Mr Turnbull acknowledged that, for Indigenous Australians, European settlement has been “complex and tragic” – but insisted it was “divisive” to suggest that they might not want to celebrate the date of their colonisation, as if the conversation itself is the problem rather than the historical facts about massacre and dispossession. He appeared to imply that it is somehow unpatriotic to advocate for #changethedate, as if it were impossible to be both a proud Australian and also painfully aware that some kind of reconciliation with Indigenous Australia is the nation’s most chafing piece of unfinished business.
Australia Day: do you know what you’re celebrating? | First Dog on the Moon Read more
He has even tried to deny that this debate was happening in any significant way at all. He claimed that it was the preoccupation of “a tiny handful of people”. The truth is that it is happening in spite of the major parties. The discussion is playing out across news sites and radio stations and at water coolers around the country.
Despite predictable attempts to turn it into a tedious culture war by tabloid columnists and desperate attention-seeking provocateurs, this is not a new discussion, but one that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have long been seeking: “When it comes to the subject of 26 January, the overwhelming sentiment among First Nations people is an uneasy blend of melancholy approaching outright grief, of profound despair, of opposition and antipathy, and always of staunch defiance,” writes Jack Latimore, co-editor of the collaborative Twitter account IndigenousX. Protests about 26 January trace back to 1938. The national strategy that followed the 1990s’ decade-long process to achieve reconciliation also recommended the date be changed.
Indigenous leaders and advisers mostly back a shift. They include the co-chair of the prime minister’s own Indigenous advisory council, Chris Sarra, as well as Reconciliation Australia and the Healing Foundation. There are those who support change but argue that it is not a priority. Some, like the academic and author Tony Birch, say it’s more important to have a deeper conversation, because changing the date won’t make the history of violence against Aboriginal people any less offensive, or forgotten. Others, like the Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, have suggested changing and broadening our understanding of exactly what we are celebrating on 26 January.
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Polls suggest that the movement to #changethedate is not yet backed by a majority of Australians, but every year the momentum builds – including among non-Indigenous Australians, from Mr Turnbull’s former cabinet colleague Ian Macfarlane to the former tennis champion Pat Cash to the TV host Eddie McGuire. Today, 26 January, is simply the wrong day for national festivities, and that means we need a respectful conversation – about changing the date and the meaning of the celebration – without cartoonish campaigns trying to whip it into a left/right fight or a chest-beating test of patriotism. The prime minister had it exactly right before he undermined his own argument. Australia needs to debate its history, not deny it.
Australia Day 'Abolish Australia Day': Invasion Day marches draw tens of thousands of protesters Rallies across Australia call for date change, action on the Uluru statement and an end to ‘racist’ policies Play Video 1:59 Rallies held across Australia to mark Invasion Day – video
Massive crowds turned out for the Invasion Day march in Melbourne on Friday, far surpassing expectations and exceeding numbers at the official Australia Day parade.
The crowd in Melbourne, an estimated 60,000, was by far the biggest of a series of protests in major cities across the country.
Smaller marches were held in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and Darwin, celebrating Indigenous resistance, calling for action on the Uluru statement and urging an end to “racist” and harmful government policies.
Together they presented a voice that organisers said could not be ignored.
The tens of thousands in Melbourne marched under the banner of “abolish Australia Day”.
Sally Newell (@ActOnClimate) Melbourne turns out in force for #InvasionDay Reports of 60,000.
Time to pay respects to our black history, and offer solidarity#ChangeTheDate #AlwaysWillBe pic.twitter.com/TjnP1fIZGy
The Invasion Day march outnumbered those at the official Australia Day parade. Spectators stayed to watch the protest, awkwardly waving plastic Australian flags as the crowd chanting “no pride in genocide” marched past.
With dozens of police officers present, human rights observers from Amnesty Australia monitored police behaviour.
Maria Matthews (@MariaMatthewsYW) It’s been said that 60k had turned up today in #Melbourne for the #InvasionDay March. Prof. Gary Foley stated that he had never seen such large numbers for a protest since the late 60s. pic.twitter.com/AchyTlC3d3
The march closed off a 2km loop of the city, stretching from Parliament House, down Bourke Street and Swanston Street, and back along Flinders Street to Treasury Gardens.
The leading Indigenous activist Gary Foley, a professor of history at Victoria University, surveyed the crowd from the back of a flat-top truck in the closed-off street outside Flinders Street station.
“I haven’t seen a crowd like this since the 1970s,” he said. “If we keep mobilising these sort of numbers, governments cannot ignore us.”
matthew craig (@whatmsees) January 26, 2018. The people are speaking. The future will be shaped by these voices and those before. Always was, always will be 🖤💛❤️#InvasionDay pic.twitter.com/ksPNSzU2g1
In Sydney, protesters joined two events: the Long March for Justice Through Treaty, a recreation of the 1988 march from Redfern to Hyde Park, and an Invasion Day march from the Block in Redfern to Victoria Park.
A smaller crowd of several hundred turned out for the Justice Through Treaty march, which featured a series of powerful speeches, including from the shadow human services minister, Linda Burney, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus.
Christopher Knaus (@knausc) Several hundred people in Hyde Park after Justice Through Treaty March from Redfern. Gillian Triggs describes lack of action on Uluru Statement is a “national shame”. @sallymcmanus said CDP program is deeply racist and must be abolished. #invasionday pic.twitter.com/cEWwKWDiZW
McManus called for an end to the community development program in remote communities. She labelled it deeply racist and said it ought to be abolished.
“It’s a racist program because it is only in rural and remote areas, 80% of the people in the program are Indigenous and they have to work 25 hours a week, compulsory work, no sick leave, no annual leave, no workers’ compensation, no minimum wage,” McManus said, prompting cries of “shame” from the crowd.
Earlier, the former human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs said the Turnbull government’s response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart was a source of national shame.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Invasion Day protesters outside Parliament House in Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross/AAP
The Coalition, she said, had betrayed the optimism and faith of Indigenous leaders in the process.
“It’s shameful that despite all the political promises and the meeting of experts, the Turnbull government has rejected the Uluru Statement from the Heart,” Triggs said. “It’s especially disappointing as that process was established by unanimous action in 2013 and succeeded in making a considered proposal for recognition.”
Yingiya Guyula, a Northern Territory MP, said Indigenous people were still being pushed off the land and forced to assimilate in Arnhem Land. He called for the start of a true treaty process, which was not imposed on Indigenous people.
“We do not want treaty that is imposed on us,” he said. “We want treaty that liberates our people and recognises our law.”
Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) Just a section of the huge crowd gathered at The Block in Sydney’s Redfern to mark #InvasionDay pic.twitter.com/5LD7BlXunY
Crowds were significantly larger at the second Sydney event and organiser Ken Canning said he hoped it would draw attention to Indigenous deaths in custody.
“The idea here is to engage the general public because our political spectrum around the country, except for maybe the Greens party ... they ignore the calls of Aboriginal people,” he said before the march.
“It’s also important to raise the issues that are still ongoing in Aboriginal communities. We have the highest deaths in custody rates in the world per head of population, the highest imprisonment rates.”
Hundreds of people rallied on the lawns of Hobart’s Parliament House, calling for the date of Australia Day to be changed. Banners reading “Survival Day” were carried by protesters.
“It’s not just Aboriginal people but our non-Indigenous friends who know the difference between right and wrong,” the Aboriginal activist Nala Mansell told the crowd.
rogue #1860571 (@Debichan) Fantastic turn out for Hobart, looked like a massive crowd to me - thanks to all who raised their voices to protest the injustice the continues today! #InvasionDay pic.twitter.com/JytTdxW7wm
In Adelaide, several hundred people gathered on the steps of Parliament House. The Aboriginal elder Tauto Sansbury told the crowd that recognising the hurt caused by celebrating on the day the first fleet arrived must be the start of a wider conversation.
“People have said there’s other issues to deal with, well no there’s not,” he said. “This is the first one that breaks down the barriers. Then we can move on to all of the other things that are not right for Aboriginal people.”
Rightwing activists protested outside a citizenship ceremony in Melbourne’s north, wearing Australian flags and handing out flyers.
The group, numbering just six, included convicted racial vilifier Neil Erikson. The group said they were protesting against the council’s decision not to include the phrase “Australia Day” in its citizenship ceremony.
Malcolm Turnbull earlier insisted that not many people wanted the date of Australia Day to be changed.
“You know, the overwhelming majority of Australians are celebrating Australia Day like we all are here today,” the prime minister said. “They are just in love with our nation, with our story, with our people, with our success – the most successful multicultural society in the world.”
Bill Shorten said Australia Day should not become an “idiot magnet” for anyone. Shorten acknowledge the day presented a chance to celebrate but also caused significant hurt to Indigenous people.
“Today’s a great day for all the new citizens but it is also is a day of great pain, in particular for all of our first Australians,” he said.
In Australia we’re getting creative when it comes to hanging with animals
AUSTRALIA Day might be a great time to celebrate cultural cliches like Vegemite, backyard cricket and barbecues, but is this really a fair depiction of our national identity?
Renowned demographer and social commentator Mark McCrindle doesn’t think so.
“Our whole identity used to be football, meat pies and caravans, now it’s overseas holidays with focaccias and more sophisticated pursuits,” he told news.com.au.
“We used to be the land of the long weekend, but now we work more hours than any other nation — in terms of working hours, plus commute — and deliver success equal to any comparable nation.”
Mr McCrindle said Australia has moved away from the remote island culture and changed our self-identity entirely.
“Now we’re regional influences across Asia, we have global connections, are exporters and have success in the global sporting, medical and business arenas,” he said.
“We’ve also changed in terms of landscape from when our icons were the beach and outback. Now, it’s more about urban environments, cafe culture, city cuisine and a 24/7 lifestyle with gentrified living.”
The demographer said by 2023, Melbourne will have overtaken Sydney as Australia’s most populated city, which some people might find surprising.
“Our national, state and city identity is constantly changing. While Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane remain the top three cities, Adelaide is no longer the fourth largest — it’s now Perth,” he said.
“In the last three decades Adelaide’s population has increased by 42 per cent, while Perth has seen significant growth with a 135 per cent increase.”
Mr McCrindle added that Australia is also much more multicultural than it has ever been before.
“The latest census data showed us a changing of the guard, not only in that one in three Australians are born overseas, but more overseas born Australians are coming from Asia than Europe,” he said.
“Indigenous Australians have increased almost threefold with the 1986 census showing 227,000 indigenous Australians.
“Now, 30 years on, there has been an 186 per cent increase with 649,000 indigenous Australias.”
If you found this interesting, here are some other facts about our country as pulled together by McCrindle research and ABS.
AUSTRALIA IN STATISTICS
1. Australia Day is the fifth least common day of the year for babies to be born.
2. Queensland has seen the highest number of interstate arrivals over the past five years with 220,000 people moving to the sunshine state.
3. Three-fifths of the Australian population are affiliated with a religion or spiritual belief, with Christianity the most popular denomination — some 12 million Aussies identify as Christians.
4. Australians aged 2 years and over consumed an estimated 3.1 kilograms of foods and beverages — including water — per day.
5. Over one-fifth of employed men work as tradespeople or technicians.
6. Around 69 per cent of Australians drive a car to work.
7. Hobart is the capital city with the most people who walked to work (5.5 per cent) and Canberra has the most people who ride (2.6 per cent).
8. The average weekly earnings is $1543.80.
9. At the time of writing, the resident population of Australia is projected to be 24,809,395, with one birth every 1 minute and 44 seconds and one death every 3 minutes and 17 seconds.
10. 59 per cent of school leavers from 2016 were enrolled in further study, with about half of those also employed.
11. What’s called a boonie in Western Australian, is called a westie in NSW and in Queensland it’s a bogan.
12. The proportion of older people in Australia’s labour force has increased over the past 10 years, with about 14 per cent of people aged 65 years and over still working.
13. There are just under 46,800 same-sex couples living together in Australia.
14. Swimming costumes in Queensland are known as togs, in NSW cossies, but in Victoria, bathers.
15. While 82 per cent of Australians speak English at home, Italian (3.2 per cent) and Greek (2.2 per cent) were among other commonly reported languages.
16. Over a third of people aged 65 years and older (37 per cent) were born overseas.
17. Sales workers had the highest average age that they expected to retire at 66 years, while community and personal service workers had the lowest at 64 years.
18. Australia is quite conservative with more than 80 per cent of brides taking on the groom’s surname
19. 35 per cent of Australian men and 42 per cent of women feel they are always rushed or pressed for time.
20. Nine in 10 Aussies like to see Nativity scenes, mangers and baby Jesus’ displayed in public spaces at Christmas time.
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21. Median personal income in New South Wales has reached $34,528 per year while median mortgage repayments have more than doubled at $1986 per month.
22. Currently 30 per cent of all households in Sydney’s urban areas now live in apartments.
23. Sydney is Australia’s largest city with a population of more than 5.1 million — one in five Australians live or two-thirds of the population of NSW live here.
24. 40 per cent of Australians work between 35-40 hours per week, while 23 per cent are employed for less than 25 hours per week.
25. More than one in four Aussies said they cannot survive the day without coffee, with three in four saying that have at least one cup per day.
26. In NSW, the ACT, Queensland, Victoria, WA, the NT and Tasmania, order a schooner and you’ll get a big, 425ml glass. But order the same thing in SA and you’ll be disappointed when you receive a small, 285ml glass.
27. The average adult male in Australia has 34 minutes more leisure time per day than the average female — this equates to 4 hours per week.
28. Urban couples now represent over 27 per cent of apartment households.
29. 41 per cent of young people aged 14 and 15 don’t know what they want to do when they are older.
30. In Tassie, Victoria and SA you order scallops at the takeaway, you get scallops — the seafood. In NSW, you order scallops and you get a potato cake.
Continue the conversation in the comments below or with Matthew Dunn on Facebook and Twitter | matthew.dunn2@news.com.au
