It is that time of year again. As the 26th January approaches I often feel like locking myself away for two weeks and turning off all TV and social media. Why? Because of the nasty and mean-spirited racism and bigotry that is at its peak on social and other media at this time of year. It’s not new, it happens every year. Every. Year.
People who are close to me know how significantly this rise in racism and racial vilification affects me at this time of year. In a basic sense it offends me as an Aboriginal person and a decent human being, but it also upsets me because I have seen the grief and trauma that racism and racial vilification causes. In a previous job I investigated complaints of unlawful discrimination and attempted to conciliate many of these complaints. Racism and discrimination can and does contribute to personal distress, low self-esteem, poor mental health, and youth suicide. It contributes to social dysfunction and division. It leads to people being murdered, including children – for example Cassius Turvey and Elijah Doughty. Racism, and racial vilification, have zero positive social outcomes.
In times past ‘Australia Day’ has been held on a number of dates. Prior to 1888, New South Wales was the only place that celebrated Australia Day (then called Anniversary Day) on January 26. The first national ‘Australia Day’, was held on July 30, 1915, to support fundraising for the war. In 1916 ‘Australia Day’ was celebrated on 28 July. In 1935, all states and territories agreed to call 26 January Australia Day, although NSW still called it ‘Anniversary Day’ and some other states called it ‘Foundation Day’. The 26 January has only been celebrated by all states and territories as a public holiday for ‘Australia Day’ since 1994.
So in effect the “Australia Day” public holiday has been around for a bit over 30 years. Is there any good reason why we can’t change the date? Will people die? Will it ruin our economy? Will it impact our international trade or foreign partnerships? The answer is “No”. There is no valid reason why we can’t change the date.
When you ask the question about changing the date, and wade through the various smokescreens of “It’s just always been that way”, and similar arguments that simply don’t hold much water, the only reason people don’t want it changed is because it would be kind and compassionate towards Aboriginal people and communities. That’s it. In my experience, this nastiness is purely based on racism, prejudice and bigotry. It is spiteful and mean spirited.
Any discussion about changing the date is seen by racists as an opportunity to “sink the boot in” to Aboriginal peoples and communities, to remind Aboriginal people and communities that we are not equal, that we are not considered as “real Australians”, that we have negligible political influence, and that we are lesser citizens who simply don’t matter. We are just sport for the racists and bigots who crawl out of the woodwork every January – people who seem to think making derogatory and demeaning comments about Aboriginal people is somehow clever or funny. It isn’t. It is immature, appalling, and to be frank, pathetic.
Ironically, it is those who claim they don’t want a divided Australia who are the quickest to insist on keeping Australia Day on a day that, you guessed it, leads to division. In my experience such people don’t really care about ‘division’, and they don’t want ‘unity’ – what they demand is ‘assimilation’, based on ideologies of white supremacy. They believe that in order to be ‘Australian’ we must forget any non-white heritage and culture we may have, and adopt Anglo/European cultural values and ways of being.
Don’t rock the boat, don’t dare be proud of your heritage and belonging to the oldest continuing culture in the world. Just forget 60,000 years or so of existence and relationship with this continent, and act like white Anglo people. That’s what white supremacists want. They are people driven by fear that somehow somebody is going to stop them being white people, that they may somehow end up muddying their “bloodlines” and thus complain that their “whiteness” is under attack (apparently raping Aboriginal women and producing mixed race children was quite OK for centuries, but having a person of colour in the white family genealogy was/is seen as scandalous and unacceptable. Yep, don’t blame the white rapists, blame the Aboriginal victims and their children for threatening “whiteness”. The colonial hypocrisy of such practices was, and remains, quite astounding.
Once upon a time, when international travel often took several months at sea, and was risky and dangerous, and when human beings were relatively uneducated and “tribal”, there was reason to “stick to your own”. There was strength in unity and safety in belonging to a particular people or culture.
But it is 2026. We can travel to the other side of the world in 24 hours or less. We have the internet and are able to connect with anyone, almost anywhere in the world, instantly. We are literally a global community. We should be smart enough to realise that racism, hate, division, conflict and war are not conducive to human survival. I believe the majority of human beings on the planet do realise this. I have travelled to many countries around the world, and see people from all cultural backgrounds sharing meals, gathering socially, and, yes, even having relationships… even getting married and having families! This is a result of people seeing and treating each other as humans, not as a colour, culture or nationality that should be arbitrarily “othered” or demeaned.
So who is causing the division and the conflict? In the context of Australia Day, it is a small cohort of predominantly white males who rage against any notion of changing the date. For no reason other than mean-spirited hatred and bigotry towards Aboriginal peoples and communities. Seriously, I’ve been waiting for decades for a reasonable explanation, but that is all I’ve ever seen.
Why do so many people suggest we should change the date? Obviously, the 26 January represents the date that British colonisation of the continent began, resulting in a multitude of negative ramifications for Aboriginal peoples. So that’s one great reason to find another date to celebrate together. I mean, would we consider moving Australia Day to 14 December – the date of the Bondi massacre? Of course not! What about 28 April, the date of the Port Arthur massacre? Again, of course not. What about 12 October – the date of the Bali Bombings? No, of course we wouldn’t think that was appropriate. We would not even consider any of these dates in recognition of the grief and trauma that impacted, and continues to impact, those affected and their families. Its just common decency, right?
So why can’t we apply the same common decency and recognise that for many Aboriginal peoples and communities, the 26 January similarly represents historical and ongoing grief and trauma.
Why can’t we just find another date – for example 28 or 30 July as it has been in the past, or perhaps May 8 (“mate”). Or the first Monday in February (not too far from the 26 January, and still provides a long weekend)? That’s the thing, there are dozens of other dates that would work that would allow for all Australians to celebrate this great country. Why insist on keeping it on 26 January when we know a significant number of Australians (including many non-Aboriginal people) find it difficult to celebrate?
As Christians, we are meant to show love, empathy and compassion to others. Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments were to love God with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Is engaging in racial vilification and bigotry towards any group of people a Christian behaviour? Not according to Christ – who is the literal source of Christian teaching and related values.
So if you are a Christian, and thus aspire to follow the teachings of Christ, please realise that racism and bigotry are absolutely not Jesus-sanctioned. They are not Christian behaviours. In fact, they are the exact opposite of the teachings of Christ.
Showing love means we listen, we hear, we care, and we do our best to welcome and include all humans, regardless of class, race, gender, cultural background, social or financial status. Jesus made it clear that we should especially care for the least – those marginalised and oppressed by social, economic and political structures. In fact, He said our entry into God’s Kingdom will depend entirely on how we have treated the least (See Matthew 25:31-46).
So let’s act with common decency. Let’s act according to our Christian values if we claim to be Christian. Let’s just act as decent human beings if we are from other faith backgrounds, or of no faith background. Let’s treat others how we would like to be treated.
Let’s just change the date of Australia Day to a day we can all celebrate together. I, for one, would be very grateful to no longer have to put up with nasty and mean-spirited people sinking the boot into Aboriginal people and communities in the lead up to the 26th January every year. And I’d love for my soon to be born grandchild to be able to grow up in a country where racism and racial vilification wasn’t an annual event every time we prepare to celebrate this wonderful country.
However even if we do our best to assimilate, we are still not seen as equals by those who consider themselves to be the “real Australians”,
Despite the annual “outrage” by racists and bigots, who insist on racially vilifying Aboriginal peoples who dare suggest it might be more inclusive to hold Australia Day on a different date
Nathan Tyson is the Head of First Peoples Strategy and Engagement for the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT
