What is the Real Reason People Resist Changing the Date of Australia Day?

Well, it is that time of year again. January. Specifically, the period leading up to 26 January. The time when all of the nasty, horrible, bigots and racists come out from under their rocks to abuse, denigrate and demean Aboriginal people and communities on social media.

It is the time when, for some reason, people who have never met an Aboriginal person, and who don’t even think about Aboriginal people 99.9% of the time, decide that they should jump on social media and racially vilify Aboriginal people.

It is a time when people think it is somehow funny to post crude memes of Aboriginal people saying things like “60,000 years – Invented the stick”, as if demeaning the world’s oldest continuing culture, is somehow funny or clever (It is not either, it is just blatant racism).

It is a time when we are reminded of this country’s recent colonial history – the period from 1770 when the British unlawfully took possession of this continent, ignoring both the instructions of their own King, and international law.

It is a period where we are reminded of the blatant racism and discrimination against Aboriginal peoples in the past: the slavery, the murders, the scores of massacres, the routine raping of Aboriginal women by white men, the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, and the discriminatory exclusion of Aboriginal people from health services, employment and education.

It is a time when Aboriginal peoples are reminded of when the attempted genocide of our peoples started. The 26 January was officially the start of the colonisation of this country. The 26 January is officially the date when the violence, abuse and discrimination towards Aboriginal peoples and communities began.

January each year is the time when Aboriginal people are told we should simply forget about Australia’s colonial history – as though it is some insignificant thing that doesn’t warrant discussion. Yet we continue to memorialise ANZAC Day each year – apparently its quite OK to discuss events resulting in loss of life impacting non-Aboriginal people, and to remember and reflect on those events… but remembering and reflecting about events that caused significant loss of life, grief and trauma for Aboriginal families and communities is dismissed as “whinging”, or “being ungrateful” for the supposed benefits of colonisation.

Sadly, the violence, abuse and discrimination towards Aboriginal people continues 237 years later. The form has changed, for example from overt public actions to less obvious systemic and institutionalised discrimination. For example, the Parliamentary approval of legislation that required the suspension of the Race Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA) – which was necessary to inflict the NT Intervention on Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. The suspension of the RDA was necessary because the legislation clearly discriminated against Aboriginal peoples and communities. The LNP started the Intervention, and Labour continued it. This is how entrenched racism towards Aboriginal people is in this country – both sides of politics thought it was OK to enforce legislation that was clearly discriminatory. Of course, there were scores of Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations and other Australian and International advocacy organisations that tried to tell the Government that the NT Intervention would be disastrous for Aboriginal peoples and communities… but nobody in Government wanted to listen. In this country the human rights of Aboriginal peoples have been ignored, if not trampled, constantly, since 26 January 1788.

A Country in Denial

For the most part this country remains in denial of its legal and moral obligations to provide just reparations for the unlawful and discriminatory actions taken against Aboriginal peoples by both British and Australian Governments, and by “settlers”. Many people don’t realise that many of the scores of massacres of Aboriginal people were committed by white civilians, often unsanctioned by the authorities. It wasn’t just the Government who did unlawful and inhumane things to Aboriginal people – civilians were well and truly involved in the attempted genocide.

Australia remains a country that expects Aboriginal people to have less legal rights than other Australians. For example, every other Australian can get legal redress if somebody steals their property… when we raise issues of unlawful dispossession and theft of our lands, we are told to “just get over it”.

No Government or legal system in the country wants to acknowledge the human rights and sovereign rights of Aboriginal peoples under international law. Even the Mabo No.2 High Court decision, which did acknowledge that the Doctrine of Terra Nullius was unlawfully applied to the Australian continent, and acknowledged that a form of Native Title remains, has not resulted in justice for Aboriginal peoples. In fact, the Howard Government created legislation to narrowly define Native Title so as to prioritise and protect the interests of farmers and other non-Aboriginal landowners. So, while some Aboriginal peoples have managed to prove “Native Title” (the onus is strangely still on Aboriginal people to prove they have a continuing connection to their ancestral lands), Native Title is legislated as a third-class of property rights… it provides less rights to land than freehold title, less than Torrens Title, and even less than rights conferred under Pastoral Leases. Native Title is sort of like somebody stealing your house and you fighting for decades to get it back, only to eventually have a Tribunal tell the person who stole it that they now have to let you come back to have a BBQ and a game of cricket in the front yard once or twice a year… but you don’t actually get your house back. I don’t know any Australian who would think that was fair, yet Aboriginal peoples are supposed to be satisfied with a similar outcome under Native Title.

We Are Clearly Not “All One”

In 2025 Aboriginal people remain one of the most highly incarcerated peoples on the planet. Our people are predominantly gaoled as a result of being poor and dispossessed/disenfranchised, with poverty, entrenched disadvantage, and a lack of hope leading people to substance abuse and other anti-social and criminalised behaviours.

There are more children in out of home care (OOHC) – having been removed from their families at the direction of the State – than at any time, including during the period in Australia we refer to as the Stolen Generations. The number of Aboriginal children in OOHC has continued to rise since the formal Apology to the Stolen Generations by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008.

Aboriginal young people have one of the highest youth suicide rate in the world – with some regions of Australia sadly topping these statistics at times. The relevant socio-economic data and statistics clearly show that not all Australians are treated equally: We are clearly not “all one” or “all the same”.

A legacy of early and ongoing colonial treatment of Aboriginal peoples and communities is stark inequity in socio-economic statistics. The general wellbeing of Aboriginal Australians is significantly lower than other Australians. For over a decade Governments have been supposedly making efforts to “Close the Gap”, however currently only 4 of 19 identified targets are “on track”, with a number of areas actually going backwards. For some reason Governments seem incapable of addressing entrenched disadvantage that impacts less than 3% of the population. Australia is a “first-world” nation with an abundance of resources… yet we can’t “close the gap”? The reality is that Australia could “close the gap” if there was genuine political will to do so.

A Lack Of Political Will

Unfortunately, the evidence shows that there has not yet been the political will to allocate the necessary long-term funding to effectively “close the gap”.  Short term funding and regular changes to program funding, including regular de-funding of programs that are getting positive outcomes, is linked to 3-year political cycles. These political cycles see politicians treating the wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples and communities as a political football, rather than as an issue of ensuring all Australians have the same standard of living and ability to participate in the life of this country. Aboriginal people are seen by mainstream Australia as an “issue” or “problem” in this country, rather than as human beings requiring justice and equality. And therein lies the real issue. Aboriginal people in Australia are consistently treated as “less than” other Australians, and often denied basic human rights and dignity.

Invasion Day

Back to the 26 January – The date that people celebrate the invasion of this country and the attempted genocide of Aboriginal people – whether it is their intention or not. Think about it… if somebody suggested we move Australia day to 28 April, the date of the Port Arthur massacre where 35 people were killed… would we, as a nation, be happy with that? Would Australians be so uncaring for the families of the victims that we would have parties and fireworks on that day? Of course not. What about 27 November – the day Phillip Hughes, Australian cricketer, died as a result of injuries suffered during a cricket match? Of course not, that would be un-Australian, right?  Yet for some reason many Australians can’t see that celebrating on 26 January is just as inappropriate… or can they?

There is no good reason not to move the date of Australia Day. It has been held on multiple dates over the decades. The first official Australia day was on July 30, 1915. In 1935 all states agreed to use the name “Australia Day” and to celebrate it on 26 January – but there were protests. In 1938, on the 150^th Anniversary of colonisation, William Cooper and many other Aboriginal people held a protest against the ongoing poor treatment and denial of rights to Aboriginal peoples. They called the protest a “Day of Mourning”. In the Uniting Church we still remember this civil rights action when we hold “Day of Mourning” services on the Sunday before 26 January each year.

Similarly, in 1988, the 200^th anniversary of the start of colonisation, there was a massive protest and march in Sydney – the largest protest in Australia since the Vietnam moratorium. The Uniting Church Assembly had agreed not to participate in bi-centennial celebrations, but then reneged on this commitment… it was this decision by the Uniting Church in Australia that led to discussions that resulted in the 1994 Covenant Statement between the Uniting Church in Australia and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC).

So why not just change the date?

The majority of Aboriginal people that I have spoken with over the years have no issue with the celebration of this continent – we know it is the best country on earth. Our people have cared for this continent for millennia. It is not the celebrating of this country that is the issue. It is just the date of 26 January that causes concern.

So why not just move it?

After a lifetime of watching the debate transpire in the lead up to 26 January I have come to a conclusion. Australia remains an inherently racist colonial country, and the racists would prefer to be able to annually remind Aboriginal people that they are in charge and that Aboriginal people are the colonised “other”. We could change the date and be able to celebrate together, but I contend that the racists don’t want Aboriginal people to be able to celebrate. The racists prefer to keep the date as 26 January to be able to rub Aboriginal peoples’ noses in it. It is mean-spirited and spiteful. It is just another form of ongoing colonial racism towards Aboriginal peoples.

Thriving On Division Not Unity

Further, I have concluded that the racists do not want “unity” – they thrive on the division. They enjoy the opportunity to remind Aboriginal peoples that we have no say, and that they don’t care about the grief and trauma endured by Aboriginal peoples and communities. They revel in reminding Aboriginal people that we are colonised and dispossessed. They won’t change the date. Their reason for arguing against changing the date is basically: “because we don’t want to.” They would prefer to perpetuate hate and division than to change a date. Sadly, it seems that many Australians currently endorse this position.

However, I can sense change. The Referendum result, while disappointing, showed that about 40% of this country wanted to give Aboriginal peoples the opportunity to provide advice to the Government on matters that affect us. In another 10 years I believe that figure will jump to closer to 50% as older Australians with entrenched racist attitudes towards Aboriginal people pass away. In 20 years I believe it will be well over 50%. So there is hope. The Voice Referendum was unfortunately just about a decade too soon.

As our older politicians leave politics, and younger people step up, the political dynamic will also shift. Attitudes of politicians will change. Attitudes of electorates will change, and there will be an increasing demand to address the issue of Reconciliation, including just reparations, and this nation will finally be able to heal and move forward.

As a 21-year-old, listening to Paul Keating’s speech at Redfern on 10 December 1992, I was hopeful that a Treaty and “Reconciliation” was only years away. As a 53-year-old, I now know I was naïve to have that hope. I still believe that a Treaty will happen, because this country will remain divided until we get that work done, however I no longer think it will be in my lifetime. But we can change the date we celebrate “Australia Day” relatively easily, and I really hope I may live to see that happen.

Nathan Tyson is the Head of First Peoples Strategy and Engagement for the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT