Axiomatically,any national day that alienates,offends and traumatises a significant portion of a country’s population is not a national day. That January 26,and its murderous and often genocidal colonial aftermath,continues to cause so much anguish to the descendants of the original custodians of the land is reason alone to banish it. No amount of citizenship ceremonies,honours,aerobatic displays,pyrotechnics or government advertising campaigns imploring Australians to have fun will alter the fact that Australia Day,on its present date,in its present form,will never bring together the entire country.
The decline of Australia Day comes at a time when other staples of the national calendar may also be running up against their sell-by date. The Melbourne Cup – largely because of animal welfare concerns over horse fatalities – is no longer a race that stops the nation. Celebrating the birth of the monarch with a public holiday – something that does not even happen in my homeland – will seem especially anomalous this year,as we mark the King’s birthday rather than the Queen’s. Small wonder that Anzac Day,the commemoration of modern Australia’s bloody baptismal moment,is emerging as the de facto national day.
In searching for alternative dates for Australia Day,in identifying other possible events to commemorate,the obvious point of reference is the past. January 1,or Federation Day,is sometimes cited – although given that the first legislative priority of the new Commonwealth was to codify white Australia policies that would tap into the same baleful history. Marking February 13,the date that Kevin Rudd delivered the national apology to First Nations peoples,would be a better option. Rather than celebrate the monarch’s birthday midway through the year,Australia could mark the anniversary of the Mabo decision on June 3 with a public holiday.
Yet rather than foraging through history,maybe the onus should be on the future,and the need to create new red letter days. For instance,if ever Australia decides to dispense with the services of King Charles or his heirs,a “Republic Day” seems like a natural replacement for the present regal public holiday. But surely the more pressing need is to produce a new watershed moment,and to press for a new era in national life,in which true reconciliation becomes a reality.
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In this respect,January 26 serves more as a national mirror than a national holiday. It reflects the historic breach in Australian society. It shows us the wound. The ABC journalist Stan Grant,as so often is the case,summoned the apposite words when he observed:“For now,26 January is all that we are. It is all that we are not. Australia lives in that tension.”
To its credit,the ACT already marks Reconciliation Day,which recognises the anniversary of the 1967 referendum,but that was only an early milestone in a journey that is far from complete. Creating an Indigenous Voice to parliament would take the country further down that same path.
The search,then,is not so much for a date to commemorate. Rather we should think of it more as a quest:to create a genuinely inclusive nation with a genuinely inclusive national day.
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