One of the four podcasts that I regularly listen to is In the Minefield with Waleed Ali and Scott Stephens, discussing the ethical and moral dilemmas of modern life. The first podcast of 2018 discussed changing the date of Australia Day. In that discussion they noted a recent poll that has been done about what three words Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians associate with the words ‘Australian Day.’ Non-Indigenous Australians overwhelmingly associated it with the words barbeque, celebration and holiday. Indigenous Australians associated it with the words invasion, survival and murder. That’s quite a divide.
My Australia Day this year highlighted that I fall within a non-Indigenous world view more than I might like to think. In summary, it didn’t quite register with me that Saturday 26th was Australia Day. I was focussing on Monday’s holiday.
Sweltering at the Farmer’s Market with the girls on Saturday morning in forty degree heat I wondered vaguely why a shopkeeper was wishing me a Happy Australia Day when that wasn’t until Monday. Equally I didn’t give much thought to the fact that there were fireworks on Saturday rather than Monday. We had arranged to have a picnic at the river an hour’s drive away with our friends Helen and Dave and unfortunately we were talking at cross purposes: I suggested we do it on Australia Day, meaning Monday; I missed her reference to the weather forecast on Saturday when we were exchanging messages about the arrangements; and again I only vaguely registered that she was quite organised suggesting we confirm arrangements before the end of the week rather than over the weekend for a Monday picnic. And then there was no phone coverage for her to ring us when we didn’t turn up. So we ended up having a lovely air-conditioned picnic at our house as they returned and knocked on the door to find out what had happened to us.
After the mixup though, which reinforces the date of it to me, I feel guilty about the prospect of enjoying a public holiday that marks the day Australia was invaded and the beginning of the subsequent trauma experienced by our first Australians. But I haven’t asked to work on Monday or to swap the public holiday for another day, so I’m not standing up for my principles and I’m benefiting doubly for this: once as a non-Indigenous Australian whose whole society is built on the oppression of others and again for having a day off because of it.
I think the least I can do is talk to the girls about why there is a public holiday on Monday 28th to mark Australia Day on Saturday the 26th. They are reading one of the books we gave them for Christmas last year, recommended by another of the podcasts I listen to regularly (Chat Ten Looks Three) – the book is called Bedtime Stories for Rebel Girls and it’s inspiring them with stories of the lives of girls and women all around the world. It was cited as an influence by the eight-year old girl who wouldn’t stand for the National Anthem in protest about Australia’s refugee policy, so I think it’s opening the door to concepts of challenging the status quo and being exposed to the wider social, political and historic context in the world. It’s a fine balance between retaining the innocence of childhood and cultivating their sense of gratitude for the advantages they have. I think eight is a good age to start to mention some of the bleaker aspects of our present and our nation’s past, and this book can be a bridge to these sorts of conversations.
I could ask Rhea and Lara what they think about celebrating this day given what it represents to many people. I think that surely we could find a different day to celebrate being Australian. Perhaps it could even be a day with no current significance, and the significance could develop from the day over time. If the date stays, it could be recast as Waleed Ali suggests to be a day of mourning and acknowledgement, a day of reckoning. This is unlikely.
I think we need to think about these things and talk about them, and listen respectfully to each other. I hope that this will build towards an Australia Day which is a day that we can celebrate without causing pain to others.
