Another January 26 Australia Day passes. The day, according to the Victorian Government website, to reflect on what it means to be Australian, to celebrate contemporary Australia and to acknowledge our history.
That’s a nice statement, but it could do with some work… I do think we should be reflecting on what it means to be Australian – because fucked if I know what it means. I think we should celebrate contemporary Australia but also ancient Australia. And I think we need to do more than just acknowledge our history: we need to redress it.
But if we’re going to have a day to celebrate the nation, I just don’t think it should be the date that British sovereignty was knowingly forced on an inhabited land.
Now, you’re probably familiar with what happens whenever a left-leaning Aussie like myself dares to say anything about Australia Day that isn’t absurdly obsequious. They are inevitably and immediately labelled as unpatriotic. They are painted as ungrateful whingers who hate their country.
So let me be clear right now: I love Australia. I love its natural beauty – from the desert to the beach, the mountains to the cliffs. I love its boundless plains, its ever-girting sea. I love a lot about the Australian culture – from fair-go mateship to cheeky larrikinism. I love our democracy – we found the winning combo of preferential voting and sausages; for that I am immensely proud. I love that we invariably punch above our proverbial weight in sports, comedy, viticulture and music. This country has the best wine, the best cheese and the best boobs in the whole world.
But I don’t think the day we celebrate all those things should be the day the land was colonised.
Ask any Aussie politician, and they’ll tell you Australia is the Lucky Country. They always mean it as a good thing, twisted to imply that to live in Australia makes one lucky. But the term originally comes from Donald Horne’s 1964 book of the same name, which was a critique of Australia’s political and economic wealth. The final chapter begins with the still-relevant sentence “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck”. I can’t say much has changed since 1964.
But even if you use the phrase with it’s newer, corrupted meaning, it’s clear when you look around that Australia hasn’t been lucky for all. 19.3% of Aboriginal Australians live in poverty. Aboriginal Australian children between the ages of 5 to 17 are committing suicide at a five times higher rate than non-indigenous peoples in Australia. More than 28 percent of Australia’s prison population is Aboriginal, but less than 3 percent of Australia’s population is indigenous.
If that kind of destitution and inequality doesn’t make you angry, then you don’t need to reflect on what it means to be Australian. You need to question whether you’re fucking human.
I said before that lefty Aussies who don’t fawn over Australia Day are labelled as unpatriotic. But you know who’s really unpatriotic? Who’s really unAustralian? The people who vote for parties that seek to destroy Australia’s natural beauty, to dehumanise and imprison people fleeing persecution, to maintain or broaden socio-economic divides. If you’d prefer coal mines over native forests, you’re unAustralian. If you’d rather wealthy white neighbourhoods get carparks and sporting facilities while Aboriginal medical clinics close down, you’re unAustralian. If you’re more angry that Grace Tame didn’t smile than you are that we celebrate the invasion of this land, you’re unAustralian.
I love this country.
Change the fucking date.
