Nothing to celebrate
While
most Australians fire up the barbecue and crack open beers to celebrate
national day on Friday, Robbie Thorpe will be marching in the shadow of
Victoria's state parliament.
Like
many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, he doesn't see anything to
cheer on Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the First Fleet in 1778 to
establish a British penal colony.
For
him, January 26 is "Invasion Day", a reminder of the dispossession,
violence, and loss that colonisation inflicted on the continent's first
peoples. As far as the veteran indigenous activist is concerned, it's a day for
mourning, solemn reflection, and resistance.
"Colonialism
is a disease and this country has got a mental health problem known as denial
of their genocidal acts," says Thorpe, who will march in Melbourne's
annual Invasion Day rally aimed at changing the date of the national holiday.
"If
it wasn't for their acts of terror and their policy of genocide, Australia wouldn't
exist."
'Want
for nothing'
More
than simply symbolising a painful history, January 26 serves as a reminder to
many of how Aboriginals remain marginalised to this day. Almost 250 years after
European settlement, indigenous Australians on average die a decade earlier
than the general population and have access to two-thirds the amount of
disposable income.
"People
don't realise how peaceful and how beautiful this country was when they arrived
here," says Thorpe, who hosts a programme on indigenous affairs on
community radio. "We had want for nothing."
Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders, who make up just three percent of the population,
have organised en masse against Australia Day since at least 1938, when
campaigner William Cooper held the first "Day of Mourning" in
downtown Sydney.
More
recently, though, the effort to change the date has gained momentum as an
increasing number of white and other non-indigenous Australians have become
attuned to the sensitivities around the date.
Earlier
this month, the leader of the left-leaning Australian Greens, the third force
in the country's politics, said moving Australia Day would be among the party's
priorities in the coming year.
Richard
Di Natale, the son of Italian immigrants, cited growing awareness, particularly
among young people, that the day represented "hurt and suffering" for
Aboriginal people.
In
November, Triple J, a youth-orientated public radio station, announced it would
move its popular annual music countdown from January 26 to the following day,
pointing to the controversy around the date.
Reproduced from Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/australia-national-day-fuels-debate-colonial-180124153019791.html
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