An Indigenous academic has argued that changing the date of Australia Day will not address the deep-seated feelings of loss and sadness that accompany it for many of Australia’s original inhabitants.
However, Monash Pro Vice-Chancellor of Indigenous Issues Jacinta Elston believes “it is the celebratory manner in which 26 January is recalled nationally that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders find offensive and with which they struggle”.
What used to be a “day off and an excuse for a barbeque”, has for many years become a heated and deeply emotional debate, with many now referring to Australia Day as 'Invasion Day', a day of survival and a day of shame.
While many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people insist on the date changing, Elston approaches the controversial day from another perspective, while at the same time acknowledging the injustice.
“We as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we actually want to celebrate being Australian, we want to celebrate Australia Day, but that’s not the right day for us to do it,” she says in an article published in Monash Lens.
“For us, January 26, 1788 was the beginning of a process of invasion. When Captain Arthur Phillip placed the British flag on Gadigal land that morning, that represents our land being stolen from us.”
Changing the date, however, is too simplistic an idea Elston says.
“I don’t think that, by itself, will do it.”
“I think that January 26 still needs to be acknowledged, but as a different type of day of significance in Australia, one of remembrance and recognition.
“The tone that is set around Anzac Day, that context of remembrance, remembering the legacy of those who fought in the wars, that’s exactly the same type of tone that many of us in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community would like to set for January 26.”
The Monash academic believes tensions will flare between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples over what the day truly represents.
“Lots of people say to me: ‘Why don’t Aboriginal people just get over these things’? Well, why doesn’t non-Indigenous Australia just get over it and actually start to do the thing that they can do, which is acknowledge us and help us all move on together,” Elston says.
“Why do we have to be the ones who get over it? Why can’t we get over it together?
“Where we kind of are at the moment is just sort of treading water in a place of pain.
“We need our country, our leaders of the country, our government and our politicians to actually take us on a journey that takes us through this into a place of healing."