persuasive essay on australia day

Changing the Date of Australia Day Argumentative Essay

How would you feel if someone was rejoicing on the day your home was taken from you? Well, this is exactly what we’re doing on Australia day to all the indigenous people out there. We are celebrating on the day that their identity, their family, their home was taken from them. The date of Australia day should be changed because it is extremely exclusive to First nations people, the meaning of Australia has changed, and people don’t take it seriously anymore and Australia day doesn’t hold as much significance as we think.

It is very insensitive and exclusive to celebrate Australia day on the 26th of January, many indigenous people find it offensive to celebrate on this day. We are celebrating on a day that should be a day of grievance and mourning. The company Australians together says, “celebrating these things on the 36th of January can divide us as Australians by marginalising and offending many indigenous people who see this date as commencing a chain of event that had disastrous consequences for many first nations people”.  The actively demonstrates that it is inappropriate to be celebrating on January 26th as it is a sensitive topic to many first nations people.

Another reason why the date of Australia day should be changed is that people don’t take it seriously anymore, Rachel sarra, an indigenous designer, artist , and activist says ‘ For white Australians changing the date will simply mean coming together on a different day and the public holiday would still take place. For indigenous Australians, changing the date would acknowledge the pain associated with January 26th’.  The meaning of this day has changed so greatly over time that some people don’t even know what we are celebrating on the day. The market research company Review Partners conducted a poll asking people to identify the historical event celebrated on January 26th , only 43% of them got it correct. This demonstrates that if we change the date of Australia day it won’t make a difference to white Australians, but it will include the first nations people.

Changing the date of Australia day would be a better option as the 26th doesn’t hold as much significance as we make It seem. It was only until 1994(25 years ago) that Australia day became a national public holiday and was celebrated consistently each year. The first fleet didn’t even land in Australia on January the 26th, the actual date is about a week before it. To respect the first nations people Australia day should be moved to a different day so this public holiday can be enjoyed by all as well as acknowledging all the parts of our history, so we can move forward together as a nation.

To conclude, the date of Australia day should be changed to reflect changing community attitudes. It is insensitive and exclusive, it is no longer taken seriously, and the 26th doesn’t mean as much as we think. These are just a few of many reasons of why we should change the date of Australia day.

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Australia Day: Change the date? Change the nation

Opinion + analysis climate + environment politics + human rights, by karen wyld 24 jan 2019, like clockwork, every january australians question when is, or even if there is, an appropriate time to celebrate the nationhood of australia..

Each year, a growing number of Australians acknowledge that the 26 th of January is not an appropriate date for an inclusive celebration .

There are no sound reasons why the date shouldn’t be changed but there are plenty of reasons why the nation needs to change.

I’ve written about that date before, its origins and forgotten stories  and recent almost-comical attempts to protect a public holiday . I choose not to repeat myself, because the date will change.

For many, the jingoism behind Australia Day is representative of a settler colonialism state that should not be preserved. A nation that is not, and has never been fair, free or young. So, I choose to put my energy into changing the nation . And I am not alone.

People are catching up and contributing their voices to the call to change the nation, but this is not a new discussion. On 26 January 1938, on the 150 th anniversary of the British invasion of this continent, a group of Aboriginal people in NSW wrote a letter of protest, calling it a Day of Mourning . They asked the government to consider what that day meant to them, the First Peoples, and called for equality and justice.

Since 1938, the 26 th of January continues to be commemorated as a Day of Mourning . The date is also known as Survival Day or Invasion Day to many. Whatever people choose to call that day, it is not a date suitable for rejoicing.

It was inconsiderate to have changed the date in 1994 to the 26th January. And, now the insensitivity is well known, it’s selfish not to change the date again. The only reasons I can fathom for opposition to changing the date is white privilege , or perhaps even racism.

These antiquated worldviews of white superiority will continue to haunt Australia until a critical mass has self reflected on power and privilege and whiteness , and acknowledges past and present injustices. I believe we’re almost there – which explains the frantic push back.

A belief in white righteousness quietened the voices of reason and fairness when the first fleet landed on the shores of this continent. And it enabled colonisers and settlers to participate in and/or witness without objection decades of massacres, land and resource theft, rape, cultural genocide and other acts of violence towards First Peoples.

The voice of whiteness is also found in present arguments, like when the violence of settlement is justified by what the British introduced. It is white superiority to insist science, language, religion, law and social structures of an invading force are benevolent gifts.

First Peoples already had functioning, sophisticated social structures, law, spiritual beliefs, science and technology. Combining eons of their own advances in science  with long standing trade relations with Muslim neighbours , First Peoples were already on an enviable trajectory.

Tales of white benevolence, whether real or imagined, will not obliterate stories of what was stolen or lost. Social structures implanted by the new arrivals were not beneficial for First Peoples, who were barred from economic participation and denied genuine access to education, health and justice until approximately the 1970s.

Due to systemic racism, power and privilege, and social determinants, these introduced systems of justice, education and health still have entrenched access and equity barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Changing the nation involves settler colonialists being more aware of the history of invasion and brutal settlement, as well as the continuing impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It involves an active commitment to reform, which includes paying the rent .

The frontier wars did not result in victory for settler colonialists, because the fight is not over. The sovereignty of approximately 600 distinctly different cultural/language groups was never ceded. Despite generations of violence and interference from settler colonialists, First Peoples have not been defeated.

“You came here only recently, and you took our land away from us by force. You have almost exterminated our people, but there are enough of us remaining to expose the humbug of your claim, as white Australians, to be a civilised, progressive, kindly and humane nation.” ‘ Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights! : A Statement of the Case for the Aborigines Progressive Associations’, The Publicist , 1938, p.3

Having lived on this continent for close to 80,000 years and surviving the violence of colonisation and ongoing injustices of non-Indigenous settlement, the voices of First Peoples cannot be dismissed. The fight for rights is not over.

The date will change. And, although it will take longer, the nation will change. There are enough still standing to lead this change – so all Australians can finally access the freedoms, equality and justice that Australia so proudly espouses.

Karen Wyld is an author, living by the coast in South Australia 

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Karen wyld is an author, living by the coast in south australia..