Australia Day. What does it mean to me? Not everyone reading this will agree as there has been a major shift in the last 25 years about the importance of Australia Day.
First a brief history. Oddly enough some people think the day is to celebrate and remember Captain Cook landing here in 1770, it isn’t. It’s about the arrival of the first fleet of British ships arriving in Sydney in 1788 under Captain Arthur Phillip who established the first European settlement by hoisting the British flag. The whole of Australia didn’t start celebrating Australia Day till after WWII, in 1946.
Depending on your age and whether you’re an immigrant or child of one or Australian born, it appears there are differences as to what the day means and represents.
I am a second generation Australian of Greek origin born in the 1950’s, so to me and most of us who were children between the 1950’s and 80’s, Australia Day was the most depressing day of the year. It meant it was the last day of the long summer school holidays and we had to return to school the next day. The day usually meant a picnic for us with other Greek families at Kurnell, Botany Bay where Captain Cook sailed into. I cannot remember it having any other significance to me or my friends and family, and that includes my Aussie school mates. It was considered as the day summer ended, which is weird seeming there was still about five weeks of summer left.
“To me and most of us who were children between the 1950’s and 80’s, Australia Day was the most depressing day of the year.”
The other odd thing about this holiday is that until 1994, Australia Day was always celebrated on the last Monday of January, as close as possible to 26 January, so we could all have a long weekend, whether it was 26 January or not! But the government of Paul Keating changed it so that as of 1994, Australia Day was celebrated on the actual day of 26 January with a public holiday no matter what day it fell on as it was deemed a significant enough date in this nation’s history that we should all commemorate it on the day, even if it fell on a weekend as it does this year.
READ: The legendary picnics of the early Greek Australians
It probably began with our bicentenary in 1988 where along with friends my attitude to Australia Day changed due to the thousands of Aborigines and non-Indigenous people that marched in protest against what they saw as a celebration of the day their land began to be taken over and which they now label as Invasion Day. In recent years there has been a greater awareness of the suffering, the dispossession, the massacres and of the stolen generation that Aborigines have had to endure, plus there has been more talk about changing the date of Australia Day to one that suits everyone and is no longer divisive.
But at the same time, although we celebrate the founding of this country as a British state, I ask myself: what is our national identity? Do we have one we can identify as being purely Australian? I don’t know what it is. What about a cultural identity, do we have one of those? Is it going to the footie or having a barbecue and drinking ourselves into oblivion with alcohol and wearing it as a badge of honour to boast about how much we threw up and drank – as many will on Australia Day. Getting pissed seems to be a ritual.
It can’t be the concept of a fair go because all modern societies have it, nor can it be one of where everyone pulls together to help some community in trouble because that is a world wide trait where people help each other in times of some catastrophe; it’s not purely Australian.
So what are we celebrating on Australia Day? Having a barbie and the announcement of the Australia Day awards? Or is it just a day off?
At the end of 2018 the Social Research Centre did a survey of what people thought of Australia Day and whether they supported it being on 26 January. They found support for the date 26 January remaining was much more popular with people once they were over the age of 38, while a majority of Generation Z (those aged under 25) preferred it to be changed.
READ: Australia’s First People to welcome Greek elders on Australia Day
More startling was the responses given by two different groups when asked what aspects of Australia’s culture and heritage they strongly associated with Australia Day. The survey found that people born overseas were in the majority in believing that Australia Day for them recognised the contribution of all immigrants. Whereas the majority of those born here believed Australia Day celebrated our British culture and heritage.
Maybe the reason why so many migrants and their families like Australia Day is it gives them an opportunity to celebrate their new homeland and successes which they probably would not have been able to achieve in their country of birth, and that can only be a good thing from their perspective and for the country.