Integrating Australia Day !

January 26 of each year has been set aside as " Australia Day " which commemorates the arrival of the first fleet of ships from Britain to establish a colony in New South Wales.  A section of our Indigenous population object to that on the grounds that to them it represents " invasion " day, and there is now a movement to have Australia Day scrapped and replaced with an Aboriginal festival called  " Yabun ".

" Yabun " is already celebrated on January 26 and it is a festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture with musical performances, stalls and community forums. Common sense indicates that these should be combined festivals celebrating both the people who were here before 1788 and the new arrivals that together have created the prosperous country that is Australia today.

One of the sticking points is the custom of awarding citizenships certificates to migrants who have been accepted into our community on that day.  It is elevating to new citizens to receive their certificate at a ceremony held on their new country's national day and to move it to a lesser date would be to lower its significance.

This movement to replace Australia day is coming from a small militant portion of our Indigenous population with support from some in the non-Indigenous community.  One of our inner west shires has a population of 200,000 people, of whom about 2,000 identify as Aboriginal.  This shire has been threatened with losing the right to hold citizenship ceremonies if it refuses to award them on Australia day.

Most Australians agree with the national holiday falling on January 26.   It falls in the summer and there is every chance that it will deliver good weather for a trip to the beach or to attend a sporting  event.   In the eyes of many people it has become a celebration of our nation today rather than a remembrance of 1788.   Thee are few nations that would not have events from their past that they would prefer to regret than to remember and it is fortunate that we now live in a more enlightened age.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that we simply wipe the memory slate clean and forget that white settlement here was by way of a penal colony imposed by another nation.  There was conflict between the Indigenous people and the new arrivals with their sheep and horses, but out of this came a trading nation with a high standard of living.  It was inevitable that this continent located deep in the southern hemisphere would be discovered by way of the sailing ships being developed in the northern part of the world.

A better compromise would be the integration of Yabun into that January 26 celebration so all Australians have a reason to celebrate together.  It is obvious that the prosperity this country has achieved has been by way of the  " melting pot " that has fused people of all colour and creeds into the race the world now knows as " Australians "  !