A day of unity

SHOULD we celebrate Australia Day on a different date?

I confess to having a vested interest in the issue.

My birthday is on Australia Day and there’s nothing I enjoy more than celebrating it by watching the fireworks from Eastern Beach with friends when Corio Bay is filled with yachts visiting for the Festival of Sails.

But despite my self-interest, I am open to the view that the date should be changed if it would likely contribute to greater national unity.

I used to feel a quiet sense of pride about being born on Australia Day, and never more than when a friend came to my birthday celebration after his citizenship ceremony.

For many Australians January 26 will represent a time when their commitment to their new country became an important part of their identity. But increasingly in recent years I feel a little bit of guilt on the day.

Something doesn’t seem quite right about celebrating a national day on a date that represents to many indigenous Australians the invasion, dispossession and genocide of their ancestors.

The point is that Australia Day will represent many different things to many different Australians.

Just as for other significant events, we’ll all have our different narratives of what the day means to us.

But if there’s one part of the narrative that we might all hope to share on Australia Day it would be a sense of unity among Australians.

It seems to compromise the whole notion of a national day if a significant proportion of our indigenous population were to feel excluded or disregarded by how and when we conduct our celebrations.

However, when considering a possible change of date I think it is especially important to consider our motives.

I have little doubt that many people’s motivation to changing the date is borne of compassion.

In a relatively narcissistic age, it seems refreshing that many people are showing compassion to acknowledge the painful emotions and sense of exclusion of many indigenous Australians on our national day.

In my view, the assertion by some that we should fly flags at half-mast on January 26 suggests a different motive.

That would suggest that a fitting predominant emotion on our national day should be guilt or shame.

There’s so much to be proud of and grateful for in being Australian, including our strong egalitarian tendencies. It’s part of our national character to want everyone to get a fair go.

Why should we define ourselves in the 21st Century by the very worst of our past? Why focus on the worst in ourselves on our national day? Surely we can acknowledge our failings of the past without having to make them front and centre.

Again — there are many narratives to Australia Day. If anyone thought the national day should be changed to suit their own sensibilities, I would consider that to represent a sense of entitlement, another unhealthy motive.

Why should we expect everybody else to share our view of what Australia Day predominantly means to us?

Increasingly, there also seems a risk that the debate could be lost in political posturing and point scoring.

I’m convinced it’s no longer possible to truly aspire to a day of true national unity on January 26.

But it is already becoming clear that the discussion of a different date is encouraging further division as much as showing promise of greater unity.

I am all for Australia showing that it is a sophisticated enough country to acknowledge the failings of the past, including dispossession and merciless killing of many original inhabitants, to show compassion for those affected, and to create conditions whereby all Australians wish to celebrate a national day together.

I am also all for Australia showing that it is grown up in other ways. In my view, the only real prospect of achieving these things, and happily celebrating on the one day, is to shift Australia Day to the date when Australia becomes a republic.

We could change the date in a way that acknowledges where we have come from — including an honest and mature appraisal of the good and the bad — while mainly focusing on the collective things that we feel grateful for. I want to live in a modern, forward-looking, compassionate and autonomous society — not a backward-looking one driven by shame or entitlement.