Change the date so we can all celebrate

LEADING up to this time of year can be very depressing and emotional for my people. Not only are we fighting to change the date of Australia Day, we get abused for doing so.

Invasion Day, as I call it, stirs up emotions. We see people celebrating, laughing, wrapped in Australian flags, temporary tattoos, buying all the merchandise to have a barbie on the beach.

It’s shoved in our faces at the shops with streamers and balloons, and we see cars driving around with flags proudly waving. I ask myself what are all these people actually celebrating on this date? January 26 is that date Sydney Cove was claimed in the name of King George.

This marked the start of dispossession, murder, rape, genocide and over two centuries’ of inherited trauma, stolen children, deaths in custody, racism and injustice for Aboriginal people all over the many nations that make up Australia as we know it today.

This is not a day I think should be celebrated. Let’s make this day a national day of mourning, and move Australia Day to a date we can all celebrate. The choice is almost endless: February 13 — the date the government apologised to the Stolen Generation, March 20 or the day Canberra was selected as our capital, April 11 or the day the White Australia policy was abolished, May 27, the day Aboriginal people were allowed constitutional rights. Come on people, change the date so we can all celebrate. Luana Towney Kingston