Holidays need to unite a nation, not divide it
Major public holidays rub salt in the wounds of the Indigenous community
ANOTHER Australia Day passes and the voices of those oppressed by its symbolism are not heard. January 26, 1788, marked the beginning of the invasion and genocide of Indigenous Australians. But it is not the only public holiday date that marginalises and offends those in our community who have suffered invasion and genocide.
We need to consider two other national holidays in this context: Anzac Day and the Queen’s Birthday.
What this trio of holidays has in common is they represent white Australia. They rub salt in the wounds of the Indigenous community. If we are to be a nation that seeks to heal through our national symbols, then Anzac Day and the Queen’s Birthday need to be examined and moved, or at least broadened to reflect the horrendous experience of colonialism.
In recent years Anzac Day, courtesy of former prime minister John Howard, has been marked by jingoism and a celebration of militarism. It focuses on the theatres of war in which Australia, as a colony of London and then Washington, has participated in over the course of more than a century.
But it is a day that ignores the civil war in this country, which saw, over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, “frontier wars’’ in which “3000 Europeans and at least 20,000 Aboriginal Australians lost their lives”, according to Monash University researcher Lynette Russell. That figure is climbing because of the work being done by historians across Australia, including the celebrated Tasmanian historian Professor Henry Reynolds.
But what does Anzac Day say about these wars? Nothing. According to the Australian War Memorial: “Australians recognise 25 April as a day of national remembrance, which takes two forms. Commemorative services are held across the nation at dawn – the time of the original landing – while later in the day former servicemen and servicewomen meet to take part in marches through the country’s major cities and in many smaller centres. Commemorative ceremonies are more formal, and are held at war memorials around the country. In these ways, Anzac Day is a time at which Australians reflect on the many different meanings of war.”
Why are the frontier wars ignored? There is no justifiable reason other than a combination of the intellectually barren “culture wars’’ prosecuted by the Right, and subliminal racism that imagines soldiers wearing khaki and sporting a badge that features the British crown.
The Queen’s Birthday is, similarly, a day of national amnesia. It is a colonial relic and makes Australia one of the very few countries in the world that thinks it’s acceptable to take a holiday to celebrate the birth of a foreign head of state.
But this day is also a slap in the face to Indigenous Australia.
The Queen’s Birthday is a reminder of the cult of empire – the empire that transformed this continent into a jail and which, in doing so, stole the land of the original inhabitants.
It is also a reminder of the fact that no Indigenous Australian can become the head of state of this nation.
Reviewing and reflecting on the appropriateness of national holidays is not about being “woke’’, to use the pejorative term, which has been adopted by the Right, often to cover for their tolerance of racism and inequality. It is about ensuring these
Australia is still seen in many parts of the world as a racist nation and an anachronism in the Asian region. Abandoning holidays that play to that image is critical.
important civic events represent unity and respect.
While Anzac Day can be renamed and refocused, the Queen’s Birthday, like Australia Day, should be moved.
An obvious date is, as former Labor adviser Nicholas Reece has pointed out, during Reconciliation Week, which is May 27 to June 3. The former date is the date of the 1967 referendum that removed clauses in the Constitution discriminating against Indigenous Australians, and June 3 the date of the handing down of the 1992 High Court decision in Mabo, which wiped out the racist notion of Australia’s invasion by the British being justified because the continent was “terra nullius”.
Post-colonial nations need public holidays that are representative of the aspirations of now and the future.
They should be days that cause us to reflect on wrong and to renew a commitment to a better future.
South Africa is a nation in many ways so different to Australia, but also similar because of the colonial history of genocide and oppression of Indigenous people and those of a non- white skin colour. In that country there is a Human Rights
Day, a Reconciliation Day and Freedom Day.
The large crowds at Invasion Day rallies last week, including here in Hobart, are telling us there is a groundswell of support for ensuring public holidays no longer peddle falsehoods and division.
Australia is still seen in many parts of the world as a racist nation and an anachronism in the Asian region. Abandoning holidays that play to that image is critical.