Let’s celebrate together
AUSTRALIA Day is one of the biggest days on our nation’s calendar. It is a day for all Australians.
January 26 is about celebrating the achievements, values, freedoms and pastimes of our multicultural and inclusive country.
It’s a time for celebration, a time for family and friends, barbecues in the backyard, having a beer with mates and proudly flying the flag.
But there are some (mostly living in the intellectual enclaves of the big cities) who every year, driven by their egos, loudly want to make Australia Day something that it is not.
They seek to create division and hatreds. They push their mantra of Invasion Day. They should instead put their energies into things that might address indigenous disadvantage.
As Advantage Australia quite rightly says “Do us a favour. Quit divisive identity politics and stop pandering to the leftie activists and the Greens because Australia Day can only ever be January 26th”.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, an articulate, courageous and commonsense Warlpiri/celtic woman from Alice Springs made a powerful speech recently that we should all reflect on. She said “it is not time to worry about superficial concerns such as changing the date. Let’s prioritise fact over politeness and action over symbolism.”
Ms Price was speaking about the truly shocking number that 23 per cent of partner homicide victims in Australia are indigenous.
She could equally be writing about the disproportionately high rates of indigenous suicide, alcohol abuse, and imprisonment.
Here in Townsville the same pattern is seen in local youth crime.
Calling for the abolishment of Australia Day does nothing to address these issues and false high-minded ideals will not solve the real problems facing indigenous Australians or any Australian.
Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet, as Geoffrey Blainey writes in Triumph of the Nomads, Aborigines coexisted in hundreds of mini-republics speaking different languages and who treated one another as foreigners.
The year 1788 saw “Terra Australis Incognita” become known as Australia and the continent changed forever.
We are now the most successful multicultural nation on earth.
There is a place for everyone and much to celebrate.
A successful multicultural nation is one that celebrates many cultures but can also celebrate as one.
“We are one, but we are many …” as the Seekers song so clearly says.
There are wonderful stories about the success of first nations peoples.
It is truly impressive how many indigenous doctors and dentists are graduating from James Cook University.
And locals would do well to look at Bedourie, a small Queensland town on the edge of the Simpson Desert.
Here the population is 70 per cent Aboriginal but there is no youth crime, everyone has a job, all the kids go to school and the town is as clean as a new pin.
It’s the same in Warburton, an indigenous community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway. The community efficiently runs the council, the water and waste water services, the supermarket, the library and even their own airline.
Palm Island could learn so much from this place.
Indigenous Australians are just as capable as any other Australian of taking up the opportunities we all have and doing well.
Blaming the past stands in the way of future achievements. We cannot now right the wrongs of colonialism.
The annual day of protest will not achieve anything more than being divisive and causing acrimony. No one wants that outcome.
It’s true that as Australians we should be able to come together and celebrate the things about our nation that we’re proud of and grateful for.
Can’t we all just celebrate being Australian?
PETER LINDSAY, Annandale.