To all Australians on Australia Day

My ancestors were neither Aboriginal nor convict. They did not come from or to Sydney. As such, January 26 has no meaning to me. It is not a part of my story or my history. Even as a kid, I did not understand why Australia Day was important to anyone outside of Sydney. The foundation of that town has very little relevance to the rest of the country, and so it has always been confusing why those in power chose this day to celebrate.

But that’s my story. The story of someone with no connection to the day. And for that reason I wasn't sure if I should even write this. But I still feel it's important to explore a couple of things about Australia Day. So my personal connection to the day is unimportant. What’s more important is what we’re told the day represents and what it actually represents. That is, what is the actual story of the day?

What we’re told it represents

The day, we’re told, shows us, the people of Australia, how far we’ve come since that January day in 1788. From a settlement of convicts, discarded and hated by the British Empire, the modern forward thinking nation has developed. The particular Australian outlook on life developed on the shores of Port Jackson as the melting pot of British Convicts all worked together to overcome impossible odds to survive.

That Australian Character, reinforced by waves of subsequent immigrants, survives today. So we’re told.

It is a glorious history of overcoming obstacles, of the Australian people surviving and overcoming the tyranny of distance, of innovating and being world-beaters in all kinds of different areas.

Recently though, as a more true version of Australia's history has developed, more problematic aspects of this history have appeared. But, on Australia Day, these too are seen not as unresolved stains on the national character, but as sins which have since been forgiven and overcome. The story adapts and conforms just as we Australians have adapted to a changing understanding of our place in the world.

That then is what we’re told Australia Day is about. It is a story of overcoming, of working together regardless of background or wealth or family. It is a story of egalitarianism.

What a happy story! It's a lie, but it's a happy story!

What it actually represents

The Colonisation of Australia was violent. It was violent and deadly against the people already here, brutal against the convicts and underclasses and only rewarding to those who already had power and influence. It was corrupt, illegal and would have embarrassed even the respectable members of British Society at the time, if they knew the full extent of it.

And this brutality did not end on the shores of Sydney Cove. It was exported to all points of the continent. But it started on January 26. And January 26 is therefore always linked to this brutality, this violence, this genocide.

The story of Australia Day is the story of oppression, of people being kept in their place or being put back there if they ever thought about rebelling.

If you look at the events of January 26 1808, the Rum Rebellion, it is also the story of the powerful getting away with anything they wanted. None of the leaders of that coup faced any real consequences, and that spirit of non-accountability spread through the colonies and persists to this day.

And the perpetrators of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples of this land were similarly not held to any kind of account, and in many cases lauded and awarded for their actions.

Australia Day tells the story of crimes being committed with no punishment received; if you were the right class and race of course.

If your national holiday is on a day intrinsically linked to oppression, unaccountability and the exercise of unrestricted power, you’ve chosen the wrong day.

Would another day do?

Australia Day is a colonial holiday. It is the celebration of colonialism, the celebration of the strong, wrong man overpowering anyone who gets in his way. A celebration of the British Empire, not Australian achievement. A celebration of disaster. It is the wrong day for any kind of unity to be expressed or attempted.

Choosing almost any other day would give the country a national holiday free from these direct and obvious connotations. The problems of Australia Day are not those which it wants to represent, but the story it tells by being on January 26. Unity and progress cannot be celebrated alongside oppression and hatred.

The trouble is, it is the exact right time of year for a public holiday. Depending on the day of the week it falls (another problem with the date, but at least it’s a practical not moral problem) it’s a perfect time for one final long weekend before the year starts to get into full swing.

The last chance to enjoy summer as families.

That’s probably why the holiday has caught on in the last 20 years. So to replace it with any other date later in Autumn or Winter would mean we lose this.

But the date must be replaced. That is not even up for much debate anymore. There is simply too much hurt and loss and anger attached to the current date.

When the Australian Republic is recognised, the date of the declaration of the Republic will almost naturally become the national day. Make it the 2nd Friday in January or some similar date and free it from the tyranny of the 26th. Allow the nation the symbolism that it needs to heal. Let us recognise ourselves as a nation, not as a colonial relic alone and adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

Give us a day to unify.