Michael McGuire: Australia should celebrate its national holiday on a new date, not when it was colonised

AUSTRALIA should come up with a new date to celebrate its national holiday, not the anniversary of its colonisation, writes Michael McGuire.

Mark Knight's cartoon for the Herald Sun on Saturday, August 27, 2016, about Freemantle's decision to ban Australia Day.

AS far as I can tell Australia Day is unique. As far as I can tell, and I could be wrong, no other country celebrates its national holiday on the actual day when, you know, the invaders actually turned up to take over.

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip tootled down a stretch of water that would become known as Sydney Harbour and so began the establishment of modern-day Australia.

It’s a significant historical day certainly, but as a chance to celebrate all that is good and great about our country, there are better choices. Probably around three hundred and sixty four of them.

You would hope as the nation matures a sensible debate could occur about how appropriate January 26 is but, given the plastic furore over Triple J possibly moving the date of its annual Hottest 100, perhaps not.

To some, and not just indigenous Australians, January 26 represents ‘Invasion Day’. That is quite natural. Imagine if Australia had lost World War II and been colonised by the Japanese or the Germans. You reckon we’d all be happily celebrating that day?

To others, the connection to the old notions of Queen, King and Country leave them a little cold.

What other countries do is instructive. New Zealand celebrates Waitangi Day on February 6, recognising the treaty signed between English colonialists and more than five hundred Maori chiefs. This happened decades after the first white settlers arrived.

Canada’s national day is July 1, marking the date in 1867 when three colonies were combined to form the nation, two centuries after it had first been colonised.

The United States, of course, celebrates July 4, commemorating the Declaration of Independence in 1776, when it declared itself free of English rule. India has an Independence Day for the same reason. The German national day marks the reunification of east and west in 1990.

Perhaps this is the problem. We don’t have a date everyone can agree on to celebrate the best of our nation.

Australia’s Federation happened on January 1, 1901. Celebrating Australia day with a massive hangover may be appropriate but maybe not for the best.

Anzac Day is another day that is thrown around in this debate. But that is a date with its own significance, traditions and dignity. We don’t need to be throwing in further issues of modern national identity into the mix.

The obvious answer will be to move it when Australia finally becomes a republic. This is inevitable, whether it’s next week or next century.

But Australia will, at some stage, decide its head of state should be one of us and not a distant foreign monarch. At the same time, presumably we will take that little stamp of subservience off the corner of the flag.