Australia Day: TikTokers encourage followers to donate holiday pay to charity
Young people are using TikTok to urge those who work on Australia Day to give up their earnings. See the videos.
NSW
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Social justice influencers are using video platform TikTok to give “tutorials” on how to decline Australia Day party invitations and encouraging young people who work on the public holiday to donate their earnings to charity.
Popular creators posted videos in the lead-up to Australia Day explaining why they don’t celebrate January 26 or why they recognise the date as ‘Invasion Day’ instead, gaining thousands of views and ‘likes’.
In a TikTok which has garnered more than 10,000 likes, Wiradjuri, Gomeroi and Awabakal influencer Meissa Mason advises those of her more than 110,000 followers who work on public holidays to donate their additional earnings to charity.
“I’ve had a couple of people DM me and say that they don’t celebrate Invasion Day and they’d rather work, but they also feel uncomfortable profiting off Invasion Day by getting time-and-a-half or double rates,” she said.
“Something you can do is working out your pay slips to see what you got on your regular rates, and then taking that percentage that you got for double pay or pay-and-a-half and donating it to an Indigenous organisation, movement or group.”
Barkindji, Wakawaka and Birrigubba Tiktok user Emily Johnson posted a “tutorial” encouraging her 78,000 followers to decline invitations to events held on the public holiday if they’re described as Australia Day parties.
“For me personally it’s ok if you want to enjoy the public holiday, but titling your event ‘Invasion Day’ is just yuck,” she wrote in a caption.
Non-Indigenous TikTok influencer Ella Jae used her platform to discuss “trauma” associated with Australia Day, and why parties can be seen as offensive.
“If we want to celebrate Australia, it should be on a day that can be inclusive for everyone, so that everyone can have fun,” she said in a video liked by nearly 25,000 users.
“If you choose to be ignorant and not get educated, you’re part of the problem.”
Another self-described ‘ally’, Jaz Karati, described how she and her Maori family learned about Indigenous perspectives on January 26.
“When we first moved here 10 years ago, we were ignorant to the history of that date, so we were celebrating with a lot of our Australian friends,” she said.
“As soon as we learnt the real history and the reason why that date is significant for Aboriginal people, it became a no-brainer for us to stop celebrating.”
NSW One Nation Leader Mark Latham slammed the movement for trying to eliminate the significance of Australia Day by reiterating his position that “there’s no need for change”.
“It’s like Josh Lalor the cricketer saying that people should go to work tomorrow and not have the public holiday. It won’t catch on,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Australia Day signifies the end of the holiday period (and) most Australians support it as an appropriate celebration of our great nation.
“There’s no need for change.”
Many of the most popular videos under the ‘Australia Day’ hashtag reference debate over the celebration, while those that don’t are flooded with comments discouraging the poster from celebrating.
Videos posted under the ‘Invasion Day’ hashtag have accrued more than 16 million views.
While polling indicates the majority of Australians want Australia Day to continue being celebrated on January 26, a growing number of younger people want the date to change, or be renamed to reflect an Indigenous perspective.
Research undertaken by Roy Morgan found more than one in two Australians under the age of 25 support the renaming of January 26 to ‘Invasion Day’.
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