Anthony Dillon: Australia Day changes are trivial distractions

PUSHES to change Australia Day leave us stuck with a particular view of history while more urgent problems go unsolved, writes Anthony Dillon.

Anthony Dillon.

• Council votes to stop Aust Day citizenship
• Darebin councillors forced to rein in massive expenses claims

AS A university researcher, I have had the opportunity to see many success stories on Aboriginal Australians. While it is important to celebrate this success, there is still much work to be done. Problems such as homelessness, violence, and child abuse continue to affect far too many Aboriginal people.

As urgent as these problems are, they can easily drop off the radar if we allow ourselves to be distracted with trivialities.

I ­believe this has been the case with two Melbourne councils in as many weeks wanting to make changes to Australia Day celebrations. It now seems the Greens wish to axe Australia Day here in NSW.

Anthony Dillon.

Last week Yarra City Council ­decided to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day. This week Darebin City Council jumped on the bandwagon. Both councils made their decisions, apparently out of respect for Aboriginal people.

Such a decision actually disempowers Aboriginal people further, and I will shortly explain why.

Calls for a change are on the basis that today’s generation of ­Aboriginal people (many like myself, who are descendants of the invaded and invader) are allegedly suffering due to British invasion. While many of the Aboriginal people at the time of the invasion definitely suffered, today’s generation are not suffering, or if they are, it is not because of events from two centuries ago.

City of Darebin mayor Kim Le Cerf (left) and City of Yarra mayor Amanda Stone changed their Australia Day celebrations.

We are never victims of the past but only ever victims of our view of the past, as indeed so many wonderful, hardworking Aboriginal Australians today have shown. Protesters argue that making changes won’t hurt anybody so just simply do it.

However, changes to Australia Day on the basis that in its current state it allegedly upsets Aboriginal people will simply reinforce the myth that their emotional wellbeing is under the control of those who decide what we call 26 January.

Many Aboriginal people already know that they can be happy regardless of what 26 January is called. They do not see it as a celebration of genocide as Greens senator Lee Rhiannon would have us believe — they see it as an opportunity to celebrate what a great country we live in.

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Some may claim that the decision made by various councils was well ­intentioned. I strongly disagree. Their decision is just another example of political correctness gone mad in order to win a popularity contest among those who have difficulty ­acknowledging the real problems facing Aboriginal people today. It has nothing to do with the wellbeing of Aboriginal people. Opposition to Australia Day celebrations on the basis that it upsets Aboriginal Australians is simply a convenient distraction from the inconvenient truths of chronic dysfunction in too many ­Aboriginal communities.

Those who live in safe homes with access to most mod cons often feel powerless when seeing the plight ­endured by disadvantaged Aboriginal people.

Their privilege and perhaps their guilt requires them to do something. Expressing their opposition to Australia Day, or whatever this month’s cause is, can in their minds, convince them that they are doing something worthwhile to help Aboriginal people. In reality, they are not.

Those who believe that changes to Australia Day will help Aboriginal people should visit communities where violence is rampant and kids roam the streets at night because it’s safer than home.

Will the changes you propose make any difference to the people of these communities? Will it put food on the table or help families feel safe? I think many of these community members would love a day where they could have a sausage sizzle, throw the frisbee, have a beer, and sit back with friends and family free from the fear of violence.

We know the problems plaguing Aboriginal communities and we know the solutions.

In sum, people living in poverty need access to quality education and meaningful jobs. And where there is violence and crime, the common law of the land must be applied, even if this means removing children from unsafe living environments and placing them with loving families.

If we are serious about ensuring Aboriginal Australians attain a standard of living that most Australians take for granted, then we must continue to give priority to the most serious problems they face.

Address these problems first, then and only then, if the protesters want changes to Australia Day, should we choose to listen.

The wisdom of Goethe is highly relevant here: “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

Anthony Dillon is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University and identifies as ­part-Aboriginal.