Celebratory activites on chopping block to make Australia Day more respectful to Aboriginals
Australia Day could be overhauled in the inner west to make it more solemn and respectful to Aboriginal people.
Australia Day could be overhauled to make it more solemn and respectful to Aboriginal people.
Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne successfully put forward a proposal to consult the community about “changing the nature” of its January 26 event at Enmore Park in Marrickville from a day of celebration to a day of commemoration.
While Cr Byrne remained committed to holding a “respectful” citizenship ceremony on the day, he suggested the fun “community festival” part of the event, such as live entertainment and fireworks, could be shifted to a different date.
“For First Nations peoples, January 26 represents the beginning of invasion, dispossession, disease, stolen children and the deliberate elimination of language and culture,” Cr Byrne said.
“We’re don’t want the community to lose an enjoyable event but we also want to ensure our approach is more respectful to Aboriginal people and reflect it’s a day of sadness for them.”
Greens councillor Tom Kiat said the review came nine months after his proposal to scrap Australia Day events on January 26 was rejected.
Security had to be beefed up at a council meeting after far right nationalists threatened to “declare war” on the council if the proposal gained support.
Cr Kiat said he supported Cr Byrne’s “take it or leave it” proposal as “a small, belated step in the right direction” but still didn’t think January 26 was “an appropriate day, out of the 365 available, to single out for citizenship ceremonies”.
Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Nathan Moran agreed “it’s not appropriate to induct people into Australia on the day Australia was invaded by the British colonies”.
Mr Moran said Aboriginal people consider January 26 as a Day of Mourning and suggested an alternative date for a day of national celebration such as January 1 to acknowledge the date of federation, the sorry day speech or the start of reconciliation week.
He accepted January 26 should be acknowledged but agreed it should not be a day of celebration and welcomed the review to find a more “inclusive” approach.
“Are you celebrating the theft of a country, the entirety of someone’s land, minerals, waterways, let alone all the human tragedies of war and colonisation? I don’t see that there is anything to celebrate.
“There are other more alternative days. We find this development of nationalism or patriotism is bizarre at best and alarming at worst of how Australia in such a short time has somehow turned it around to make this day a national day of celebration or significance when in early 90s not even all states had a public holiday for it.”
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Cr Byrne said the Federal Government was essentially forcing councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.
Byron Bay and two Melbourne councils were stripped of their right to hold citizenship ceremonies after they moved to ban ceremonies on January 26.
“The (Federal Government) has shown repeatedly that councils who cancel citizenship ceremonies on January 26 have had their power to conduct any citizenship ceremonies taken away,” Cr Byrne said.
“It’s a belligerent and mean-spirited approach but we have to deal with reality and it would be a terrible outcome if we lost our ability to conduct ceremonies.”
Events planned for Australia Day 2019 at Enmore Park will proceed.
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