Port Phillip Council to fly Aboriginal flag at full-mast on Australia Day

A “mourning” ceremony will be held for the second year by an inner-city council, but it won’t fly the Aboriginal flag at half-mast.

Parbin-ata Dr Carolyn Briggs AM (right) at the 2020 ceremony with Michael Julian and John-Wayne Parsons. Picture supplied by Port Phillip Council

Port Phillip Council’s award-winning dawn “mourning” ceremony will again usher in Australia Day in the municipality.

But the council will not follow calls by a Greens MP to fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at half-mast on January 26.

Port Phillip made history last year when it became the first local government to host an event of this kind, which acknowledges the culture and history of the Boonwurrung traditional owners.

The hour-long We-Akon Dilinja (mourning-reflection) ceremony will include Indigenous music and a smoking ceremony, as well as readings by local multi-faith leaders in a celebration and coming together of Port Phillip’s diverse community.

The COVIDSafe event, held by the council in collaboration with the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council and the support of the National Australia Day Council, kicks off at 6am at Alfred Square, St Kilda.

Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council N’Arweet Jason Briggs said this year’s theme of Remembrance, Reflection and Recognition represented the partnership between the organisation and Port Phillip Council.

“The Boonwurrung people have occupied our land since time immemorial and this ceremony on our national day is an important step in acknowledging our shared history with other Australians who now call our traditional country home,” he said.

“It is our home that this shared ceremonial acknowledgment will lead to a great engagement, recognition and appreciation of Boonwurrung cultural heritage and history which has been carried forward, over time, by each generation to the present day.”

Mayor Louise Crawford said the event was an opportunity to “move forward”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of connection (and) this ceremony is an opportunity for us all to come together to reflect on the past as we move forward as a community and country and we hope it encourages more councils to embrace this inclusive concept,” she said.

Earlier this week, Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe called on councils and community groups to fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at half-mast on January 26 to commemorate First Nations people killed at the hands of white settlers.

Neighbouring Glen Eira council has announced it will be lowering the flags “as a mark of respect for Australia’s First Nations peoples”.

Mayor Margaret Esakoff said the move aimed to help turn “a day of mourning into a day of healing”.

“It is important that we come together to acknowledge the pain and true history that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have experienced as a direst result of the European colonisation of Australia,” she said.

Despite holding a “mourning ceremony”, Port Phillip Council will not lower the flags next Tuesday.

“The Australian Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag are flown from the masthead of the foreground flagpoles at St Kilda Town Hall on every day of the year, alongside the Australian national flag,” Cr Crawford said.

Last year’s dawn ceremony received recognition of Continued Excellence in Reconciliation at Reconciliation Victoria’s 2020 awards and won the Indigenous category in the Sustainable Cities awards.

This year’s ceremony will be live streamed so more people can come together than ever before.

To book to attend in person, click here or view the live stream here.

A Citizenship Ceremony will be held at the St Kilda Town Hall later that day.