The case for and against changing Australia Day events
Lord Mayor Sally Capp and Indigenous elder Ian Hunter debate the merits of changing the way our city celebrates Australia Day.
Opinion
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How Australians approach January 26 is changing significantly around the nation – including here in the City of Melbourne.
How Australians approach January 26 is changing significantly around the nation – including here in the City of Melbourne.
In the lead-up to Australia Day each year, I’m asked by all kinds of people, including journalists, business owners and residents, “What is the City of Melbourne doing on January 26?” and “Why do we celebrate on this day?”
They ask me because the City of Melbourne is directly involved.
We run some events on the day and we support others.
There is no doubt there has been a shift in public sentiment about January 26.
In a published poll of 17,300 Australians last year, 55 per cent of respondents supported celebrating Australia on a different day.
We know this is a divisive debate, but it is maturing, and it is time for us to be more considered in our approach.
We acknowledge the importance of taking time to reflect and celebrate what it means to be Australian, but we are also committed to reconciliation efforts.
To be clear, we can’t change the date of a national public holiday as a council.
That is rightly a decision for the commonwealth government.
We also can’t change the date of events funded by other levels of government, including the Australia Day parade or January 26 fireworks.
However, we do run events on January 26, and as a local council we have an important role to play in representing our community.
That means it is right that we are active participants in this important debate.
That’s why at Tuesday night’s council meeting, we agreed to commission an options paper setting out how we as a council might approach January 26 from next year.
Our community events throughout the year are what make people feel proud and at home here in Melbourne – think Moomba, Yirramboi Festival, Fashion Week and more.
Similarly, we would like events that celebrate Australia to be ones that unite us, rather than divide us.
Currently on January 26, the City of Melbourne hosts a citizenship ceremony, supports the Dawn Ceremony Day of Mourning and hosts the Share the Spirit Festival. On September 6 we will consider options about our approach to future celebrations about what it means to be Australian. Between now and then we will be listening to our local community and taking into account the views of traditional owners.
In the meantime, there are many actions we are taking to support reconciliation and promote recognition and respect for Indigenous culture throughout Melbourne.
This includes our Reconciliation Action Plan, National Reconciliation Week, and our Inclusive Melbourne Strategy.
During this debate we will continue to focus on the issues that matter most to Melburnians, including getting workers and visitors back to the CBD, supporting small business owners, and delivering essential services for our local residents.
Purposefully deciding what we do on January 26 is another way that we can ensure we are governing in the interests of all Melburnians.
Sally Capp is Lord Mayor
IAN HUNTER ARGUES THE CASE AGAINST
Australia Day is all about Australians, and being one group of people.
I look at Australia Day as a day when everybody comes together.
It gives us the opportunity to tell people who don’t know anything about Indigenous things.
My mum was born in 1921 and every Australia Day we would go and have a big barbecue at Mum and Dad’s place, and Mum and Dad had an Australian flag on the front fence.
Remote community people don’t even care about this stuff, there’s more issues with remote communities than worrying about a date.
I actually had some young fellows from Groote Eylandt off Darwin and I mentioned it to them and they said “What would they want to do that for? We have a good day, everybody comes together, all the black fellas, white fellas, playing footy and having big barbecues. We have a good day that day”.
How many days or weeks do we have – Indigenous days, reconciliation week, sorry day?
The Lord Mayor stated “we’ve got these traditional owners we’re consulting with”, but hang on, what traditional owners are they consulting with?
The traditional owners are the same as me today – we’re Australians.
These condescending people are just using them to better their own names, saying “Look at me, look what I’m doing.”
They fall into it all the time. It’s tokenism – all they’re doing is dividing the community.
They’re just being divisive.
We did our DNA test and we are 15 per cent Indigenous Australian. A lot of the people kicking up a stink now are a descendancy underneath me.
We are descendants of the original peoples and we’ve just got to come together, we’re Australians, and that’s the point that we’ve got to get across.
Wake up, people, it’s a commonwealth government issue, it’s got nothing to do with local councils.
Even if the date was changed, you go down the Yarra River on Australia Day, there’d be boats up and down there.
People celebrating and everyone having beer.
There’d be people on the banks having barbecues and beers. It’ll be still Australia Day.
A lot of indigenous peoples take advantage of that saying “I’m Indigenous”.
No, you’re not Indigenous.
You don’t have a right to sit the Melbourne reconciliation committee advising Aboriginal issues.
I wouldn’t go down to Portland and sit on one of their advisory councils and say “This is what you got to do for Aboriginal people’.”
I’m sure all this talk of change is doing more harm than good.
Let it rest, for god’s sake.
Ian Hunter is an Indigenous elder of the Wurundjeri community
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