Why some still find ‘Happy Australia Day’ offensive

The debate that surrounds our national holiday kicks on and for too long, we’ve ignored the trauma it celebrates. Is 2020 the time for change?

OPINION

You don’t have to search for very long to discover why First Nations People might find the phrase “Happy Australia Day” problematic.

It’s not just them, either.

Anyone who supports Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples could cringe a little at the phrase.

It’s well-meaning, there’s absolutely no malice meant. But when we use it to commemorate the day that Australia was invaded and colonised, it just feels a bit wrong. There’s little “happy” about it. It’s a sad day.

That’s why alternatives are suggested: Survival Day, respecting the resilience and strength of our First Nations People. Or Invasion Day, recognising their plight.

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Every year, the Australia Day debate is ongoing.

Now, I of all people know the strength and depth of feeling that runs on this topic – on both sides.

I know because when I wrote on it before, I was trolled for a week afterwards from people outraged that “Happy Australia Day” could be positioned as anything other than patriotic.

Some were angry. My Twitter DMs are open and they filled with messages, some pretty hateful. Good job I have a thick skin.

“Go back to where ya came from”, some screamed – picking up the fact I’m British.

Given the history between our countries, I felt the irony was lost on them.

One troll got particularly inventive, setting up a fake Twitter profile using my picture and the name “Angry Nun”, stating that it was an anagram of my name – Gary Nunn.

Although I reported the troll, if I’m honest, I was impressed with their creativity. So much so, later in the year, I went to an Easter party dressed as my own troll – Sister Angry Nun!

What did all this teach me? Patriotism doesn’t just run deep in borderline jingoistic countries like America, but also here.

But no matter how strong the feeling of those people who messaged me – some expressing national pride, others pure hatred – there’s one thing I can say for sure. Their sense of nationalism cannot match my sense of injustice on behalf of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait sisters and brothers.

And here’s why.

The Yabun Festival is the largest one day gathering in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia, yet it’s granted none of the hype or media coverage that surrounds Australia Day. Picture: Supplied.

Earlier this year, I interviewed Uncle Jack Charles, an Aboriginal elder. A 2009 documentary about his life summed him up thus: “Addict. Homosexual. Cat burglar. Actor. Aboriginal.”

It’s little wonder he fell into a life of crime and addiction after Australia treated him so appallingly.

He was four months old when he was stolen, pried from his devastated mother’s hands and confiscated away from her.

You’d think you were reading a line from dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale there but nope, this wasn’t Gilead. It was Australia 75 years ago – part of our government’s policy to “assimilate” Aboriginal kids into white families. Happy Australia Day!

Chucked into a boy’s home for most of his teenage years, he was consistently raped and sexually abused by the Australian man who was supposed to be caring for him. Happy Australia Day!

He was 17 years old when he was arrested, petrified, for the grave, grave crime of … leaving his foster home without permission. He was just trying to find his innocent, pining biological mum. Which was strictly forbidden. Happy Australia Day!

Disgraceful. We should all be deeply, deeply ashamed.

You see, what I’m trying to advocate here isn’t censorship, but sensitivity.

Unconvinced? Here’s some more history.

Actor and Aboriginal elder Uncle Jack Charles. Picture: AAP/Bianca De Marchi.

BBC’s Witness podcast recently did an episode looking at the handing back of Uluru in 1985.

In the podcast, Kim Wilson describes how Ayers Rock was seen purely as a white tourist spot.

The white, non-Aboriginal Northern Territory chief minister at the time denounced and tried to stonewall the entire hand back campaign with a Press Club address and banners from planes and newspaper ads decrying it. “Save Ayers Rock”, the banners read.

Imagine you were an Aboriginal person watching that plane fly with that banner over a sacred place, taken good care of by your ancestors for thousands of years, until white “settlers” moved in. They set up tacky motels at the bottom of the rock (now, thankfully gone.) The podcast notes how that was like “a fish and chip shop in the lobby of St Paul’s”.

It reminds me of when VOTE NO was written by a plane in the sky about whether gay people like me should be allowed to one day marry the person we love during Australia’s same-sex marriage postal ballot.

All in the past? There you’d be wrong.

Kamilaroi woman Cheree Toka has been campaigning for three years to have the Aboriginal flag fly atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge permanently rather than the insulting 19 days a year it’s currently permitted to fly on our nation’s iconic landmark.

Cheree Toka, pictured with Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne, has been campaigning to have the indigenous flag permanently perched atop the Harbour Bridge for years. Her petition has amassed over 130,000 signatures to date. Picture: Supplied.

The white, non-Aboriginal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Don Harwin this week told me he doesn’t support Ms Toka’s campaign to permanently fly the indigenous flag on the bridge.

“We are going to continue with the current situation,” he said.

Mr Harwin says this despite giving an interview to the Star Observer in 2018 as an openly gay politician backing marriage equality saying: “As my career has developed I feel a strong responsibility to not pull the ladder up behind me, but extend it down for others.”

Clearly, the ladder of equality doesn’t, for him, yet extend to the Aboriginal constituents he’s supposed to represent.

While he’s celebrating his potential future same-sex wedding, champagne flute in hand, he’ll be sure to glance down and wave at those Aboriginal people, pleading with him to let them up the ladder.

Happy Australia Day? Until these injustices are righted, it’s hard to see it as little more than the celebration of invasion, genocide and the theft of children, land and basic human dignity.

Gary Nunn is a freelance journalist. Continue the conversation | @garynunn1