Hashtag #AustraliaDaySoWhite trending as Aussies reflect on reconciliation

ON Twitter, many are using the term “Invasion Day” and choosing not to celebrate January 26 with barbies and beers and the beach.

NOT all Australians are celebrating Australia Day today.

On Twitter, many are using the term “Invasion Day” and choosing not to celebrate January 26 with barbies and beers and the beach. The hashtag #AustraliaDaySoWhite is trending in Sydney in support of equality for indigenous Australians.

One user even compared the Australian constitution to Mein Kampf, the manifesto of the architect of the German holocaust, Adolf Hitler.

The Australian Constitution... #AustraliaDaySoWhite pic.twitter.com/NPeI6LOuWI

— Bartosz Scheller (@BartoszScheller) January 25, 2015

“Australia Day should be renamed White Australian Privilege Day,” user Emily Rose wrote.

Another user said she would tell her children a different story than the one celebrating a unified land down under.

“I'll retell the story to my kids of how our ancestors were mass murdered 20ks from our home,” Melinda wrote.

Earlier this week, former ACT Australian of the Year and co-chair of Reconciliation Australia Dr Tom Calma told SBS that discrimination and racism began on January 26, 1788 and has continued to this day.

“Some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are quite comfortable to use it as a day of celebration,” Dr Calma said.

#InvasionDay condolences to all Indigenous sisters and brothers. #AustraliaDaySoWhite will never erase the history! pic.twitter.com/5LqC91nfze

— Pasha Moy (@PashaMoy) January 25, 2015

“Others want to see it as a day of mourning, a day of sorrow, a day where we can help educate the rest of the community about us. It’s not the birth of the nation, because the nation was well and truly here 40,000 to 60,000 years before Captain Cook proclaimed Australia as a colony of Britain.”

Australia Day should be re-named White Australian Privilege Day. #AustraliaDaySoWhite

— Emily-Rose (@EmilyHyphenRose) January 25, 2015

#AustraliaDaySoWhite its best friend is Columbus Day.

— Aamer Rahman (@aamer_rahman) January 25, 2015

Loyal to value system that saw their own ancestors criminalised for being poor #AustraliaDaySoWhite

— Bella Douglas (@bellablackdot) January 25, 2015

2moro I'll retell the story to my kids of how our ancestors were mass murdered 20ks from our home #whenthewhitepplcame #AustraliaDaysowhite

— Melinda (@melindayasso) January 25, 2015

#AustraliaDaySoWhite #ChangeTheDate pic.twitter.com/XfdeRZWbSC

— NicJones (@Nicola_Jane1985) January 25, 2015

User Paul Kidd suggested Australia was indeed unified, if only over the backlash against the appointment of His Royal Highness Prince Philip as Australia’s newest knight.

Finally, an #AustraliaDay on which we are all united … in laughing at Prince Philip.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) January 26, 2015