LETTER: Why we should change the date of Australia Day

There are 364 other dates to choose from. January 26 is more appropriate to the attitudes and values of colonial Australia than to those of a modern, more inclusive Australian society

Aunty Lillian Burke in Gympie's Memorial Park

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I support Gympie Aboriginal Elder, Lillian Burke, in her call to change the date of Australia Day.

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The present date was more appropriate to the attitudes and values of Colonial Australia than to those of a modern, more inclusive Australian society.

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As a nation we cannot claim to be seriously committed to Reconciliation when we celebrate a day that to indigenous Australians will always represent invasion, dispossession and at least two centuries of oppression.
There are 364 other dates to choose from in an ordinary year and it is time we selected one of them.

Merv Welch, The Palms

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