In the advertisement there was just one who was not amused - the barbecue lamb!

In reality, there are many more of us, lambs who are not amused by the politicians' feasts.

Firstly, if a camp dwells where the consensus is to abandon the celebration of Australia Day altogether, I'm firmly in that camp!.

And I'm not alone. The huge money waste towards fireworks on New Year's eave, exploding from Sydney harbour bridge, was pathetically non-matched by a fizzer of an event on Australia day from Darling Harbour.

Let us match New Years eave celebrations with Chinese New Years celebrations, and be honest!

1. Reckon noone should be offended by what is for most - a day of red meat on the barbie and beer. Politics and ideology have no place in this ritual.

2. I've heard Tasmainian Aborigines arrived by boat first and then mainland Aborigines (who arrived later by boat) forced the first group away to Tasmainia.

3. All the pressure groups pushing for Australia Day to be changed to a new date would still complain about new date Australia Day.

Today's Aboriginal Australians should celebrate Australia Day as the British arrival led to the lifestyle that they now enjoy.

They should be eternally grateful that they live under the British concept of democracy, had another European Power, of the time, taken over Australia then the only trace of them would possibly be in the history books, if they even rated a mention.

It is well to remember that Mabo and its aftermath firmly rests on British Law, and the concept of women's Rights, so foreign to pre 1788 Australia, only exists because Australia became a British possession.

Graham makes the point well that there are those who endorse the celebration of Australia Day, as well as those who reject it.
I suspect that many people fail to differ between "celebration" and "commemoration", with the celebratory aspect emphasised in enjoyable festive activities such as food and fireworks.

Our British colonisers brought with them a lifestyle, customs and legal system which had grown over many centuries. These were completely foreign to our original inhabitants who also had many centuries of tradition behind their own lifestyle and laws.

One of their deepest spiritual traditions is that the land owns them,they do not own the land, but the European subjugation of our Aboriginals was a classic example power taking control.

This is touched upon in the post from Is Mise where it states that "Aboriginals should be eternally grateful that they live under the British concept of democracy. Had another European Power of the time taken over Australia, then the only trace of them would possibly be in the history books, if they even rated a mention, and that it is well to remember that Mabo and its aftermath firmly rests on British Law".
I challenge strongly that there should be any sense of gratitude; that is like saying that somebody only murdered you a bit!

In developing our colony the British set the ground rules for the formation of a new nation. It meant that anyone was welcome to become part of it provided that they did so under the existing practices.
That has been the basis for immigration to Australia; it has given us a huge mixture of different nationalities coming together to grow a distinct culture, as well as the tendency to 'take the mickey' out of pretentions occasions and people.
I'd like to think that we do it regularly to Australia Day.

Dear Graham,

Thanks for that mate. Good piece.

I am not a hugely jingoistic person but I will admit we fired up the barbie, strung a decent sized flag up overhead and toasted our blessings. Later we dusted off a few Paterson verses and had a lot of fun airing them yet again. The Man from Ironbark probably tipped the others for humour but Mulga Bill's Bicycle and the Geebung Polo Club weren't far behind.

The sentimental favourite though was of course Clancy of the Overflow, pure mastery.

I am not wedded to the 26th of January one bit and if upsets a good portion of our indigenous brothers and sisters then I say move it. McFarlaine's first of March works for me and I suspect would for most people.

Dear Is Mise,

You wrote;

“It is well to remember that Mabo and its aftermath firmly rests on British Law, and the concept of women's Rights, so foreign to pre 1788 Australia, only exists because Australia became a British possession.”

Have a little pride in Australia's history. The first part of the Commonwealth to grant women not only the right to vote but to stand as candidates was South Australia (Finland was the first European nation to do so). New Zealand had given women voting rights about the same time. Nationwide suffrage was granted at Federation here but it took the Poms over 20 years to catch up.

Those were the days, when this nation was among the leaders of progressive politics. Now look at us.