The real issue is that Australia only has a handful of public holidays each year compared to France, Denmark etc. so we really need to keep the 26th January as Australia Day and add Aboriginal Day sometime in November but also Immigrant day in August and another couple of days, but I haven't figured out what they should be for yet - Denmark has a 'general prayer day' that would be amazing and make people feel grateful, relaxed and dynamic.

You can be sure that the thousands that get naturalised each year on Australia day would not of wanted to come to this nation if it was still under tribal warfare/rule. Thank God for the hospitals, schools, roads, running water, electricity etc.

I think we should commemorate "our day", with a rerun of the "INVASION"! With a few wooden boats ferrying massively emaciated prisoners Of Mother England to these fateful shores.

We may need to remind ourselves the overwhelming bulk of these "INVADERS" arrived here in chains. (leg irons) That here was no element of choice! But they were transported here against their will! With the first fleet losing half its human cargo to virulent pathogens.

And it's those quite massive, deaths in custody, we need to remember, as the consequence of a rare calloused English indifference and inhumanity to man. Some of which demonstrated by the injudicious use of the whip! That saw men/women beaten within an inch of their lives and way long past unconsciousness.

We should lay a few, lest we forget wreaths, for all those deaths and those in clash of culture that followed.

Then conduct a solemn broken spear ceremony, followed by, a welcome to county smoke ceremony.
Alan B.

Alan B. you are not correct in stating that 'the first fleet [sic] losing half its human cargo to virulent pathogens'. The death rate was very, very low at 47. Quite remarkable for such a long journey in conditions, for the convicts, that must have been horrendous.

The 2nd and 3rd Fleets (often overlooked in history) had much higher death rates but nowhere near half of the contingent though.

If you want to look at extensive death rates associated with the arrival of the First Fleet then go no further than the smallpox outbreak of April 1789. It killed up to 90% of Aboriginal people in the Sydney Cove area. The descriptions of the suffering and deaths by Lt. Watkin Tench are quite revealing.

2.8% of Australia's population [1] bad mouthing Australia Day don't have the right to change the date.

The vast majority of Australians, who are happy with that date, have a greater say.

Any change from 26th would still breed complaints from that tiny 2.8% + a few odd lefties from Melbourne, about the whole idea of having an Australia Day.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australians

The following quote, from a recent article by Frank Bongiorno, seems apt:

"...a successful national day's normal civic burden [is that] of fostering common belonging and social cohesion."

The 26th January each year is the anniversary of the beginning of colonisation of Australia by the British.
It seems to me self evident that having Australia Day on the 26th January is an affront to anyone agreeing with the above sentiments.
For many Australians, it is indeed unfortunate that the country was not devoid of humanity on that day - then the 26th January would be, perhaps, a perfectly good day for Australia Day (assuming that they are not republicans)

I agree with Frank Bongiorno. However, nothing changes the date our cultures encountered each other, nor what happened when they did, so perhaps we could face this together.

I can't tell anybody how they should feel about AD being on the date it is, but I can suggest that the anniversary of the Day of Mourning in 1938, which was held on 26th January and evolved into NAIDOC week could be celebrated simultaneously. i.e invite aboriginal leaders to start NAIDOC week on AD, January 26th.

Each bitter-sweet occasion, marked with solemn ceremony and speeches from the GG, PM and peak aboriginal leaders, would involve our modern nation acknowledging the bad, and the good, underlying its building.

Newcomers must acknowledge we took. Aborigines must acknowledge that we/someone would come to take. If we can't get past these points while putting aside what remedies may befit them, we have no hope of ever being whole.

ABC News reports, April 25, 2018 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-25/captain-cook-statue-vandalised-in-melbourne/9360974

"A statue of Captain Cook in St Kilda has been vandalised, in what is believed to be a protest against Australia Day being celebrated on January 26."

PLANTA COMMENT

It was likely the odd balaclava lefties of Melbourne who stooped so low (again).

Hi Luciferase,

That's a brilliant idea ! Move NAIDOC Week to the week that January 26 is in, Sunday to Sunday. That way, everybody's minds might be concentrated on the simultaneous celebrations of the initiation of the single nation of Australia, AND the commemoration of the Indigenous presence as well.

And how easy would that be ?

Good on you !

Joe

Lefties of Melbourne say "F--- Australia, hope it burns to the ground".

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/invasion-day-rally-draws-crowds-as-agitator-barred-from-ceremony-20180125-p4yywp.html

Geez, thanks, Joe! :-)

"F--- Australia, hope it burns to the ground".

I've been obsessed with the Indigenous Cause for more than fifty years, but it gets harder when untruths, misrepresentations, outright lies, misinformation and scams crowd out the integrity of that Cause. Perhaps I've always misunderstood its hidden intentions. But those aspects do seem to be multiplying.

For example, even Linda Burney - who should know better, having been head of a government department - claim that, up to fairly recent times, Indigenous people have been classified as under the Flora and Fauna Act. There has never been an Act for one thing, and anybody with half a brain knows that pretty much every State Minister, and many Federal Ministers, are responsible for more than one Department: the current Chief Minister in the NT is also minister for police, tourism, emergency services, Indigenous Affairs and Northern Australia. Check out any minister at random.

Stolen Generation: how many cases proven in court ? One. Anybody taken into care would have a file which they can take to court.

Indigenous Deaths in Custody: at the time of the Royal Commission, 23 % of people in custody were Indigenous, and 22 % of deaths in custody in those years were Indigenous. Currently, something like 28% of people in custody are Indigenous and 26 % of deaths in custody are Indigenous these days. Meanwhile, of course, suicide rates OUTSIDE OF custody are many, many times higher for Indigenous people, especially young people.

Poverty: Back in 1982, I carried out an income study of a community where we had lived, expecting to find some average level of poverty: with a friend from there, we mapped the village, worked out how much was coming into each household. Median income there was equal to the Australian average, while rents were a fifth of the national average. And no royalties back then :)

And similar for so many other issues. And the clincher:

[TBC]

[continued]

: how many Indigenous people have exercised their long-term right to go back and live a foraging life ? According to W. E. H. Stanner, one of our most experienced anthropologists, none, once they had experienced the welfare system.

But perhaps if Australia burns to the ground, many can again take up that exciting challenge.