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]