Australia Day

[the_weird_1]

Watch and comment!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHTmXExjyE

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aOWrpMvPrjc  

[Areliana]

The worst wankers at music festivals are always the idiots wearing the flag... it's sad that the flag is really becoming a symbol of narrow-minded ignorance.  

[the_weird_1]

Tuesday 27th January 2009

Sue Neales wrote "Move the date call" article which is displayed on the front page of Tuesday's edition of the Tasmanian paper "The Mercury"

"...Celebrating Australia Day on January 26 was as offensive as Aborigines celebrating Anzac Day for 8000 white Australian deathes, Tasmanian Aborigines said yesterday.......Australian of the Year, indigenous leader and human rights academic Mick Dodson called for Australia Day to be moved when accepting his national award from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday. But Rudd yesterday again ruled out changing the date of Australia Day, looking directly at Professor Dodson as he spoke. "To our indigenous leaders, and those who call for a change to our national day, let me say a simple, respectful, but straightforward no," Mr Rudd said....."

There is a lot more to that article - since it goes for 3 pages.

And my opinion is....

January 26 is known as Foundation Day when Captain Cook planted a British flag into the ground at Sydney Cove in 1788.

In the next 200-odd years was a lot of blood shed and denial of accountability.

And then there was an official "Sorry" from our government for all of that bloodshed, denial and wrong-doings.

A lot of our black/white history has just been wrong and bloody and January 26 is as official a day as to start this history from.

Go call it Invasion Day - I won't correct you. Just DON"T change Australia Day from this date!

I believe in the government statement of "Sorry" and the reconciliation that it was meant to encourage. I believe that Australia Day, celebrated on 26th January as had a really wrong start, but it will be put on a corrected course for the future!  

[kixsy]

Yeh we had a similar article I think in The Sydney Telegraph I think either way I heard about that somewhere. I guess it seems like a reasonably good reason to change the date.  

[King Of Ninjas]

What date was suggested for an alternative?

To me, Australia day, like Christmas, is no longer really a celebration of what happened on that day all those years ago.

Christmas isn't about Jesus, it's about family and friends getting together and celebrating eating yourself stupid. That's why, as a Jew, I don't have a problem with people wishing me a merry christmas. It's not about the J-dog. I don't celebrate Australia day because of the 'discovery' of Australia, I celebrate the fact that we get a day off so that we can be with our friends, have a pool party, a beer, a bbq, and listen to the tripple J hottest 100.  

[kixsy]

To help you out I did a quick search for the article. It says a date suggested (probably one of many) is in June...

Tony Bartlett

"It needs to be done because January 26, 1788 is only the date the First Fleet arrived to set up the colony of NSW and has nothing to do with Aboriginal people or the nation of Australia as it stands today," Mr Watson said on Monday.

"If they want to have a true national day it should be June 3rd for example, the day the Mabo decision was handed down in 1992.

"Since 1938, Aboriginal people across Australia have been observing January 26 as Invasion Day."

P.S. haha "J-Dog" ur cute...