Essay Example on Australia Day

INTRODUCTION:

Imagine waking up on a normal morning, eating breakfast with your family and friends, going out and spending the day in the summer sun. Except, this isn’t a normal morning, this is invasion day. You watch as your family get ripped away from you, murders all around you, and other people’s blood is on your clothes. Everything in your life has been stolen, your people’s land has been tainted and nothing will ever be the same again.

Since 1946, Australia Day has been celebrated on January 26th. Like most years, Aussies will spend that precious day off work, eating and drinking too much with friends in the sunshine but every year the "Change the Date" discussion arises. And it’s time that the discussion is heard, and we finally change the date of Australia day for the sake of our first nations peoples.

ARGUMENT ONE:

Changing the date would allow everyone who calls Australia home, indigenous or not, to partake in a celebration to unite Australians, rather than divide them. As patriotic Australians, we pride ourselves to be a nation that accepts and respects the beliefs of all cultures, but on this historical day, most Australians tend to forget the true meaning behind the celebration. If you ask today’s society, what they did on January 26th, mass numbers would respond with “binged on alcohol” and “had a barbecue.” However, this day can’t be called a national celebration when some of our fellow Australians are grieving while others are out celebrating an occasion that marks bloodshed and trauma, they know little about. Giving due regard to the indigenous people and their negative perspectives on this issue should be a priority.  A new date, not the 26th of January should be established, as the current date doesn’t unite, but seems to divide Australians into different viewpoints. How can we call ourselves Australians if we continue to live in this unethical way and continuously hurt the Indigenous Australians?

ARGUMENT TWO:

If I’m honest, I haven’t been brought up, like many of my generations, to understand and acknowledge the events which occurred on this day. Instead for as long as I can remember I have seen the day as a public holiday where mum drags us to a boring family gathering, to play backyard cricket and watch the adults consume excessive amounts of alcohol.  However, the 26th of January is remembered by the indigenous Australians as 'Invasion Day' or 'Survival Day' because the English expropriated native land and removed the indigenous people by cutting them off their food resources and engaging in genocidal massacres. Celebrating this day is just showing how WE don’t know the history of Australia, it's showing that WE don’t care what happened to the aboriginals, it is showing that WE think that what happened in 1788 on the 26th of January is insignificant.  I feel ashamed of my role in celebrating the day and I feel guilty for my ignorance of the pain and suffering the indigenous Australians have endured. It is time that we all educate ourselves for the sake of our country and stand up for what is right and for what is ‘Australian’.

REBUTTAL:

There are many other Australian historical dates that would be better for Australia Day. Where have you ever seen or heard of a monument for this day? Is there a special park where the first fleet landed? Is there a statue to commemorate this date? No, then what's the point of celebrating this date if we don’t even preserve it? People may say this is a day that is only about Australia and that is why it should continue to be this date but January the 26th is also Data Innovation Day, it is the day the largest diamond was found, and it is also India’s Republic Day. Therefore, choosing another date like the 1st of January the day the Constitution of Australia was put into effect and the British colonies of all the states joined together in unity, or the 13th of February, the day that Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to the stolen generations; there are many other days that would make more sense to be Australia day.