Last year I was humbled and honoured to co-create a day of ceremony and prayer. It culminated in a deeply powerful event that saw indigenous and non-indigenous Australians come together in ceremony and be officially welcomed to Country by the Elder Dennis Foley in Manly, Sydney.
The ceremony was part of re-imagining the 26th of January (known as Australia Day) as a day of healing and education. We had many conversations to explore if healing and education could co-exist with celebration.
I do believe that with good leadership, it may have been possible. By good leadership, I mean a Federal Australian leadership embued with love, kindness and compassion. Sadly, that leadership does not exist as white men of particular conservative and rigid views continue to run Australian politics.
First Nations People are born of, and have tended to their land, that we know as Australia, for over 60,000 years. They are an ancient people, one of the oldest in existence. And then on that fateful day on 26 January 1788, the British Empire arrived by boat and staked its claim on the land. From that moment onwards, the indigenous population was decimated through murder, slavery, disease and racist policies. Language was lost and cultural practices were lost. Indigenous families were torn apart and modern cities were built on top of traditional song lines.
We do not need to look to the US to see dis-unity, division, racism, white privilege and inequity. It is alive and well in Australia.
In May 2020, I was abhorred to read of Australian mining giant Rio Tinto blowing up an ancient Aboriginal cave that dates back to 47,000 years. Then in October 2020, the sacred Djab Wurrung tree in Victoria was torn down to make way for a highway. These terrorist acts send the message that the Australian Government continues to intentionally erase Aboriginal life in this country.
Which prompts me to ask these two important questions:
Do you still feel comfortable celebrating modern day Australia on 26 January?
Knowing about the generations of suffering that have been endured, and continue to be endured on a daily basis, by Indigenous communities around the country, do you still feel comfortable partying on this day?
I most certainly do not.
This day is a solemn day. This day is a day of mourning. It is time to change the date of Australia Day.
I do however feel, as I did last year, that 26 January could be transformed into a day of healing, education and culture led by First Nations communities.
Looking back our Healing Australia Day in 2020, it followed the greatest destruction of flora and fauna by bushfire we have ever witnessed in Australia. Shortly afterwards, we were all to become threatened again..this time by disease. Powerful signs that we need to listen to Mother Earth and to become love, compassion and kindness with every fibre of our being.
We simply cannot celebrate the Australian values of freedom, fairness and equality on this day of 26 January knowing what we know.
We cannot keep having the same conversations and demonstrations year after year. The time for action is now.
I stand today in solidarity with my First Nations friends and communities
