What's in a date?

I don't really know when it started. 

The rise of sensationalist journalism could have been the start. 

The negative language used to report issues seeking to divide a population began to be the norm. It has become an 'us' versus 'them' rhetoric that now pervades much of the mainstream media. 

Pitting one side against the other.

Every year from January 1st until just after the 26th January a debate rages. It starts with but a murmur but is in full force by the 19th. 

#Changethedate is the debate. 

What is so important about this date. 

If your an Australian, you know the significance of the date..... Or do you??

If you think that his was when Captain James Cook sailed into Stingray bay (what Cook first named it before Banks and Solander brought back so many new botanical specimens) he renamed it Botany bay.

You are wrong.

That date was April 29 1770.

U

January 26th was the date that Capt Arthur Philip landed at Sydney Cove set foot on what was Gadigal Land and proclaimed British Sovereignty of the land as it was Terra Nullus is their eyes.

Australia was not Terra Nullus. 

It was inhabited by the longest continuously existing culture on earth. Recent studies have shown that Indigenous culture has existed for over 100 thousand years on these lands we call Australia.

This is where the divide begins. 

History is written by the winners. 

The indigenous people of this country have never been winners in Australian history.

Dispossession of land.
Massacre.
The black line.
Genocide.
Inhumane treatment.
Not counted as human but flora and fauna.
Restriction of movement.
Moved to settlement camps far away from 'home' off country.
Incarceration rates higher than any other one peoples.
Stolen generations.

I could go on. 

These are things passed over in the history books because the winners write the history and Indigenous Australians did not win. 

Hell, it was 1967 before we were counted as Human.... That's right 50 years ago we were still classed as fauna and under the wildlife act.....

And yes, You read it right, I am an Indigenous Australian.

Let us look at the debate to change the date. 

Nothing has divided the nation more so than this debate.

What I cannot understand is the venom and hatred coming from both sides. 

My Indigenous brothers and sisters feel so much pain every year when Jan rolls around. The other side scream and beat their chests that it is never to be changed.
Are they beating their chests to inflame and hurt our Indigenous peoples?

I don't think all of them are!  

There are some extremists that exist sure, but surely they are the minority?

You see there is always more to the story. As a child of the 80's, I was able to celebrate the bicentennial of Australia's colonisation. I say celebrate because at 8 years of age, I did not know what I know now. 

The hidden past was hidden. I remember sitting at Sydney Cove under the shade of our iconic Harbour Bridge and enjoying what was pure 80's indulgence. 

Wow I tell you us Aussies really know how to party!

200 years before Capt Philip set foot at Sydney Cove only a few 100m from where I sat and claimed this land for the British Crown. 

All the while the French explorer La Perouse was battling to enter Botany bay at the same time to lay claim to our lands for the French.

The story is fascinating. Gale force winds, the search by Philip for suitable land to establish the penal colony, close calls, damaged ships and the French trying to beat the Brits to claim our land. It has the hallmarks of a great drama. (maybe I will one day do the research and right a screenplay based off it)

So back to now. With what I know about history not taught. 

Hidden away is our Black history. 230 years of struggle, pain and suffering.

We have come far from 1770 and even further from 1967 and we as a nation should be proud of what achievements have been made. 

What you don't know is that we are still doing the same atrocities now as we were in the past.

The last 'sanctioned' removal of children was in Queensland   and ended in 1977(and they fought hard to continue removing children forcibly but the Commonwealth denied them). 

Three years before my birth, Indigenous children were still forcibly removed from their families and sent to "homes" to be taught how to be 'white'. 

The story does not end there in 1977. 

The truth Removal of children has it never stopped. 

Indigenous children are still being removed from their parents and in greater numbers than ever before.

So 230 years on, the pain continues on and on.

Yet we as a nation, we as a people, now stand by whilst this happens. Blissfully unaware that the past is still here to this day. 

I can hear the nationalist sentiments now. Those kids will be better off etc etc etc.

 
No child should be placed in harms way. 

Yet we remove kids and place them in homes away from family. In the care of strangers often far from home. 

In 2018.......

I won't go on as it is a whole new subject in itself and one I am not fully across myself. 

Educate yourself on what is happening right now and you will see some things are still the same..... 

Back to the subject... this GODDAMN date. The debate rages on because of it.

What I don't like is how no one side is willing to see another's point of view. 

The middle ground is non existent. So lets look at this with middle ground!

I have touched ever so slightly on the issues from the Indigenous side and I am in no way a spokesperson for their struggle. I do however walk two worlds.

I have friends who challenge my Aboriginal heritage because I am light skinned and was raised away from my Indigenous family. I am making sure I change that and am learning  I smile and frankly don't give a fuck about what they have to say. Skin colour does not define my heritage.

I digress...  

I just see that the pain and suffering, the disenfranchisement and sorrow is spoken using language of anger, hate, and rage borne out of frustration.

The middle ground.

Let's look at the Nationalistic pride that comes with Australia. The day signifies something different to non Indigenous Australians.  

They have not felt the pain of government sanctioned genocide, destruction of families,  torn apart for all those years. 

They see it as a day of celebration where friends and family come together not to celebrate colonisation. 

Most don't even know the significance of the day. They come together to celebrate our great nation. For all the wins it has had. For families and friends to come together at the end of the holiday season one more time before facing school and for many the unfulfilling jobs and careers. 

The view is not to oppress or exclude indigenous people. It is just for many it is a day for family and friends. A day that marks the end of holidays. The final day to celebrate the Christmas break.

The Indigenous view of the day is obviously very different. 

It marks a day of dispossession, of pain, genocide, families torn apart. A day of sorrow.
Names that include those like Invasion, and  survival are spoken.

 
The pain each year is brought up like a festering wound with both sides unwilling to meet in the middle and see the world in another ones eyes.

So again the middle ground. 

I keep skirting around flip flopping around it don't I?

So why don't we change the date? What stops us from making the change?

I think there are a few different things that are in the way.

The language spoken from both sides of the argument is inflammatory and aggressive. Invasion, reclaim, words spit with venom and hurriedly written down to become tomorrows war cry for the opposition and headlines in papers. 

The unconscious negative bias towards Indigenous people still pervades society today. 

The rise of Nationalism and the normalisation of Neo-nazism in this country pours further fuel into fire. 

So what do we do?

Well what date would you change it to?

Changing it to Jan 1 is pointless. We already spend that day either recovering after watching the midnight fireworks or are just flat out recovering from partying(drinking ourselves stupid)

So we can't lose a day off to another day we already have off can we! 

That is un-Australian and we can all agree on that!

So what date should we have?

May 8 has being proposed. I mean how cool would it be to have the most Aussie-est of words as the national day. 

MATE DAY! 

It addresses the coming together of friends and is as Aussie as! But it in no way has a truly historical significance.

So to make a change of date we need to find a suitable date. One that could be significant for all. There are other dates throughout the year that we could celebrate what makes Australia and Australians awesome. 

We could still have the 26th of Jan as a Public Holiday.
Instead of a day of celebration it could be a day of introspection, a day that we recognise Indigenous Australia as the rightful custodians of the land we all love. 

A place maker for a future date for a treaty signing. Nothing is impossible.

The problem still stands that if we cannot even begin to see each side of the debate and why others feel one way or the other we are not going to be that inclusive society that we claim to be.

Why are we held back but the idea that nothing can become something different, something more significant? 

What will it take for both sides to agree?