Australia divided: thousands expected to protest Australia Day legacy

By James Redmayne

 

Passengers aboard a ferry can be seen through an Australian national flag as they participate in celebrations for Australia Day, which marks the arrival of Britain's First Fleet in 1788, on Sydney Harbour in Australia, January 26, 2018. REUTERS/Steven Saphore/Files

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thousands of Australians are expected to protest on Saturday as a national holiday intended to celebrate the birth of modern Australia divides the country.

 

Australia Day on January 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the "First Fleet" to Sydney Cove, carrying mainly convicts and troops from Britain.

 

For many indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years, it is "Invasion Day", the start of Britain's colonisation of aboriginal lands and their brutal subjugation.

 

"Celebrating Australia Day on January 26th is offensive," said Joe Williams, a mental health worker and former professional rugby league player.

 

"To celebrate an invasion which has seen our people dispossessed, displaced and oppressed for some 230 years, is plain offensive," he told Reuters Television.

 

Australia's 700,000 or so indigenous people track near the bottom of its 25 million citizens in almost every economic and social indicator.

 

While opinion polls suggest up to half the country supports changing Australia Day, the conservative government is under pressure to legally entrench Jan. 26 as a national holiday.

 

"We should keep the 26th of January as a special day in our calendar," said Nick Folkes, a painter from Sydney and founder of the Party for Freedom, an anti-immigration and anti-Muslim far-right group.

 

"It means respect and acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by explorers, settlers, our convicts," he added.

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government, which faces a general election due in May, opposes any change and has moved to shore up support for the holiday.

 

This month it ordered local councils to hold induction ceremonies for new citizens on Australia Day and the Australian Citizenship Day holiday on Sept. 17, or have their authorization revoked.

 

Morrison has also pledged nearly A$7 million ($4.9 million)for a replica of explorer James Cook's HMS Endeavour, the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia in 1770.

 

The replica ship will circumnavigate Australia next year to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage.

 

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has criticized Morrison for spending taxpayer's money on a "bizarre Captain Cook fetish," but the prime minister said it will unify Australians.

 

"I believe it will be a voyage of bringing Australians together," Morrison said in Cairns this month. "I'm keen for it to be done very much in that spirit."

 

($1 = 1.4098 Australian dollars)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-26

 

These social media days many fringe ideas get much more attention than warranted.

 

little man local councils butting their noses into things less relevant 

to their job of collecting the rubbish on Tuesdays

 

 

leave the National stuff, to the Feds

 

 

the only matter relevant to the layman:

is the one about reverting to the Red Ensign? that we fought under thru WW1 and WW2 

(many many aborigines did too!)

 

 

the strongest (rumour?) was that the change (to the Blue) during the 50's

was because of the rising 'red menace' early in the Cold War

Edited January 26, 20197 yr by tifino

41 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

"We should keep the 26th of January as a special day in our calendar,"

Australia Day. Totally agree. Was never a problem in the past, till the holier than thou mob got their noses into it.

Just watching the OZ news. Reporting about 10,000 protestors in Melbourne (of course).

My ancestors arrived in Oz on the first and second fleets. That means my relations were part of the murder and enslavement and dispossession of Aborigines and I am deeply ashamed by that. It was an invasion and out of respect for Aborigines we should change the date. 26th was not the day Westerners discovered Australia and it is not the day the nation of Australia was founded.

So you racist ignoramuses say what you like. You do not change the facts.

14 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

Just watching the OZ news. Reporting about 10,000 protestors in Melbourne (of course).

Out of 24.7 million, say no more.

30 minutes ago, Trentham said:

My ancestors arrived in Oz on the first and second fleets. That means my relations were part of the murder and enslavement and dispossession of Aborigines and I am deeply ashamed by that. It was an invasion and out of respect for Aborigines we should change the date. 26th was not the day Westerners discovered Australia and it is not the day the nation of Australia was founded.

So you racist ignoramuses say what you like. You do not change the facts.

I don't understand why YOU are deeply ashamed, as you were not part of it. 

If anyone wants to make recompense for something done by others in a different era when society was completely different, they can easily do so by buying property and giving it to the Aboriginals.

 

Meanwhile, my ancestors were treated badly and some no doubt killed by the English, but no English people I know go around saying that they are ashamed to be English, perhaps because the oppressed were "only" Irish.

42 minutes ago, harada said:

Out of 24.7 million, say no more.

Yes! Say no more. You have not included the tens of thousands in other cities. Nor have you included the thousands of small protests in towns all over Australia.

But of course your choice of avatar would indicate to all Aussies that you would have the mindset you display - no offence to Barry Humphries, your avatar was his way of sending up racist, boozy ockers.

I am tired of hearing this argument from a handful of Utopians. Every country has been swamped by 'invaders' since humans first appeared on earth. Learn to live with it. 97% of Australians won't be going back to where they came from even if they could work out where that might be, with so many ethnic origins making up the population nowadays. Stop pandering to these whingers, or better still, ignore them, and stop giving them air time. Land and a country belong to whoever has the strength to take it and hold it

Shouldn't we celebrate both the recognition of natives and new Aussies. Just change the date to a current one of reconciliation. 

Stubborn cracker jacks.

Otherwise the thought of celebrating hardship still will linger in the minds of native culture.

 

 

2 hours ago, Trentham said:

My ancestors arrived in Oz on the first and second fleets. That means my relations were part of the murder and enslavement and dispossession of Aborigines and I am deeply ashamed by that. It was an invasion and out of respect for Aborigines we should change the date. 26th was not the day Westerners discovered Australia and it is not the day the nation of Australia was founded.

So you racist ignoramuses say what you like. You do not change the facts.

A truly disturbing post. No matter what your teachers at school tell you, you are NOT responsible for actions of your forefathers hundreds of years ago. The world was a vastly different place back then. We are talking a hundred years before electricity was discovered. Had the fleets not arrived from Britain in the late 1700s others would have arrived, and a similar scenario would have played out, just as it did all over the globe.

 

 Pop some shrimps on the barbie and crack a tinny, and celebrate the great developed nation of Australia. Don't let these "progressives" destroy what your forefathers build with their blood, sweat and tears. It was not handed on a plate. 

 

8 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

A truly disturbing post. No matter what your teachers at school tell you, you are NOT responsible for actions of your forefathers hundreds of years ago. The world was a vastly different place back then. We are talking a hundred years before electricity was discovered. Had the fleets not arrived from Britain in the late 1700s others would have arrived, and a similar scenario would have played out, just as it did all over the globe.

 

 Pop some shrimps on the barbie and crack a tinny, and celebrate the great developed nation of Australia. Don't let these "progressives" destroy what your forefathers build with their blood, sweat and tears. It was not handed on a plate. 

 

Agreed, but I think the point that is missed in the argument is the specific date of arrival/invasion/takeover. This is the issue at hand. Let's celebrate Australia on a more suitable date. 

Perhaps the date of the greatest beer drinking day in Oz. The AFL Grand final day. Unless footy offends you. Any other suggestions for a date that doesn't offend a race or religion.

How can we handle all this white guilt, AArgh!

Lol

 Get a grip Australia. 

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Morrison has also pledged nearly A$7 million ($4.9 million)for a replica of explorer James Cook's HMS Endeavour, the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia in 1770.

This man must be a mushroom. I went on a replica 15 years ago but I believe it is now back in England.

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"To celebrate an invasion which has seen our people dispossessed, displaced and oppressed for some 230 years, is plain offensive," he told Reuters Television

Total BS

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

For many indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years,

50,000 years and never invented the wheel. Would still not know what was one today if left alone. Maybe they would have preferred the Portuguese, Dutch or Chinese that did not think the place was worth colonising before the Brits.

5 hours ago, DoctorG said:

Just watching the OZ news. Reporting about 10,000 protesters in Melbourne (of course).

The initial report incorrectly numbered the aboriginal population, 2016 census put the them at about 116,000 (memory fails me) with 2000 in Sydney and less in Melbourne...It smells of reverse racism (we're white, we must be wrong!)! Who is organising the marchers, who is financing them? Of course the MS media is flogging  the "problem", the more outrageous the reports the higher the viewer count, the more to charge for ad time...ho hum (the drums Caruthers, will they never cease?)

In actual fact the Dutch discovered Australia.

1Jan1901 was the date of Proclamation of Australia as a nation.

 

however, 1Jan is already a public holiday,

so another was picked in lieu... the 26th - whistles tweets hoot hoot

5 hours ago, harada said:

Out of 24.7 million, say no more.

Sir Les for PM.

Well, seeing as it is generally accepted as proven by DNA testing that the Aboriginals came from SEA, are they going to apologize for invading too ?

 And while we are at it, let’s have a “Thank You Day” when all those who claim to be Aboriginal, even those who are whiter than me and are one sixteenth or less Aboriginal, can say “thanks” for pulling them out of the Stone Age.

55 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Well, seeing as it is generally accepted as proven by DNA testing that the Aboriginals came from SEA, are they going to apologize for invading too ?

 And while we are at it, let’s have a “Thank You Day” when all those who claim to be Aboriginal, even those who are whiter than me and are one sixteenth or less Aboriginal, can say “thanks” for pulling them out of the Stone Age.

 

1 hour ago, MikeN said:

Well, seeing as it is generally accepted as proven by DNA testing that the Aboriginals came from SEA, are they going to apologize for invading too ?

 And while we are at it, let’s have a “Thank You Day” when all those who claim to be Aboriginal, even those who are whiter than me and are one sixteenth or less Aboriginal, can say “thanks” for pulling them out of the Stone Age.

Yeah thanks whyties for all this social media technology too.

58 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Well, seeing as it is generally accepted as proven by DNA testing that the Aboriginals came from SEA, are they going to apologize for invading too ?

 

 

Who would they apologise to.......the marsupials?

 

Being the first Humans there makes them the first people of Australia.

 

The same is true of the native peoples of the Americas, who also arrived (from Asia) on a continent empty of Humans.

 

 

奥大利亞州 

17 hours ago, stevenl said:

These social media days many fringe ideas get much more attention than warranted.

It's funny. The fake news media reporting falsehoods like this. No one I know is opposed to Australia Day. 

 

14 hours ago, Trentham said:

My ancestors arrived in Oz on the first and second fleets. That means my relations were part of the murder and enslavement and dispossession of Aborigines and I am deeply ashamed by that. It was an invasion and out of respect for Aborigines we should change the date. 26th was not the day Westerners discovered Australia and it is not the day the nation of Australia was founded.

So you racist ignoramuses say what you like. You do not change the facts.

Trentham, if you truly beleive what you write, then immediately sell everything you own and empty all your financial accounts and give EVERYTHING to the first aboriginal you see. Then leave Australia immediately. Otherwise you will be living in your own personal hell. Feeling Guilty & ashamed. Ashamed & guilty. Everyday. For. The. Rest. Of. Your. Life.

Quick. Leave now. For your sanity.

 

Australia is a nation that began with the first settlement in January 26, 1788. Before that, there was no civilisation. No written language. And - this is important for anyone complaining about Whitey - there was NO WELFARE. 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 20197 yr by Time Traveller

Unfortunately, it goes hand in hand with the West's economic and cultural success, that we have to put up with these narcissistic nimrods and their regular protests. Today it's Aboriginal rights, tomorrow it will be gender-fluid bathrooms, and then banning drinking straws to save Gaia.

 

It's doubtful whether these activists have any legitimate claim to be representing "the Aboriginal community" and their actions will certainly do nothing to better the lot of Aboriginal people in Australia.

 

They are simply looking to make themselves feel better by making a noise and trying to stir up unpleasantness in the general community.

 

But that's the price we have to pay for making our societies so prosperous, safe, and free.

7 hours ago, 55Jay said:

奥大利亞州 

Where did you get that from.

Let's accept the fact that Australia was going to be colonized by a European power at some stage. Of the four major powers at the time(Spanish, Dutch, French and British). The British were the pick of the bunch.

Imagine how the Indigenous population would have faired had the Japanese Imperial Army not been stopped on Australia's doorstep. Just look at what happened in China, P.I. 

22 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Thousands of Australians are expected to protest on Saturday as a national holiday intended to celebrate the birth of modern Australia divides the country

Kudos to them.