Australia Day

**Bushmiller** · 1st February 2020, 03:24 PM

What exactly does australia day mean to the majority of people? Some possibilities:

1. It is a day of remembrance and celebration of the day the first fleet arrived in Australia and the first time the british flag was raised (not the day of discovery, which would be contentious). However, very few people are still alive who stood on that shore in 1788 so the connection , to my mind, is not really there. Viewed from the indigenous population's point of view it would be the day some white folks arrived and said this is ours now.
2. It is a public holiday, a day off work and a day for which most people are paid unless they are self employed.
3. It is a time of relaxation and partying: Not for everyone and it is not compulsory.

So with those criteria in mind, how can we fix it? Incidentally, when you visit the Australia Day page it makes little mention of 1788, but does now seem to resonate typically the 60,000 years of human occupation.

Home – Australia Day

So perhaps there is a subtle shift from the brazen act of painting the map pink so favoured by the British forefathers.

The vast majority just want a day off. Any Monday will probably do. The corollary to this is that any government that removes the holiday and does not replace it can look forward to many years in the wilderness of opposition .

Perhaps an Independence Day would be more appropriate except we missed our chance when we told the Howard government in the referendum that we didn't want to be free of the last shackles of British rule. Would that be because of the convict heritage and a bizarre case of Stockholm syndrome? Consequently we would have to settle for Federation Day or something similar. Most countries have a similar concept "National" Day:

National day - Wikipedia

Providing nobody sees fit to close the pubs on the day of celebration or ban BBQs because that offends vegetarians ( before anybody jumps up and down there I have two gay females and one vegetarian in my immediate family and neither of them are SWMBO) we should be right to party: If we wish.

Of course we will be unable to please all of the people, but we might at least be able to please more than before without getting the remainder offside.

Regards
Paul

**Lappa** · 1st February 2020, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

What exactly does australia day mean to the majority of people? Some possibilities:

However, very few people are still alive who stood on that shore in 1788 so the connection , to my mind, is not really there.

Thats applicable to both parties. Those coming ashore and those already on the shore.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Of course we will be unable to please all of the people, but we might at least be able to please more than before without getting the remainder offside.

Regards
Paul

And that is the problem. You may displease more than you please.

**A Duke** · 1st February 2020, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by rustynail

So what?

Back to square one.
If we do not move it, so what.
Regards

**Bushmiller** · 1st February 2020, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by Lappa

Thats applicable to both parties. Those coming ashore and those already on the shore.

And that is the problem. You may displease more than you please.

Both the problem and the skill. What exactly do we pay these politicians for? Just to get it wrong?

Perhaps I have mis-judged the mood and there are millions of super patriots out there that wander around all day long waving the flag on Australia Day. I see that blind level of chauvinism at times in America, (it could morph into Trumpism one day - ugh! Perish the thought) and back at the turn of the twentieth century in the UK it was called "jingoism," but I was hoping it was not at that level in Australia.

Regards
Paul

**Lappa** · 1st February 2020, 07:16 PM

While I don’t think there are “millions of super patriots out there” I definitely have noticed more discussion in recent times, particularly comments on sports people refusing to sing the National Anthem (be it right or wrong) and the move to change the date that Australia Day is celebrated.
So I believe there is a growing movement? (Not sure if patriotism is the right word) of people not wanting change and opening opposing it, if only verbally.

**rustynail** · 2nd February 2020, 11:37 AM

Australia Day is our National Day. National means everybody, new or old. How you spend the day is your business but the intention is a celebration to a greater or lesser extent but a celebration none the less. Invasion Day just doesn't seem to have the right ring to it. And, after all, that is what it is, whether we like it or not. So again I ask, why would you select that particular date when you know full well it is going to get up the nose of the original inhabitants? Or was that the intention all along....Keep them in their place?

**Greg Ward** · 2nd February 2020, 02:05 PM

Come on...... let's not seek for elephants outside the window on a horse farm.
Greg

**cava** · 2nd February 2020, 03:51 PM

Just a ‘minor’ point of interest, which I am sure most of you know.

Captain Cook landed in Botany Bay ~28th APRIL 1770 and not 26th January 1770.

**Bushmiller** · 2nd February 2020, 04:47 PM

Cava

I believe Australia Day celebrates the arrival of the first fleet and the planting of the Union Jack in 1788.

Regards
Paul

**cava** · 2nd February 2020, 05:03 PM

Good point Paul. ��

**rustynail** · 2nd February 2020, 06:38 PM

26 January was the arrival of the First Fleet. A few boat loads of ne'er-do-wells that had worn out their welcome back in the the Old Country. Not exactly the most illustrious of beginnings I would have thought.

**rustynail** · 3rd February 2020, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Greg Ward

Come on...... let's not seek for elephants outside the window on a horse farm.
Greg

So a horse farm can not possibly have an elephant outside the window? Beyond the realm of all possibility? After all its a HORSE FARM.
I have a mate in Africa who is a keen polo player and runs a couple of strings of polo ponies. The elephants come and drink out of the horse troughs during the dry season on a regular basis.

**Greg Ward** · 3rd February 2020, 03:57 PM

Ok forget elephants
Replace with eunuchorns

**rustynail** · 3rd February 2020, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by Greg Ward

Ok forget elephants
Replace with eunuchorns

Now you're talking.

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