Ignorance is bliss (and who gets to feel it)

“Australia remains the only country that marks its national day on the anniversary of invasion. January 26 is a day of pain, not pride.’

One of the most common arguments of keeping the date is simple: it’s in the past. We should just move on and enjoy the Australia we are in today. But stepping into the past isn’t a problem for other events. Days such as Anzac Day. A whole day that is built upon reflecting. Around remembering.

So maybe it’s a deeper issue than the remembering. Maybe it’s an uncomfortable truth about what happened in our country. Yes, our great, beautiful, full of possibility and deeply flawed country. An Australia that was built on colonising aboriginal people.

 I can’t help but think that there is a quite luxury to be able to choose to move on from that. A privilege of people that weren’t affected by it. For Aboriginal people they will never forget what happened that day and for days to come afterwards.

 Because you don’t move on from something that never really ended.

In 1938 government officials selected the best dancers from the Menindee mission in far west New South Wales and told they were to be performing cultural dances. What they were really being sent to do was a re-enactment of the landing and proclamation of captain Arthur Phillip.

 Ngiyaampaa elder Dr Beryl (Yunghadhu) Philp Carmichae was three when this event happened, she remembers the fear of her community at the time. They were all scared that they were going to be massacred. They made them sign documents and promises but because these communities couldn’t read or write very well they didn’t know what they were promising. They were scared and they were still made to recreate it.

Imagine the worst thing that happened in your bloodline. And then perform it for the whole nation to see and call it remembering.

January 26th.

A date that causes great divide every year. But as the years pass, people are only getting further away in their defences. One of these extremes that was prominent this year is the March for Australia.

Which on their website is described as a march to stand up for the people and culture that shaped Australia. But what this day really represents is a far-right rhetoric. Painted as an anti-immigration march with the first one being conducted on August 31st. Various Neo Nazi groups endorse the March for Australia with links to pro Hitler posts. Nazi groups then stated in emails that they look forward to marching for Australia-on-Australia day as it is important we take back our cities from communist aboriginal invasion day. These are real statements being made by people in our country. Scary.

So, I guess you could say the other extreme is invasion day rallies. Considered a mourning day for first nations people where they are faced with the reminder of a dark past. For first nation people and their allies, this day represents the beginning of dispossession, violence and genocide. The argument on this “extreme” is a potential alternative date for Australia day so that all Australians can come together and celebrate the nation. Extreme right.

 So are these extremes equal?

When one side is calling for unity, inclusion and a more honest national story and the other is clinging to tradition while standing alongside a racist and extremist ideology.

This isn’t about erasing history. It’s about telling the truth and confronting it. And deciding whether comfort matters more than justice.