By Shane Rodgers
A former work colleague of mine had a really simple solution to the ridiculous annual controversy that mars Australia Day.
He believed we should just celebrate it on the last Monday of January every year, preserving the tradition but decoupling it from a set date that is increasingly irrelevant to how we define ourselves as a nation.
The thing we often miss in the debate is that very few people probably even know that the date for Australia Day is pegged to the landing of Captain Arthur Phillip’s ships in Sydney to begin British colonisation.
For most, I think Australia Day is more like “Australian New Year”.
In our very Aussie way, we hold onto the Christmas-New Year BBQ-beach zone for as long as we can. Australia Day, at the end of January, is the last gasp of that period before we surrender to the inevitability of the work and school year.
That particular weekend in January is a great time to reflect on the eclectic mix of people who call this country home, our unique culture, our humour, our mateship and the many things we can be grateful for.
It is a national tragedy that this celebration is undermined and tainted every year by an inevitable debate over what it is celebrating and the date it is latched to.
This has reached a ridiculous level over the past few years with some shops deciding not to stock Australia Day merchandise and people being guilted out of enjoying our national day.
Enough is enough. This nonsense needs to end. We live in an era in which divisiveness is threatening our way of life around the world. We need to recapture our national day as a time that brings us together, not highlights our differences.
We should start by taking the emotion out of it.
It is no surprise that indigenous Australians are not too excited about celebrating Captain Phillip’s arrival. Why would they be?
Most Australians, I suspect, want to celebrate our First Nationals culture on Australia Day. It is an important and unique part of our national heritage and the fabric of our history.
I’d like to celebrate that.
The early Europeans built a different country thousands of kilometres from other civilisations and this set us up as an advanced society with significant opportunities for all.
That is part of our history that happened long before any of us were born. We should acknowledge the triumph over hardship and sheer guts of these early European pioneers. There is little to be gained by retrofitting or denying history.
For me, my ancestors arrived here in the 1800s from Ireland (long after the British colonialisation) with nothing but a hope that this land down-under might afford them a better life. It did.
I’d like to celebrate that.
As a nation we boxed above our weight in world wars, we welcomed waves of post-war migrants who brought a rich cosmopolitan tapestry that enriched many aspects of our lives and culture.
I’d like to celebrate that.
In the 1970s we welcomed scores of Vietnamese refugees whose children are now surgeons and businesspeople and lawyers with broad Aussie accents and humour.
I’d like to celebrate that.
In recent times we have become an ethnically rich nation with the ability to integrate all types of backgrounds and cultures into a society that is the envy of most of the world.
I’d like to celebrate that.
In fact, the rest of the world must just shake their heads when they witness how well we have managed to stuff up our annual national celebration.
Why don’t we just fix it by decoupling the day from one date in history and locking in “Aussie New Year” on the last Monday of January?
We are, after all, a country that gives ourselves a holiday for Kings and Queen’s birthdays on dates that are weeks or months removed from their actual birthdays.
Let’s celebrate the absurdity of that.
Let’s celebrate all of it – all the things that unite us. And there are plenty of those.
Shane Rodgers is the author of Worknado – Reimagining the way you work to live.
