Why we need to re-think Australia Day

[EvangelionZeta]

http://quintessenceofvincent.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/on-australia-day/

I spent a lot of time thinking about this today.  Some thoughts.  (also maybe useful for kids considering their oral presentations for English, lol)

[Stick]

This is discussed quite a lot in Michael Leunig's The Lot: In Words. In fact, in some respects, you could easily pass that off as a Michael Leunig essay.

Anyway, in response to this view, I guess the fact that Australia Day isn't taken so seriously by the majority is a positive sign, although it seems like that real change is slow progress and that it might be necessary for a conscious push by the population.

[slothpomba]

I'll step up to the plate and offer my view at the risk of being cut down for holding a view that goes contrary to what some people take as gospel. We've only spoken a few times but i'm sure as as a seasoned debater (not that im looking for a debate) you realise that just because someone disagrees with you, doesn't mean its personal once you take it off the field. I'll also lay my cards bare and say right up front that i don't think nationalism is anything dirty.

I don't think it necessarily needs to celebrate anything in particular. Even days like ANZAC day only have a brief fleeting thought paid to them. It's not like the majority of the nation sits down in deep meditation to think about what it all really means. That'll never happen no matter how much you either construct or find meaning for a particular event or day. For many working people outside the tiny intellectual (and often rich) elite, it's a day off work, time to relax and time to have a party. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with this. That in itself is a celebration and a cultural event, it might not be high or intellectual culture but cooking a bunch of snags and simply having a party is part of culture none the less. I think a lot of the criticism you make is leaning towards elitism in this regard.

..the story celebrates the virtue and the bonds between Australians, but at the expense of the Turkish people, the physically darker, non-Anglo-Saxon “other” who are there to be shot at and to be implicitly vilified for causing the deaths of Australians.

I'd disagree with that, many people realise that the Turkish soldiers were (often unwillingly) doing their job much like the Australian soldiers were. It's not like they wanted to be there, it's not like either side wanted to shoot at each-other, most were conscripts. The phrase from popular culture "I just work here man" comes to mind as a modern illustration of that kind of situation.

They were average men used as blunt instruments of politics by both sides (lets not forget the Ottoman Empire was a massive power as well). They were more united and similar in being the tools of politicians than ever divided by race.  This was recognised, there were many truces held:

At Gallipoli, a truce was requested by a Turkish soldier on 22 May 1915. Soldiers on both sides of 'no-man's land' agreed on an unofficial 8 hour truce. On 24 May 1915 the Australian and Turkish soldiers set about climbing out of the trenches, meeting each other, identifying and burying their dead and exchanging drinks, cigarettes and gifts.

Whilst this was spontaneous and not planned, the truces provided the means for bonding and friendship and a recognition of the soldiers' shared humanity. Times was spent 'making friendships with the Turks'. In 1981 the Turkish Government renamed Ari Burnu beach Anzac Cove. In the Australian War Memorial grounds in Canberra, there is a memorial to Kemal Atatrk, first President of Turkey and Gallipoli war commander. In 2006 the RSL permitted descendants of Turkish war veterans to march in the annual ANZAC Day parade.

Happened with the Germans too:

Between the trenches on the Western Front was a no man's land, that separated enemy from enemy. In some places the trenches were only a few metres apart. Sound, voices and smells carried across this space. Soldiers were often close enough to see each other. On Christmas Eve 1914 Soldiers in the Allied forces saw German soldiers lining their trenches with Christmas trees and candles. The Germans started singing Christmas carols, beginning with Stille Nacht (Silent Night). Across no-man's land Allied soldiers joined in.

The singing developed into a truce, where

    soldiers from both sides put aside their weapons and climbed out of their trenches, walked into no-man's land, started up tentative conversations where language differences were somehow overcome, found ways of exchanging gifts for Christmas, simple gifts, swapping buttons from their tunics or food and whisky sent from home in Christmas packages.

The last sentence of the first quote box not to mention the shared bonds between soldiers falsifies in my mind the theory that they were seen as people "who are there to be shot at and to be implicitly vilified for causing the deaths of Australians."

As i was saying earlier, i think for many people, regardless of what we think it should be, is just a day of celebration and relaxation. That leads me to my next point.

Meanwhile, the image of Australia Day that dominates is that of a white, Anglo-Saxon celebration, of beer drinking and sausage sizzling that carries with it a certain association with the classic “Aussie battler”.

A fair few people have posted pictures online of themselves at parties that look like normal parties except slightly trashier. 

An Australia Day about values rather than drinking;

Lets put aside the White Anglo-Saxon idea for a second. What's wrong with drinking beer or having a sausage sizzle? It's a day of happiness and spending time with others, i see no problem with sharing food or drink. To me this is almost tinged with elitist or classist overtones that the average Australians method of celebrating a good time simply isn't up to par (please don't  take that as a personal attack but thats honestly what it comes off as). I have a similar feeling about the judgment that their idea of having a good time is trashy or culturally inferior. It seems one of people replying to the facebook post relating to this had similar feelings as well. This is overstepping the line and reading much more into it than you wrote but it's almost a criticism that it's a "bogan" thing (when of course 'Bogan' is a term often used to put down less privileged people for humour).

As for the Anglo thing, is that the image that dominates in everyones mind or in your mind? How can we really be sure everyone associates it with being an Anglo thing? Indeed, if you look at the parades, we have people of all cultures celebrating our diversity. We have people wearing turbans and hijabs in Aussie colours. We have citizenship ceremonies on this day in particular celebrating the fact that people from far and wide are joining our Australian family.

I honestly think the day already has strong elements of acceptance as a theme, if you want to look for that.

It’s also worth reflecting that the day is possibly sexist as well.  The beer-in-the-hand-eye-on-the-barbie Australia Day Australian is usually a man.

This is just a stereotypical straw-man thats been created. As i was saying earlier, you don't have to be a living stereotype to celebrate Australia day, you can do it however you like. For what its worth, i know plenty of women who enjoy beer, i don't know why you'd imagine they'd be exempt from enjoying beer or a BBQ equally as much. I think its a pretty far stretch to argue that Australia day is somehow inherently sexist as a holiday (much moreso than any other as well).

Of course, i only commented on the bits i disagree with, dont take it negatively at all. I agree with most of the rest. I definitely commend you for having a much more balanced view on it than many who criticise it do. In particular the recognition that in a harsh world, we do honestly stand as a beacon as one of the most democratic, diverse and accepting nations on the planet. We have problems but so does any nation, we're one of the most progressed and we're making progress still. I almost feel like you could slice your article in half and the two halves could stand alone. I'd just like to finish up by reiterating that i indeed agree with the vast majority of your article, it's just the bits that i have a different view on i singled out.

(I pretty much haven't slept yet, only napped for half an hour, excuse any mistakes or butchering of English. No dictionaries were harmed in the making of this post. Bonus rap.)

[EvangelionZeta]

I don't think it necessarily needs to celebrate anything in particular. Even days like ANZAC day only have a brief fleeting thought paid to them. It's not like the majority of the nation sits down in deep meditation to think about what it all really means. That'll never happen no matter how much you either construct or find meaning for a particular event or day. For many working people outside the tiny intellectual (and often rich) elite, it's a day off work, time to relax and time to have a party. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with this. That in itself is a celebration and a cultural event, it might not be high or intellectual culture but cooking a bunch of snags and simply having a party is part of culture none the less. I think a lot of the criticism you make is leaning towards elitism in this regard.

Agreed.  I don't think every holiday needs to celebrate anything in particular.  My criticism of Australia Day is that it actually carries a lot of weight, it doesn't celebrate anything in particular, but also the fact that it celebrates nothing in particular allows it to be exclusionary and offensive, which is *particularly* problematic for a day that is meant to unify or allow a nation to celebrate itself.

I'd disagree with that, many people realise that the Turkish soldiers were (often unwillingly) doing their job much like the Australian soldiers were. It's not like they wanted to be there, it's not like either side wanted to shoot at each-other, most were conscripts. The phrase from popular culture "I just work here man" comes to mind as a modern illustration of that kind of situation.

They were average men used as blunt instruments of politics by both sides (lets not forget the Ottoman Empire was a massive power as well). They were more united and similar in being the tools of politicians than ever divided by race.

If you're going to suggest that my own take on things is overly meditative, I'd suggest in response that this stuff probably also flies over the heads of a lot of the population.  Yes, Turkish soldiers are allowed to march in the parade (though only as of 2006).  Yes, they are also the vast minority in the parade.  The dominant image of the ANZAC myth is still that of a brave white Australian fighting for *his* country against the Turks.  That is not necessarily a bad thing to celebrate, but it is a bad thing here because of the implicit undertones it carries, especially in a country that regularly suffers from issues with racism (in spite of the good things it does with race too).

What's wrong with drinking beer or having a sausage sizzle? It's a day of happiness and spending time with others, i see no problem with sharing food or drink. To me this is almost tinged with elitist or classist overtones that the average Australians method of celebrating a good time simply isn't up to par (please don't  take that as a personal attack but thats honestly what it comes off as). I have a similar feeling about the judgment that their idea of having a good time is trashy or culturally inferior. It seems one of people replying to the facebook post relating to this had similar feelings as well. This is overstepping the line and reading much more into it than you wrote but it's almost a criticism that it's a "bogan" thing (when of course 'Bogan' is a term often used to put down less privileged people for humour).

I have absolutely nothing against a trashy day.  People who know me in real life know that I hate cultural elitism - my favourite holidays tend to be the imaginative casual ones as opposed to the serious ones.  Nothing in my article suggests I have any issue with a day where you drink lots of better *in and of itself* (except for an out-of-context reading of the last quote you quoted, which I concede probably sounds a bit elitist but was absolutely not intended to be a dig at enjoying drinking in and of itself).

As for the Anglo thing, is that the image that dominates in everyones mind or in your mind? How can we really be sure everyone associates it with being an Anglo thing? Indeed, if you look at the parades, we have people of all cultures celebrating our diversity. We have people wearing turbans and hijabs in Aussie colours. We have citizenship ceremonies on this day in particular celebrating the fact that people from far and wide are joining our Australian family.

Search up Australia Day in images or in the news.  Most of the images are of white people.  Yes there are things that happen on Australia Day that celebrate diversity to some extent, but the dominant, most confronting aspects of the day are all the caucasian men drinking beer in the media, are the loud parties you hear that embrace that image in your neighbourhood. 

I was talking to a friend from Mount Waverley, in fact, just then, and I think his take on it was fairly apt.  Imagine you are a lower-class, Chinese or Vietnamese background Australian, probably with you or your parents having migrated fairly recently.  At the moment, what does Australia Day look like to you?  The media doesn't paint a picture of you at the center of the BBQ/drinking celebrations that are everywhere around you; it shows you as the person who has been "accepted" into the country recently, as a *recently-become-Australian-person-who-can-now-learn-about-Australia*.  You're not included.  The day is a day where a lot of white people get drunk and have BBQs, whilst you feel strangely out of place amidst everything.

I can say that I, as an Asian-Australian who nevertheless attended an upper class predominantly white school, who has friends across a diverse range of ethnicities, feel as if the narrative of Australia Day is not one that I am a part of.  And when the day is meant to celebrate "Australia", that's a big problem.

Also, a study Wikipedia cites also informs me that around 50% of Australians celebrate Australia Day in any shape or form, including 25% who see family on the day (it is unclear if by coincidence or for Australia Day specifically). 50% of the population don't buy into the day. Even if we account for the fact that many in that statistic might do so out of apathy or just general dislike for nationalism, that's still a not-insignificant number of people whose sense of belonging is possibly being undermined by the way the day is celebrated.

This is just a stereotypical straw-man thats been created. As i was saying earlier, you don't have to be a living stereotype to celebrate Australia day, you can do it however you like. For what its worth, i know plenty of women who enjoy beer, i don't know why you'd imagine they'd be exempt from enjoying beer or a BBQ equally as much. I think its a pretty far stretch to argue that Australia day is somehow inherently sexist as a holiday (much moreso than any other as well).

You don't have to be a living stereotype, but go out into the CBD on Australia Day and try to tell me that you don't *feel* pressured in some sense by the masses of people loudly playing music, quite openly getting drunk, with Australian flags draped over their shoulders.  Yes women can enjoy beer and do BBQs too, but the media and cultural norms generally imply that it is the man at the center of those activities (when you think "put a shrimp on the barbie mate", what image immediately springs to mind?)

And yeah no worries about any of this being taken personally, it's just an online discussion after all - we're here for the ideas :p

[EvangelionZeta]

Re: the image of Australia Day being a white-Anglo-Saxon-male thing, surely the amount of support this article has gotten also implies that I am not the only one who feels this way about how the day is presented!  I hate to pull the race card, but I sincerely think it is probably something much more noticeable when you are *not* a part of the dominant identity within the narrative of the day. 

[Notes4me123]

not even...

[BigAl]

I won't comment on Australia Day but I'd like to say few things about Anzac Day.

Some of you may already know that I'm Turkish. I'm quite frankly disappointed how Anzac Day is reflected in today's Australia.

We don't have an official public day for our soldiers who fought in Gallipoli, whilst we have public days for the few other important days. The reason is being that, let's face it, there is nothing to celebrate for. Both sides lost 250,000 soldiers and Istanbul was invaded a year later. So what was that bloodshed for? That's why the war of Çanakkale is a mourning rather than a victory in our history, although the Turkish forces managed to destroy some of the fleet.

To be honest, I can't say Anzac Day is as emotional as 18th March ( The day when the naval battle started and the day of remembrance for the Turkish matrys)

Anzac Day should be a remembrance for those who lost their lives but I can't unfortunately say that's true through my experience in Australia in 4 years
Sorry if I was so emotional in my response but 18th march and 25th April always bring tears into my eyes.

[slothpomba]

I think its important those days are remembered as well. The only reason they're not a public holiday is probably a logistical one. There's really only a limited number of public holidays we can have in a year. Everyone would probably want different things commemorated as well.

At least going by a UK news article:

Each bank holiday costs the UK economy £2.3bn and scrapping them would boost annual output by £19bn, economists say.

[BigAl]

I was talking inclusively not for Australia but for Turkey. Sorry for confusion

[brenden]

I've actually read nothing much other than Al's post, but ANZAC Day has  always be a day of mourning for me. Not for the ANZACs in particular, just for war and the soldiers than are sent out as statistics.

I do think Australia Day should be changed, as well as our stupid flag and constitutional monarchy lol.

[Professor Polonsky]

We might still value a fair go, but we are now a nation of divergent viewpoints, a country where 25% of us are born overseas, where many more have ethnic and cultural backgrounds that differ from the original English Aussie battler, where we are willing to recognise the fact that the Indigenous Australian are the original inhabitants of this land.  Meanwhile, the image of Australia Day that dominates is that of a white, Anglo-Saxon celebration, of beer drinking and sausage sizzling that carries with it a certain association with the classic “Aussie battler”.  No wonder that joint Australian of the Year winner for this year, Adam Goodes, came out about how he feels the day is tainted by “sadness and mourning and the sorrow of [the Indigenous people]”: the day is unjust in ignoring how complex Australia has become in the 21st century.  It’s not just the date that is now offensive to Indigenous Australians (and  to so many others of us); it is the way the day itself portrays Australianism.

To try to liken the very serious issue the Aboriginal community faces with Australia Day and the fact that Australia is now multicultural is intellectually and factually shortchanging your reader. For them, it represents the day that their land was taken from them. For you, if represents a preexisting culture in this land - the 'Aussie' one - that is foreign to you. There is nothing inherently exclusionary with Anzac Day towards non Anglo Saxons - it's simply the regular issue that first-generation migrants face when confronted with a new culture. Towards Aboriginals, on the other hand, this day represents something far worse than that, of course. I really don't think that any Indigenous community would appreciate you in any way sharing their plight and issues with Australian Day, and doubt they would be very happy with you using it to advance your cause. I also don't think there is any reason at all why Australia Day should be changed, simply because there are a lot more foreign-born Australians now (which is actually not true in itself, and many of those foreign-born Australians are Anglo Saxons themselves.)

Whether you like it or not, a culture has developed in this land surrounding Australia Day. You're entitled to not like it, but I really do not see how it is not inclusive. It's going to be hard for any immigrant to pick up on the traditions of their new country (it sure was for me), but there is nothing inherently racist or impossible with it.

To claim it is sexist is also... what?

[slothpomba]

(It comes out looking like quite a lot of text here, there really isn't that much if you take out the quotes.)

For them, it represents the day that their land was taken from them. For you, if represents a preexisting culture in this land - the 'Aussie' one - that is foreign to you.

I think that's a very good contrast you draw there. Comparatively the problems around snags are chump change.

There is nothing inherently exclusionary with Anzac Day towards non Anglo Saxons - it's simply the regular issue that first-generation migrants face when confronted with a new culture. I also don't think there is any reason at all why Australia Day should be changed, simply because there are a lot more foreign-born Australians now (which is actually not true in itself, and many of those foreign-born Australians are Anglo Saxons themselves.)

Hear, hear! As i point out below, how is it any different from the Chinese celebrating Chinese national holidays and how a non-Chinese person might perhaps feel there? France, England and the other countries of Europe have their own longstanding holidays and most of us wouldn't put forward abolishing them because the ethnic mix has changed. Going back to the Chinese example, say PRC became 8% "white", i don't think many people would advocate for abolishing or significantly changing the current Chinese national holidays.

Whether you like it or not, a culture has developed in this land surrounding Australia Day. You're entitled to not like it, but I really do not see how it is not inclusive. It's going to be hard for any immigrant to pick up on the traditions of their new country (it sure was for me), but there is nothing inherently racist or impossible with it.

Indeed, it might be a bit odd adapting to a new culture and new holidays but that'll happen anywhere.

My criticism of Australia Day is that it actually carries a lot of weight, it doesn't celebrate anything in particular, but also the fact that it celebrates nothing in particular allows it to be exclusionary and offensive, which is *particularly* problematic for a day that is meant to unify or allow a nation to celebrate itself.

As i was saying earlier, even if we do make it somehow celebrate it something "worthwhile", most people won't care more than a few seconds. I think its a bit silly to think that injecting some deep and intellectual meaning into it will change how most Australians view the day (or any holiday). For most people, regardless of whatever deep and poetic meaning we try to assign to it, its just simply a day off. As for the second bit, i disagree that its exclusionary and "offensive" but i guess i made my reasons clear before. We see it differently and we'll just be going around in circles i suspect.

Yes, they are also the vast minority in the parade.  The dominant image of the ANZAC myth is still that of a brave white Australian fighting for *his* country against the Turks.  That is not necessarily a bad thing to celebrate, but it is a bad thing here because of the implicit undertones it carries, especially in a country that regularly suffers from issues with racism (in spite of the good things it does with race too).

Regarding the parade, that's because Turks are a statistical minority in Australia, theres no racism going on in this regard. There just isn't all that many Turkish people around compared to other ethnicities. As for the dominant image of it being the brave white Australian, well, yeah, Australia was mostly white at the time, it's a bit of a no-brainer. Much like the Turks in the parade talked about earlier, it's simply a statistical truth about history, it's not like it's deliberately racist, that's just how it was.

Search up Australia Day in images or in the news.  Most of the images are of white people.

Do you have a problem with white people? I'm confused. Do you somehow find the mere image of a white person offensive? It may sound like i'm putting word into your mouth but i find nothing inherently wrong with a white person being in the picture that is somehow redeemed by replacing them with a brown person.

Have you considered the fact that it might just be that statistically most Australians are of Europe or using your term "White" descent?

Over 300 ancestries were separately identified in the 2011 Census. The most commonly reported were English (36%) and Australian (35%). A further six of the leading ten ancestries reflected the European heritage in Australia with the two remaining ancestries being Chinese (4%) and Indian (2%). Source:http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/2071.0main+features902012-2013

Using the top ten table provided, approximately 2.0% of Australians are of Indian descent and 4.3% are of Chinese descent. These are the largest, non-white, minority groups. Combined they represent 6.3% of the population. That is approximately 1/20. If you were to take photos of members of the population at random, you'd assume that 1/20 photos would contain at least one person of Indian or Chinese descent. I saw plenty of photos like these, i don't think the ratio is out of whack or the media is deliberately presenting a distorted or false image.

Yes there are things that happen on Australia Day that celebrate diversity to some extent, but the dominant, most confronting aspects of the day are all the caucasian men drinking beer in the media, are the loud parties you hear that embrace that image in your neighbourhood. 

Thats all fairly anecdotal. Can you somehow prove that the "dominant" media coverage on Sunday the 26th of January was "all the Caucasian men drinking beer". Again, this is still filled with the judgment that there's something wrong with the beer, every ethnicity enjoys beer. If the beer isn't the problem, lets delete that word, we now have "all the Caucasian men [deleted] [deleted] in the media". Assuming you don't really care about the beer, it seems that you simply think there are too many white people on television for a country that is primarily inhabited by people of European descent.

I'm not sure whats so oppressive or divisive about taking photographs of white people eating.

Imagine you are a lower-class, Chinese or Vietnamese background Australian, probably with you or your parents having migrated fairly recently.  At the moment, what does Australia Day look like to you?  The media doesn't paint a picture of you at the center of the BBQ/drinking celebrations that are everywhere around you; it shows you as the person who has been "accepted" into the country recently, as a *recently-become-Australian-person-who-can-now-learn-about-Australia*. 

You're not included.  The day is a day where a lot of white people get drunk and have BBQs, whilst you feel strangely out of place amidst everything.

If i immigrated to China or India, should i somehow be offended that their national holidays celebrate Chinese or Indian culture? Should i take offense at the eating of dumplings, the drinking of tea, red packets wand all other various traditions?  If i'm India and its republic day, should i take offense that it celebrates "Indian-ness"? If i shouldn't take offense in China, why is Australia a unique case?

It seems to constantly be coming back to the beer and the BBQ, i'm honestly baffled why you mention this with such great frequency, its something i confess to not at all understand why you are singling it out. Asian people have BBQ's, Indian people have BBQ's, both of these ethnicities drink. I saw many of them do it on Australia day. No one will stop you from celebrating it however you like.

Also, a study Wikipedia cites also informs me that around 50% of Australians celebrate Australia Day in any shape or form, including 25% who see family on the day (it is unclear if by coincidence or for Australia Day specifically). 50% of the population don't buy into the day. Even if we account for the fact that many in that statistic might do so out of apathy or just general dislike for nationalism, that's still a not-insignificant number of people whose sense of belonging is possibly being undermined by the way the day is celebrated.

That's a very great stretch, you cant possibly hope to claim a cause-effect relationship, especially as large as you claim, without some kind of proof. There is no clear evidence beyond conjecture that there is a cause and effect relationship between lack of doing anything on the holiday and  it being caused or "...undermined by the way the day is celebrated." Many restaurants experience surge in business on the day, i could postulate there is a causal relationship by the number of flags out in public and restaurant attendance, it doesn't necessarily make it true, cause doesn't always equal effect, especially if you can't even prove the association is real.

I did nothing on Australia day, because you don't need to do anything. I stayed home and watched TV. I'll probably do the same on ANZAC day, Labor day and any other number of our national holidays. Do we need 100% of people to do something on what is a public day of rest before we deem the holiday a success? I'd honestly disagree.

[EvangelionZeta]

As i was saying earlier, even if we do make it somehow celebrate it something "worthwhile", most people won't care more than a few seconds. I think its a bit silly to think that injecting some deep and intellectual meaning into it will change how most Australians view the day (or any holiday). For most people, regardless of whatever deep and poetic meaning we try to assign to it, its just simply a day off.

But why not have some form of positive change if we can? I never suggested everyone's experience of the day will magically improve. Clearly though a lot of people do have issues with the day, and so changing it will make it better for them, without hurting anyone else..

Do you have a problem with white people? I'm confused. Do you somehow find the mere image of a white person offensive? It may sound like i'm putting word into your mouth but i find nothing inherently wrong with a white person being in the picture that is somehow redeemed by replacing them with a brown person.

No I have no problem with white people, as would be fairly obvious from a cursory scan of my friendship circles. I have a problem when the narrative of one nation's identity is near-exclusively framed around white people though.

If i immigrated to China or India, should i somehow be offended that their national holidays celebrate Chinese or Indian culture? Should i take offense at the eating of dumplings, the drinking of tea, red packets wand all other various traditions?  If i'm India and its republic day, should i take offense that it celebrates "Indian-ness"? If i shouldn't take offense in China, why is Australia a unique case?

Firstly, neither china nor India have an active policy of multiculturalism. Secondly, (unfortunately) recognising racial diversity in china and India is not socially relevant because there is very little diversity to begin with (at least, in terms of continents - I think it is a definite problem that China/India do not do nearly enough to recognize the diverse ethnic and religious groups that exist internally). On the flip side of that as well, 10% (I assume the total figures of non-white ethnic Australians would at least amount to this) of the population being shut out of the dominant national narrative would by most reasonable accounts be considered a pretty big problem - that number is also sure to increase, give the disproportionate growth of non-white populations in Australia. It is also a major problem that Australia Day celebrates an "Australianness" that is not only exclusionary, but also offensive, towards the indigenous peoples who are the actual original owners of the land.

[EvangelionZeta]

To try to liken the very serious issue the Aboriginal community faces with Australia Day and the fact that Australia is now multicultural is intellectually and factually shortchanging your reader. For them, it represents the day that their land was taken from them. For you, if represents a preexisting culture in this land - the 'Aussie' one - that is foreign to you.

Obviously there is a lot more at stake for indigenous Australians on the day than for other non-white ethnics - the further point I was making though was that beyond the unique harms to the indigenous people, the harm that is being even more broadly perpetuated (on top of the horrific injustice towards stealing land) is an active exclusion under the guise of a national day.

In general I think people also need to grapple with the nuance of my characterisation of the problem. It's not the fact that  people are drinking beer that irks me.  It's the fact that the individuals in said act are exclusively white. Yes, it would actually make a difference to me if there were some images floating around of brown and yellow and black people being part of the drinking and bbqs as well, instead of having them neatly arranged for our viewing pleasure at citizenship ceremonies ("oh look aren't we nice, allowing these foreigners to live in our land" - it's still an exclusionary narrative...). But there are also systematic reasons for why the media will report things in a certain way (it is run by white men for a market where the money is all in the hands of white me ), so why not change the ideology behind the day itself so that no matter what people see, we can at least *feel* something positive about the day?

Also can people stop ridiculing the sexist argument and actually make a real response to it (thanks for that sloth incidentally, for being the only one to actually engage there). Yes it sounds a bit funny, and yes even my general tone about it implies it is not necessarily the most certain claim I make. But the fact that people don't know how to respond to it but instead can only awkwardly point and laugh at it makes me think I'm just making people uncomfortable by telling them the truth - certainly, it makes me feel more and more certain that I might be onto something there...