Australia Day in Australia
What Australia Day means to me in 2021
Australia Day 26 January
It’s usually the last day of Summer Holidays- the day before school goes back for the start of a new year. And many Australians celebrate. If you were to ask them what is Australia Day, most will answer, “ It’s when Captain Cook discovered Australia.” And sadly, they’d be wrong.
Firstly Captain James Cook did not “discover” Australia. The aborigines as they were called then, (First Peoples or Indigenous now), were living in Australia some sixty thousand years before any white man set foot on its soil.
Secondly Australia Day is not celebrating James Cook at all. It’s remembering the date in 1788 that Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag in Sydney Cove and set up a penal colony to help England with its overcrowded prisons which had been exacerbated by the American colonies declaring independence from Britain and refusing to accept any more convicts.
Invasion Day
For the First Peoples, this is the day they remember as Invasion Day — the day their land was invaded by the white man. The British Empire, and to a lesser extent, the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch empires, colonised many African, American and Asian countries and became the masters whether the indigenous population liked it or not. Pacific and Caribbean islands were not exempt, especially if they possessed natural or human resources.
Many of these countries have since become independent and celebrate their own Independence Day, independence from British or colonial rule. But not Australia! We commemorate the successful invasion of our own land with a holiday. How does that make sense?
Reflect. Respect. Celebrate.
Theoretically, Australia Day is a day to reflect, respect and celebrate the Australian spirit and our sense of community, of mateship, and of resilience. To reflect on our nation’s past including the time before white settlement, to respect the achievements of all Australians, and to celebrate our multicultural diversity and rich migrant heritage.
Beach, barbecue or backyard cricket?
Unbelievably, Australia Day only became a national holiday in 1994, and there’s not a lot of reflecting, or respecting going on in most Aussie households. It’s all about celebrating in a traditional Australian way: drinking beer. And maybe because of this, many Australians become loud, obnoxious, nationalistic, patriotic, racist bogans.
What is a bogan?
The Macquarie Dictionary defines bogan as “a person, generally from an outer suburb of a city and from a lower socio-economic background, viewed as uncultured”. Leading up to Australia Day, it means much more. Anyone sporting Australian flags or Southern Crosses or nationalistic slogans on their cars, clothing, possessions (especially a stubby cooler) or tattoooed on their bodies falls into this bogan category. I think these yobbos are almost always unashamedly racist, and their nationalistic pride stems from their racism.
Across the country, these bogan types have taken over Australia Day, and increasingly more novelty items are made each year to be bought by the masses. This year, it was little umbrellas emblazoned with the Australian flag which attach to the head like a hat. How ridiculous! You can’t play any sort of cricket adorned with one of these umbrellas, and they’d be a fire hazard while leaning over a blazing barbecue.
Australian lamb
The thing I love most about Australia Day is the Australian Lamb TV ads. Here is this year’s. Funny, but not as good as 2020's.
How my family spends Australia Day.
We have no traditions surrounding Australia Day. Quite often, I’ve just arrived home from Europe completely jet-lagged so if my immediate family has had a barbecue, I’ve been asleep. This year, however, like everyone else, I’ve been nowhere.
It’s a hot humid day so we decide on a pool party. Our friends, Haris and Arooha, have offered to make chicken biryani, a Pakistani meal; an offer I’ve gratefully accepted. Woohoo! I don’t have to clean the barbecue! My contribution was curried eggs — one of the few dishes I can make that people will actually eat.
Happy Birthday Haris
Incidentally, it’s Haris’ birthday so Australia Day barely gets a mention at the table. It’s all “happy birthdays” with a Toblerone brownie slice as a “cake.” No beer either. My daughters and I prefer bubbly aka sparkling wine, but not champagne.
We are a “games” family.
No family gathering of ours is complete without a game or two. To add more international flavour to our Australia Day, we play Dixit, a French board game that we all enjoy.
What do you know about Australia Day?
While swimming, my youngest daughter gives the rest of us an Australia Day quiz. We all fail miserably; but at least we knew it was the First Fleet and not Captain Cook that was being commemorated!
