Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, I've got a quick Undeceptions single for you for Australia Day. Recent polls offer pretty conflicting messages about what to do with the date of Australia Day, the 26th of January. One poll found that most Australians don't mind what date it's held.
and another found that 71% of Australians reckon the date should stay the same. Most politicians are sticking with the status quo to the distress of some Indigenous Australians and the uncertainty of others, including myself. I want to suggest that if we're going to retain the date of Australia Day,
We need to mark the day in a deliberate twofold manner with lament and rejoicing on the same day. Suburban churches like my own in Roseville and over at Manly where I'm preaching today and plenty of others have been trying out different ways of doing this over the last few years. But I think there are secular ways of doing it as well.
I feel the weight of the argument for changing the date of Australia Day. Given our history, and perhaps we could do an episode on that one day, if Indigenous people want us to move the date from 26 January, I reckon it could be a small token of kindness to find a better day. At the same time, something could also be lost if we move away from 26 January.
away from any connection with the First Fleet's arrival here in 1788. Indigenous Australians would no longer be structurally part of the National Day. Australia Day would become a simple celebration of modern nationhood, with no particular historical link to Aboriginal heritage. But if we stick with 26 January, but start the day with Lament,
we will embed in our national day a sort of perpetual acknowledgement of Indigenous people. That date reminds us, like no other day in the calendar could, that this was Aboriginal land before Europeans tried to claim it, and that the process of colonisation which began that day was harmful to Indigenous Australians long before it was any benefit.
Retaining 26 January as a double commemoration would educate generations of future Australians about the need to temper, or at least precede, our national rejoicing with national sorrow.
Now, I don't mean saying sorry over and over for our treatment of Indigenous people. That's not what lament means. I just mean acknowledging the sadness of the past and the present for many Indigenous communities.
In a way, Australia's Anzac Day, which commemorates a massive military loss, also begins with solemn lament. So it's already a thing in Aussie culture.
Anyone who has attended a church service knows that churches are particularly good at this two-fold approach to festivals. Think of the quiet awe of Good Friday marking Jesus' death, followed by the burst of triumph on Easter Day marking his resurrection.
In fact, traditional church services, which I know is not everyone's cup of tea, combine lament and celebration every Sunday as the faithful remind themselves of their own wrongdoing and God's mercy and then rejoice in song and prayer for all that is beautiful in creation and in the lives of humanity, as one traditional prayer puts it.
The logic is that we can't truly celebrate life's glories without acknowledging the fallenness of things. This makes it relatively natural for churches to run a service on Australia Day which laments the hardships we've caused Indigenous Australians and prays for their flourishing.
Only after this can we turn in good conscience to celebrate the blessings that also flowed from 26 January 1788. It's easy to imagine more secular forms of this lament and celebration.
I often think shops could remain closed on Australia Day until like 10am or something. Before that, local councils could hold ceremonies of remembrance, preferably with Indigenous representatives involved, but it would still work without them.
There might be readings about Indigenous hardships and hopes. Personally, I like to read out what contentious eyewitness account of the first contact with Indigenous people in 1788. It is both tender and a little bit condescending. And maybe we could have a minute's silence, and only then would we celebrate 26 January.
I reckon a mature nation, mature individuals, ought to be able to mourn and rejoice on the same day, recognising with shame what white settlement did to Indigenous peoples, and acknowledging with pride that we have also received and achieved a great deal together. Happy Australia Day.
We're busy here at Undeceptions working on the new season. I've already got some cracking interviews with guests you're not going to want to miss. More about that soon. I'll be popping into your feed with these minis, or singles as we call them, a few times more in the coming weeks with random thoughts from around the world and short grabs from forthcoming interviews. And then we'll be back into full swing before you know it. I'm John Dixon with an Undeception single. Music