Change the Date?

In recent years there has been an ever growing campaign to change the date we celebrate Australia day as the current one (today actually) also happens to be the day a bunch of English people showed up and stole a country.

Do you think the date should be changed? Any other thoughts on the matter?

If people are objecting more and more to the day, then yeah, might as well change the date it's held on, it's not the sort of thing that's a big deal to hold on to. There must be some other date that would be suitable for celebrating the foundation of your country.

There's a few options yeah.
Personally I don't really care if we move it.

At the same time though, nobody is celebrating the invasion of someone else's land we're celebrating who we are today.

Idk. I'm not opposed to moving the day but all this effort rallying about this seems like such a waste when all that changes in the end is the date people get drunk on. A part of me wishes people would be this proactive about issues that actually have an effect on our society.

gimmepie said:

There's a few options yeah.
Personally I don't really care if we move it.

At the same time though, nobody is celebrating the invasion of someone else's land we're celebrating who we are today.

Idk. I'm not opposed to moving the day but all this effort rallying about this seems like such a waste when all that changes in the end is the date people get drunk on. A part of me wishes people would be this proactive about issues that actually have an effect on our society.

Click to expand...

Obviously this is from someone over the ditch who can only really work from observation and conversation as opposed to living in Aus, but...

Australia Day is obviously an important issue for those rallying against it, and the controversy only builds year after year, so it's a bit snide to say it doesn't have an effect on society. Particularly given that the fight over Australia Day (what to call it, how to recognise it, where to move it) is a focal point for those wanting to highlight the injustices the indigenous community have been subjected to, as well as those wanting to highlight the other ways Australia needs drastic improvement. Particularly when one considers that given Australia's media, as well as a general disinterest on thinking about indigenous issues on behalf of a significant portion of the public, the focus on Australia Day is perhaps the best and only time of year people get national focus on these issues.

Given that the day has been assigned more and more nationalist undertones as time has gone by, especially by the Fuck Off, We're Full crowd, I don't think it can be dismissed. Which I don't think is your intention. But it's not an issue that will go away, and for once in its life, Australia needs to be on the right side of history when it comes to the issue of its past and how to recognise its treatment of its people in the present.

Her said:

Snip

Click to expand...

Definitely not an attempt to dismiss, more I'm just lamenting that there are objectively more serious issues facing our country that people don't pursue with even a fraction of the vigour that they do the day we celebrate Australia Day when ultimately the actual impact the change will have on the average person and on people's attitudes is going to be negligible at best.

As a side note, the Fuck Off, We're Full crowd can Fuck Off.