With the annual controversy and debate over Australia Day being celebrated on the 26th of January, issues of inclusivity/exclusivity and national identity are being raised again. I believe I have a solution to this issue.
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Australia should become a Republic. There are many reasons for this but I will elaborate on one or two of them here as they pertain to the Australia day debate.
Our constitution is inherently flawed as the Australian head of state cannot be an Australian. To exclude any Australian citizen from any aspect of Australian government is just plain wrong! The hypocrisy of not allowing members of parliament to be a citizen of another country but insisting our head of state has to be a citizen from another country and not an Australian citizen is laughable. Further there is no recognition of indigenous peoples in it either. This omission has allowed a level of lesser citizenship to exist where it shouldnt have. These two issues make our constitution at best bigoted and at worst racist.
On the day that Australia becomes a Republic, the first and it has to be the first action of the new government of the new republic should be to sign a treaty with the indigenous peoples of Australia. This recognition of indigenous people is the next logical step from the official apology given in 2008. It will give them ownership both of their cultural history and their part in the new Republic of Australia.
The day that this occurs is the day that should then become our national holiday. This will unite all Australians, regardless of their cultural or ethnic background in celebrating our nationhood and remove any links to Colonial invasion for indigenous peoples.
The day for this to occur I believe should be the 3rd of December as this marks the date of the only time in our history where ordinary Australians stood up to Imperial colonial rule for the right to vote and the right to own land. 125 Australians, of 20 nationalities, stood together in our first act of multi-culturalism, in the true Australian spirit of a fair go for all. 28 of them died in that fight. They won us the rights we enjoy now. This is when Australia was truly born. We now live in the freedom they bought. That is worth celebrating!
Greg Walker, Sebastopol.
I am interested in the possibility of holding Australia Day on December 3, the date of the Eureka Stockade. Many countries national days are held to commemorate a struggle to end oppression from a ruling elite or occupation by another country's military, with the goal of independence and democratic reforms. The Eureka rebellion was an act of civil disobedience.
Australia became a nation free from British rule to govern as a constitutional monarchy on January 1st, 1901. But this date as a possible national day doesn't recognize the large component of Australia's population which has been denied suffrage and democratic freedom right from the beginning of the colonial period. By celebrating January 26th as our national day, we are celebrating a military takeover by another country that made assumptions about Australia being empty, not owned.
The Eureka Stockade rebellion is a milestone for independence in Australian history thus a credible alternative date for Australia Day which would recognize both First Nation Australians and oppressed early white settlers.
The struggle for independence to throw off the yoke of colonialism is honoured and celebrated annually in the history of other nations, a fact that has neither been acknowledged nor proposed by any Australian politician. Australians should take the example that has been set by other nations who celebrate their national day with a just cause; the achievement of independence and democratic freedom.
Stephanie Ingerson, Middleton SA.