YEAR 10 ORAL PRESETATION – SHOULD THE DATE OF AUSTRALIA DAY BE CHANGED?
“26 January is a painful and alienating day. It marks the start of the colonisation and the suffering of our people— it is no celebration for us. Let’s respect the survival and resilience of our Indigenous people and change the date so we can all celebrate Australia Day together.”
Good morning/evening Mr Bullock and fellow classmates
It seems every country has to have its national day, whether to satisfy the insecurity of its citizens or to allow people to feel that they are part of something good. Therein lies the problem with the date chosen for Australia Day – January 26th. The only significance that it marks is the date the white people invaded Australia or as some would say, AKA Dick smith, “the first fleet day”.
There are 3 good reasons as to why we should change the date. Firstly, it would demonstrate a level of good will and help diffuse a potentially volatile point of conflict between the first nation of Australia and the descendants of European settlers. Secondly, changing the date of Australia may not have a major impact but for Indigenous Australians it means everything. Thirdly, it's easy to change the date and give our First Australians the acknowledgement they deserve.
The reasons presented above could be argued in a different point of view coming from the individual going against this topic. For example some may say that invasion day happened a long time ago so the Aboriginal people should get over it and live like the rest of society, but where is the gratitude in that? Next, some may argue that changing the date is not simple as it results in losing the one national day Australia has in uniting together but is pride really our concern here? And lastly some might argue that even though the date hasn’t been changed the Australian government has made sure that the indigenous Australians benefit from the rights they deserve which is a free livelihood. Yes, but not everything is free there’s always a catch.
To begin with, Celebrating Australia day for indigenous people is a very uncommon in not non-existent. To them this day is a day when everything was taken from them, their land, their language and their culture. As a result, it has been called to be a day of mourning and protest and not a day of celebration. With this knowledge and deeper understanding of the history, Australia Day should be changed because it is celebratory for one group and painful for another, the indigen...
