Radio Australia Today Editorial

Australia Day. The case to move it.

26 January 2009

Mick Dodson was named Australian of the Year this morning, the eighth indigenous Australian to be so named.

Mick is an affable chap. Charming, smart, outgoing. But if you didn’t know him, you might think he was being a trifle precious when he said, on being interviewed about the honour, that Australia Day is a day that holds anything but honour for him and other aborigines.

You see Australia Day commemorates the day that the First Fleet landed in Sydney in 1788 and colonised this country. Aborigines, the owners up till then, were pushed off their lands without treaty or consultation. They were forced to be part of the British legal system, so when they fought back, they were dealt with in a summary way. Our history books document massacres of clans in retaliation for the spearing of cows. It was the start of a social ill that exists in many places today.

No, it could well be argued that the 26th of January is not a day that aborigines enshrine.

Mick Dodson, in saying that it should be moved was simply stating the fact that the current date haunts aborigines. He says he is proud to be made Australian of the year, and that he loves this country. But he wants a debate. He wants Australians to discuss the implications of this date on the aboriginal people. He wants their concerns to be talked about. If the Australian people decide that the date should stay where it is, then that would be fine for him, so long as there was that discussion.

Australia, young and feisty as it is, is still a remarkably conservative country. Most constitutional referenda are voted down by the public. Talk of a flag change is about as divisive as any other issue, and a republic looks years away, even though the Queen has suggested it probably will happen, the PM is a republican and the Leader of Opposition once headed the Republican movement.

A poll taken this morning on a commercial television channel found 83% of Australians wants Australia Day to stay where it is. The PM says not only that a change is not on the agenda, but that it will not change. Pretty definitive.

Mick Dodson’s always been about giving aboriginal people a voice, and aboriginal issues public notice.

He might just have to be happy with that for some time to come.

                                                                             – Phil