Today is the Australia Day holiday, we celebrate on the 26th of January but if it falls on a weekend we then get a day off to turn it into a long weekend. We’re good at that sort of stuff.

Australia Day celebrates the day when white men hit the shores and claimed Australia as their own totally ignoring the current inhabitants of the land. They then took possession, ignoring anything the natives were doing as they assumed if they didn’t build anything or couldn’t speak English then they mustn’t be human and proceeded to slaughter them if they got in the way or tried to fight back. They brought in animals, birds and plants from England, in some cases they have destroyed many parts of the environment. So, what with the Aboriginals and the environment I have a real problem with Australia Day, it’s something I don’t really like to celebrate but as with last year my kids were in the Australia Day Parade so I went along as a dutiful mother, cheered them and took photos. I contributed to the economy by buying food and just enjoyed getting together with friends and watching my kids do their thing.

I spent some of my time while watching the parade thinking how we should really change the focus of the day and celebrate multiculturalism, making sure to learn about each culture. I was upset about the lack of Aboriginal involvement, I saw one man playing a digeridoo and one stall selling boomerangs and stuff, but I understand why they wouldn’t want to be involved in this kind of day as we’re celebrating the death of their people and culture. I’ve seen attempts to change Australia Day completely, put it on a different day and celebrate the multiplicity of cultures in this country, I think that’s a good idea, it just doesn’t feel right to be celebrating the death of another culture.