Australia Day: Is it time to change the date?

FILE - Stedman Sailor stands in front of the Aboriginal Australian Flag as he arrives with other members of the Aboriginal community to take part in a smoking ceremony as part of Australia Day celebrations in Sydney, Jan. 26, 2018. Australia’s House of Representatives voted overwhelming on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 in favor of holding a referendum this year on creating a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an advocate that promises the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on policies that effect their lives. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File) Source: AP / Rick Rycroft/AP

A number of local councils have joined community groups and grass-roots organisations in calling for Australia's national day of celebration to be changed to a different date. NITV Radio spoke to representatives from local government, Aboriginal Corporations and community organisations about diverse First Nations perspectives around changing the date, as well as local efforts to make January 26 a more inclusive day.

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Published 25 January 2024 8:00pm

By Angelica Waite

Presented by Oksana Mazur

Source: SBS

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A number of local councils have joined community groups and grass-roots organisations in calling for Australia's national day of celebration to be changed to a different date. NITV Radio spoke to representatives from local government, Aboriginal Corporations and community organisations about diverse First Nations perspectives around changing the date, as well as local efforts to make January 26 a more inclusive day.

January 26 was made the national 'Australia Day' public holiday in 1994.

It was on this same date in 1788, that the First Fleet established a convict settlement at Sydney Cove, marking the beginning of European Colonisation of Australia.

And it's a day of great pain and mourning for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The decades of colonial violence, dispossession and trauma inflicted on First Nations people since this date have led many to call for Australia's national day of celebration to be changed.