National Day: Why Many Aborigines Want to Abolish Australia Day

You can hear a didgeridoo playing in the distance, along with piercing singing. Eucalyptus leaves that have been burned leave a lingering aroma.

In the midst of the onlookers watching their ceremony on a strip of lawn on Sydney Harbour, a group of Aboriginal people walks through them while carrying tufts of smoldering leaves and having their faces painted white. In the early morning sunlight, the Sydney Harbor Bridge's silhouette, which is only a few hundred meters away, is visible through the smoke.

A woman approaches the podium following the conclusion of the smoking ceremony. She requests that everyone pause for one minute of silence.

Other than the didgeridoo, nothing else is audible. Speech starts after that.

Local politician Yvonne Weldon, who is indigenous, declares that "this day, this date, is a day of mourning for my people.". In terms of colonization and its effects, this location on Sydney Harbor is "Ground Zero.".

Every year for the past 20 years, a ceremony in Sydney's morning has started "Australia Day," Australia's national holiday. Margaret Beazley, the governor of New South Wales, and Dominic Perrottet, the head of regional government, are in attendance.

There is also Linda Burney, who represents the First Nation Peoples, as they are also known in Australia, as a Minister in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's cabinet. The ceremony, which is concerned with the fate of the indigenous people, expresses the unease that many of their fellow countrymen and women feel surrounding the date.

Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack, the country of the United Kingdom, for the first time on January 26, 1788, the same day that the first 700 British convicts arrived in Sydney Cove as part of the so-called First Fleet. Australia is home to 880,000 indigenous people, and today is considered to be the first day of white man's rule by those people.

The "First Fleet's" arrival, in the eyes of the locals, signaled the start of a tale of woe that included genocide, disease, and oppression. Australia was not "terra nullius" when they arrived, despite what myth would have you believe.

Here is where the first Australian aborigines were encountered by European settlers. According to Yvonne Weldon, other peoples arrived in their nation via these waters, bringing with them foreign languages, religions, and weapons.

None of them invited her. Native Americans, however, managed to survive.

Weldon asserts that "this has always been indigenous land and will always be indigenous land.". As is now customary in Australia, Dominic Perrottet, the prime minister of New South Wales, starts his speech this morning by recognizing the indigenous tribe whose land one is currently standing on.

In this instance, Perrottet claims that the Gadigal people are the "original guardians of this land.". He declares that it is a great honor to celebrate Australia Day here at sunrise.

Despite being one of the most prosperous nations in the world, Australia does not utilize all of its citizens' potential. The overwhelming disadvantage that many Indigenous Australians experience is, in Perrottet's opinion, "our greatest failure as a nation.".

The 880,000 indigenous people living in Australia continue to have worse social and economic conditions than the general population. Compared to the percentage of Aboriginal people in the population, the proportion of these individuals in the country's prisons is astronomically high.

Numerous indigenous children continue to grow up away from their families. Perrottet prefers to speak of symbolic advancement instead, citing the fact that the Aborigine flag is now flying alongside the Australian flag on the Sydney Harbor Bridge for the first time since July of last year.

In comparison to the national flags of the Union Jack and Southern Cross, the symbol with its black and red bars and yellow sun in the center is much more frequently seen in central Sydney on this day. Australia's national day now has a very different meaning than it did previously.

The 26th of January is widely regarded as "Invasion Day" by activists and members of the indigenous community. Australia's population as a whole supports delaying the national holiday by 28%, according to a poll.

Even more so is the percentage among younger Australians, between the ages of 18 and 24. The Aborigines will hold protest marches across the nation on Thursday in places like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth to call for the national holiday to be scrapped or at the very least moved to another day.

A smoking ceremony is held in Sydney a few hours after the meeting at the harbor, which marks the start of the protest there as well. In the city's business district, a large crowd of people congregates in a park.

Young indigenous people take up the majority of the stage, which activists have set up on the back of a truck. They deliver agitated speeches and put on one political rap performance at a time.

Over the course of the protest speeches, their audience, which initially numbers a few hundred, increases to several thousand. These are primarily white Australians, many of whom can be classified as being on the left-leaning political spectrum.

Clayton Simpson-Pitt, a member of the Kamilaroi tribe and one of the protest's organizers in Sydney, claimed that "now people come to us more than to other events.". Around 10,000, according to his estimate, will be attending.

Says his comrade-in-arms Jinaya Walford, who is also a Kamilaroi tribe member, "It makes her so proud that so many different people have come, including many white Australians.". It takes time for change to occur.

In fact, the neighboring state of Victoria even decided to cancel its annual street parade this year. Some Australian businesses are allowing employees to choose whether to take a day off on January 26 or another day for the first time.

Among the firms are well-known ones like Telstra, the biggest mobile phone provider in Australia, and the supermarket chain Woolworth, one of the country's largest employers with 215,000 workers. Vicky Brady, the managing director of Telstra, had even stated that she would not be available for work on Thursday.

The beaches are crowded on this hot summer day in Sydney, where fireworks are still being displayed. At the rally's edge, a small group of Australian patriots congregates.

The Australian flag is being raised by one of them. A woman is holding a sign that reads, "I support Australia Day.".

After a brief period of time, the police disperse the counter-demonstrators. The majority of demonstrators find it incomprehensible that some people want to observe the day as usual.

The 26th of January, according to 19-year-old Hamish Evans, is the absolute worst date you could pick. Others don't seem to notice it quite as clearly.

Although Colin Bibs, a protester, doesn't agree with the date either, he says, "I think everyone gets to celebrate being Australian.". For instance, he cites the desire of many former immigrants to celebrate in order to give thanks to Australia.

Many people pay attention to them According to surveys, half of the population already anticipates that Australia will change its national holiday within the next ten years. The day is also particularly contentious this year.

There will soon be a referendum that will give Aboriginal Australians more power, according to the Albanese government. The idea is to establish an "indigenous voice," i.e.

e. an organization of indigenous people's representatives in the legislature.

Its purpose is to provide guidance to MPs on matters that concern indigenous people in particular. For this, the constitution must be changed, and a referendum is the only way to accomplish this.

Many see this as a fantastic chance to finally make progress toward improving Aboriginal conditions. However, there is opposition to the project among the native population as well.

On Thursday, the protest's organizers are inciting opposition to the referendum. They don't see much more in this than a white Australia's attempt to assuage its conscience through the use of an alibi policy.

They also feel that the innovations don't go far enough. According to Clayton Simpson-Pitt, he favors having Indigenous MPs serve in the House rather than a separate advisory body that is a part of the legislature.

According to Ian Brown, he does not want to amend a constitution that he does not recognize; rather, he wants real autonomy for indigenous people. A protest march through Sydney's central business district will follow the speeches.

There are now an even larger number of participants, which is impressive. The canyons of the streets are filled with chants.

The majority of onlookers respond favorably to the demonstrators' demands. In another park in the financial metropolis, the protest march comes to an end at noon.

An indigenous music and art festival is held there by local indigenous associations and organizations. The Aborigines can't, in any case, begrudgingly claim that they aren't being paid attention to today.

Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack, the country of the United Kingdom, for the first time on January 26, 1788, the same day that the first 700 British convicts arrived in Sydney Cove as part of the so-called First Fleet.