The injustices of national days

As I write this, Australia is still dealing with the fall-out from last week's Australia Day. Due to a stunning double whammy of racism and sexism, Labour is polling at record lows and much of this is attributed to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's apparent weakness in dealing with some pretty substantial Australia Day protests.

It was a story that went around the world, due largely to an incredible photograph. Julia Gillard, leader of one of the most influential countries in the world at present, fallen and broken and in need of rescuing. What had brought us here, to such a remarkable turn of events? A comment by opposition leader Tony Abbott that the Tent Embassy, an Aboriginal political movement that has existed for 40 years outside Parliament, has passed it's use by date and should "move on". The disrespect and tactlessness of such a comment on the 40th anniversary of the Tent Embassy is another matter. What is important here is the palpable tension that this day causes, and the total lack of awareness that a significant section of the Australian population has of the continuing issues faced by the original owners of this country.

National days have always felt slightly uncomfortable to me, especially in the case of settler states like Australia and New Zealand. In South Africa, our national day is a nice one - 27 April, the day apartheid officially ended. In the USA things seem a little cleaner too, with Independence Day being a celebration of independence from the UK (although Thanksgiving is another matter). But in Australia and New Zealand, things are a lot murkier...

Australia Day is always on January 26, the day that the first English fleet arrived and Australia officially became a colony of England. Sounds harmless right? Except we all know it was anything but harmless for the people who then experienced the brunt of one of the most ruthless colonisations the English ever undertook. And the reason it was so easy to declare Australia a colony? Well that's because it was terra nullius or unsettled land. The Aboriginal people did not even warrant a consideration by the English legal system. That's why many of them call the day Invasion Day. 

New Zealand's national day is another story, as is New Zealand's colonisation story. While NZ has no official national day, the closest thing to one is certainly Waitangi Day, February 6 every year, the day that marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. We all know the history of that, and the broken promises that followed the signing of the document. And it, like Australia Day, can be a flashpoint for protest and racial discord. But to many, perhaps more optimistic, Kiwis the day represents something more hopeful. Perhaps it's moving on, perhaps it's saying sorry, perhaps it's the continuing special relationship the document represents.

I've been horrified at the total disdain most Australians have for the ugly history they mark every year with Australia Day. Focusing  more on BBQs, the beach and some American style patriotism, most are completely unaware of why the date even exists. Except that they like that it's in summer. Australia Day doesn't even pretend to be cognisant of the colonisation of one of the oldest and most established populations in the world. It doesn't include them in the definition of "Australian". And suggestions to change the day to something that includes more recent immigrants, like Citizen Day, or something that marks Aboriginal history, like the historic 1967 referendum are met with viral Facebook status updates (that I know have caused me to defriend a person or two).

In contrast, New Zealanders are more aware of the meaning of Waitangi Day. Maybe it's because it's right there in the name. Maybe because it was (slightly) more recent. Maybe because in New Zealand we have a more politically active, socially prominent and cohesive indigenous population. Or maybe it's because simply having a document, a signed agreement, that was breached so many times and so blatantly, makes us more comfortable with admitting our shitty behaviour. Whatever it is, while Waitangi Day is never pretty, the awareness and the reverence and the attitude is infinitely better than Australia.

I've never ever felt more uncomfortable and disgusted with a paid day off work.