Extract from The Guardian
The
PM’s comments about 26 January show he doesn’t understand why it is a
Day of Mourning for First Nations people. We need him to get it.
Mere days out from a significant Day of Mourning in Australia, the prime minister’s attitudes towards First Nations people of this country have been on show.
Asked what he made of Cricket Australia’s decision today not to acknowledge 26 January as “Australia Day”, Scott Morrison didn’t hesitate. “A bit more focus on cricket and a little less focus on politics,” he said.
Soon after, he said this about the first fleet: “When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either.”
Maybe the convicts on the colonising first fleet didn’t enjoy being sent here as punishment for mostly petty crimes, but First Nations people feel sick to think that 26 January is a day that the leaders of this country should choose as a national day of celebration. It’s like dancing on the graves of our ancestors.
When Aboriginal people speak up about the realities of colonisation, we’ve almost come to expect casual racism, collective amnesia, and a denial of this country’s history.
Since the first fleet landed ashore at Kamay (Botany Bay) on 26 January 1788, First Nations people have experienced brutal frontier violence and massacres, the forced removal of children from their families, indentured slave labour, and violent attempts to wipe out our languages and cultures.
In Victoria alone, there were 67 massacres and more are still being uncovered. They tried, and failed, to wipe my people from these lands. Yet we have survived.
That’s why, for First Nations people across this country, 26 January marks a Day of Mourning.
As with Anzac Day, we also ask that all Australians join us in acknowledging 26 January as a day of respectful reflection and mourning for those who died fighting for Country.
On this day, the Aboriginal flag can be flown at half-mast, as befits a day of grief and remembrance. I’m inviting communities, councils and organisations across Australia to do just that. Those attending Invasion Day dawn services should also consider wearing black, to symbolise mourning.
The leader of this country should be exactly that – a leader. A spokesperson. Someone who speaks for all of us, not just the chosen few.
The First Peoples of this country deserve more than a one-word change in the anthem, or even a date change. This is a fight for truth, treaty, and justice – for a real and transformative change into a mature, modern country that mourns and heals, together.
I know that we are not alone in wanting to believe that this country is capable of telling the truth about its violent history – reckoning with its past, so it can better deal with its present.
We need Morrison to get it. We need all Australians to come on this journey of truth telling with us.
Ahead of this year’s Invasion Day, we’re asking you to turn up for us. To stand with us – to turn this day of mourning into a day of healing so we can move forward together as a nation.
Lidia Thorpe is a Djabwurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman. She is an Australian Greens Senator for Victoria and spokesperson for First Nations people
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