Happy Australia Day

Today, January 26th, is Australia Day.

The Day marks the date of the landing of the First Fleet in 1788 at Sydney Cove. Australians across the world celebrate this day as a Nation of people united under our flag.

This is a country comprising people from many diverse cultures, starting with over 300 tribes of Australian Aborigines, the oldest continuing culture on the planet, mixed with people from across the globe, predominantly people whose families originated in Great Britain.

Today, Australia remains part of the British Commonwealth.

Australians are proud people, a nation that punches well above its weight in International Sport, like our Kiwi cousins from across the ditch. Our land is rich in natural resources, stunning landscapes and wonderful experiences for visitors.

We have our challenges around our Indigenous people. In the early days, some settlers were brutal and did terrible things to Aboriginal people. Deeply indoctrinated people carrying Bibles did much more harm than good as they tried to “save” a savage people, removing children and devastating communities.

Most good people in Australia know these things and have great compassion for the challenges indigenous people faced. There is too much generational trauma as a result.

But I ask the question, how much generational trauma did the early settlers bring with them, knowing of the grotesque things that happened in Britain through the middle-ages?

How long must we continue to treat people as victims before we finally decide to help them get back on their feet and step into a self-empowered life?

Today, as occurs every year, there will be people protesting the celebration of this day. They wish to re-name it “invasion day”. Eleven ships carrying 1400 people, nearly 800 of them shackled prisoners, is hardly an invasion, but I understand where they are coming from.

There are many Australian Aboriginals who openly celebrate the day as proud Australians. They love this country and how it is today.

My sense is that, as we have seen across the western world over the past 15 years, “woke” culture has taken its place in society, surfing on the unearned power of victimhood. Some people have learned that there is great power in finding victims then taking up their cause. It happened with BLM in the USA and with Gay and Lesbian communities across the world. Indigenous communities have been a huge focus of the “noble victim saviors”, as have illegal immigrants and more recently, Gaza.

These people have turned outrage into a formidable force. But I ask them, if they wish to listen as my questions may spoil their rave and rant party, “What might have happened if there were no white people here in 1944 and the Japanese had successfully taken over this land? What might have happened if another culture, like the Spanish, arrived here first?”

The good part about it is that most Australians ignore the noisy fools who think they are saving the world, fire up the barbecue, flip the top off a beer, and smile at their mates as they raise their drinks to toast this great nation.

And yes, we have work to do, to help those still affected by the past, to get them on their feet and living their lives, but whilst we do that work, we must always remember that we have much to be grateful for.

Happy Australia Day everybody.