(no subject)
It just isn't Australia Day until I've had an argument with ignorant fools about how gross it is to celebrate Australia Day.
For the non-Aussies, 26th January marks the anniversary of the First Fleet of white colonisers landing in Australia. Many Aboriginal Australians and others who support them refer to it as Invasion Day or, more recently, Survival Day. It's a public holiday, and generally people have barbeques and play cricket and drink beer and watch some fireworks- all perfectly fine things that Australians generally enjoy in summer. In recent years, this has been increasingly accompanied by the worst kind of jingoistic idiocy up to and including the Cronulla riots in 2005.
I am proud of my country, and I am very glad that I'm Australian, but I simply do not believe that celebrating Australia Day is a good thing. And I don't believe that ignoring the flaws in our national celebrations will achieve anything good.
I spent the day quietly at home. We had one friend around to hang out, but only because we wanted to hang out, not because of the date. We had a lovely day.
Sadly, this did not preclude my interaction with other people on facebook. One person in particular was going on about how we all ought to just forget history because it's all over now and we should work on building a better future together... completely oblivious to the contradiction of using this as an argument for celebrating a historical event which marks the beginning of centuries of genocide and oppression.
Ugh.
I posted myself about how I'm glad Australia Day is almost over, because soon the jingoistic idiocy will quieten down. I immediately received a comment telling me to "show some respect for you [sic] country".
Ugghhhhhhhhh.
I think it's time I went to sleep. In the morning perhaps people will be less stupid; certainly they'll be less drunk.
For the non-Aussies, 26th January marks the anniversary of the First Fleet of white colonisers landing in Australia. Many Aboriginal Australians and others who support them refer to it as Invasion Day or, more recently, Survival Day. It's a public holiday, and generally people have barbeques and play cricket and drink beer and watch some fireworks- all perfectly fine things that Australians generally enjoy in summer. In recent years, this has been increasingly accompanied by the worst kind of jingoistic idiocy up to and including the Cronulla riots in 2005.
I am proud of my country, and I am very glad that I'm Australian, but I simply do not believe that celebrating Australia Day is a good thing. And I don't believe that ignoring the flaws in our national celebrations will achieve anything good.
I spent the day quietly at home. We had one friend around to hang out, but only because we wanted to hang out, not because of the date. We had a lovely day.
Sadly, this did not preclude my interaction with other people on facebook. One person in particular was going on about how we all ought to just forget history because it's all over now and we should work on building a better future together... completely oblivious to the contradiction of using this as an argument for celebrating a historical event which marks the beginning of centuries of genocide and oppression.
Ugh.
I posted myself about how I'm glad Australia Day is almost over, because soon the jingoistic idiocy will quieten down. I immediately received a comment telling me to "show some respect for you [sic] country".
Ugghhhhhhhhh.
I think it's time I went to sleep. In the morning perhaps people will be less stupid; certainly they'll be less drunk.