OUR "QUICK QUIZ" ON WHAT OZ DAY REALLY MEANS (MODIFIED AFTER BLOCKING)
· WHO STARTED “AUSTRALIA DAY” &
WHEN ?
In 1908
Catholic cardinal Moran proposed a Catholic run “Australia Day” – to counter
the conservative Protestants’ new “Empire Day”. This Irish republican type national
day became Catholic policy in 1911 – after a vote at their first
Educational Conference in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. They made it as 24 May,
just for kids in Catholic Schools – as Empire Day was already “discredited” in
public schools, where THAT was run, said the Cardinal.
· HOW WAS IT THAT ANZACS THEN GOT
RID OF “EMPIRE DAY” (AND CRACKER NIGHT)
“Empire Day”
was brought to Australia (from Britain) by the militant Protestant - British
Empire League, teaching children to love England instead of Australia! Empire
Day wasn’t a public holiday in NSW, (except in 1915) and was mostly aimed at
schools. It finally became Commonwealth Day by the 1960’s -as Empire was by
then, no longer respected as a reason
for an Australian day for celebration. It was children who then just made it
just “Cracker Night” – but ironically, kids were later banned from lighting fireworks
for it!
Later in the
1960’s – after Commonwealth Day had come “cracker night” – 24 May was moved to
being instead, just a fake “Queen’s Birthday” and the national day idea finally
moved to the "foundation day" idea - of 26 January. Do we now face that travesty of 24
May (?) now becoming a fake King’s Birthday holiday long-weekend, or can it be the new
Australia Day – instead of an April 26, (with a holiday weekend)? The idea of
conservative Protestants originally running an Empire Day on 24 May -was actually
a tactic to counter nationalist republicanism, but ironically that was later taken over by
the Australian patriotism of the Anzac myth after WW1.
Anzac Day then, instead, became the defacto “national day” – which then swept away both allegiance to
the British empire (& monarchy ?) and more deliberately, to local calls for a Republic. Australian
blood spilt on foreign shores – such as during the disastrous Gallipoli
invasion of Turkey, (up a steep beach hill)- was pushed by Rupert Murdock’s
journalist Dad- as some kind of antipodean birth-of-a-nation.
We have
advocated for years in our Media Releases – that 25 April, marking the
Gallipoli beach invasion as Anzac Day, could be made the new Australia Day. It
would include a morning Veteran’s march – that already includes school marching
bands. One such band in recent years – played “We Are Australian”, which was quite
stirring, especially without the over- sung words (not being heard with it)!
Likewise, Waltzing Matilda, works as a patriotic song – if its C19th tale of a Depression-era
sheep-thief drowning himself, to avoid capture (and hanging for theft), being not heard.
“Invasion
Day” on 26 January, ironically CAN still, perhaps - be seen as a fitting date for an “Australia
Day” – as initiated by the Catholic Church in Sydney. After-all, 26 Jan is really about the landless-poor being dumped on
the other side of the earth from Ireland, where most of those “convicts” were
brutally pushed off their family farm/tenancies by the British invaders. The War of
Independence, in Brit-Empire American colonies, stopped those "convicts" being sent there -as white
slaves for squatter farmers. Therefore, could present Australia Day (26 January)- one day become Australia’s
Independence Day?
· SHOULD 26 JANUARY MARK RESTORATION OF
ABORIGINAL NATIONS SOVREIGHTY ?
Should the
First Fleet officers and army be blamed for the British empire “invasion”, but
their prisoners exempted – as they came not of their free will (as landless slaves
to be forced labour to build the infrastructure for the invasion’s colonisation). Certainly
Capt/Gov Phillip made no attempt to negotiate with the local “natives”, by using the usual trinkets and promises
of fake "Treaty". Instead, the British used
army tactics of kidnapping and torture- to coerce some young natives to become “informants”. Bennelong and the other young
captive – were later unfairly branded as collaborators, while kidnapper, Gov Phillip
was finally given grudging respect! Army rebels later set up Rum as an "official" currency
and overthrew the Empire’s Govt (after imprisoning its new Governer Bligh!
Was the Uluru
“Voice” proposal really about trying to finally entrench some kind of Aboriginal
representative body – into the Constitution? That could make it easier to
incorporate such a notion, in a Republican Constitution – that our lazy political
Parties will not want to be changing much from the present one. The real test
of how badly Britain treated Aboriginal people here – should be how they
treated American and New Zealand indigenous people, who had some equivalent
means (modern weapons, military tactics) to resist invasion of their lands.
That, at least - got then
got them some Treaties and Reservations – not just Native Title, that depends
too much on continuous land occupation and ongoing cultural connections. True
reconciliation seems the only way forward for ongoing recognition of First
Nations people here – but not just for notions of separate development. They
already show leadership on natural environment matters – why not acknowledge more on their discoveries on medical and technology, having being using natural penicillin and the flying
airwing design (boomerang) for tens and thousands of years (plus star navigation -that us many of our "modern" trunk roads)
Written by "Robert Bull" (c) Janurary2023 unemployedpeoplesembassy Australia
REFERENCE: Australian Popular Culture - edited by
peter Spearritt and David Walker
first
published 1979 - by George Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd- North Sydney
NOTE: Saturday Paper claimed it would look at this article - but email blocked. The Australian and SMH didn't acknowledge receipt of this.
"Australian is the only country in the world where Democracy is enforced with a Fine" for not voting. DONALD HORNE - author The Lucky Country
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