July 15, 2003
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A
Reader (One Of Many) Objects To Palestinian Expulsion;
Peter Brimelow Comments
An Australian Reader on “Immigration Day” Down Under
An Anonymous Australian writes:
Re: Happy Immigration Day
Here in
Australia, our old national day "Australia Day" 26th
January has been transformed into what is virtually
immigration day with all kinds of celebrations of
"diversity" and "multiculturalism".
26th Jan commemorates the day in
1788 when the
First Fleet arrived in "Sydney Harbour" (actually
Port Jackson) and raised the Union Jack at the founding
of the colony of New South Wales, the first and largest
of the British colonies in Australasia (six of which,
minus NZ and Fiji, federated in into the Commonwealth of
Australia in 1901). For most of it's history Australia
day was a commemoration of the British colonization with
re-enactments of
Captain Arthur Phillip RN hopping out of a rowboat,
raising the Jack and raising a toast of rum to the King.
Because or despite of this,
Australia Day was something of a non-event, just another
day off. Anzac Day, commemorating the
landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at
Gallipoli, Turkey in WW1 was a
much more emotional and participative holiday.
People cared about Anzac Day, Australia Day was nothing.
The authorities in typical old Australian pragmatism
would regularly reschedule the Australia Day public
holiday to ensure everyone got a long weekend off.
Falling as it does mid-summer, it was a great day to go
the beach. No one really paid the formalities much
regard.
Then in the 1970s the Aboriginal
movement started 'protesting' the day and renamed it
"Invasion Day" and would hold "Survival Festivals". During the 1988 200th
Australia Day commemorations this was a big deal but the
Aboriginal component was actually quite welcomed by most
of the population. Since then Australia Day has been
made a bigger and bigger deal, public money has gone
into it on a big scale. It is no longer rescheduled to
allow for long weekends away. The
immigrant and
multicultural component has been played up and
Captain Arthur Phillip has been played down. He hardly
gets a mention these days.
As a New South Welshman I have a
pet peeve with Australia Day, all the other states have
their Foundation Day public holidays except NSW. Beyond
that as multiculturalism becomes more and more the
central theme of Australia Day, and as the day evolves
from a day off in summer into a high falutin'
celebration of government sponsored diversity... I think
the aboriginal label "Invasion Day" has a
new meaning for those of us who have had something
to do with Captain Arthur!
