Jordan McGuire
After reading Jack Davis’ play ‘No Sugar’ it has made me realise that Australia is nothing like it used to be in the 1930’s and throughout history, Indigenous Australians are no longer killed and mistreated like they were in those times, they are no longer grouped under the Flora and Fauna Act and considered ‘not human’, Aboriginal Woman are no longer systematically and repetitively abused and Indigenous Australians are now allowed to vote and have all the same rights as non-indigenous Australians. We have come a long way since those times.
But although it has improved, there are still many ways Indigenous Australians are marginalised and excluded with the date of Australia Day being one of the biggest contributors. Australia Day needs to be changed as the current date we call Australia Day represents invasion of the land of our first peoples, the killing of their people, and the mistreatment of Aboriginal women. the current date of Australia Day even goes against our Australian values of being Multicultural and inclusive by creating a day made almost impossible to be celebrated by many indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. There are just so many dates that better fit our National Holiday than January 26th, a day that doesn’t represent the horrible experiences of our first peoples and create a day all Australians can celebrate, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
INVASION DAY
For many Australians, Australia Day represents a celebration of Australia’s people and culture and a day to bring people together. but for many Indigenous Australians it represents a day of mourning, the day their country was invaded, the day they lost their land and many of their people, the start of all the pain and suffering that would ensue and the day their lives and culture would change forever.
these events are shown throughout the entirety of ‘No Sugar’. the anger of the main protagonist Jimmy Munday is shown when he exclaims “[Because] them bastards took our country”. trying to stand up against the ‘White’ Australians, Jimmy Munday is unsuccessful and ultimately ends up dying from a heart attack which symbolises the inevitable fate of standing up against the people of immense power and the pointlessness in attempting to do so.
The systematic mistreatment and rape of Indigenous Women is also often alluded to in ‘No Sugar’. Mr Neal, A white man and Superintendent is well known for sexually abusing and raping woman. “Mr Neal sends [girls] to his work” because “he wants [the girls] for himself” and is shown raising “the Cat-O’-Nine Tails” (which is the name of the whip) and whipping Mary, an Indigenous woman held “outstretched over a pile of flour bags.” for denying his request for her to work with him knowing what Mr Neal wants to do with her.
it is the lasting memories of our Aboriginal Australians that make Australia day so hard to celebrate. and honestly, how can you blame them?
EXCLUDING INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS
Indigenous Australians wish to celebrate Australia day in the same way non-Indigenous Australians do but the current date simply does not allow this to happen, thus excluding them from such events. is this what we want Australia day to represent? a celebration of Australia while excluding Australia’s first people?
Multicultural and inclusive, it is what we pride ourselves on, our incredibly diverse and inclusive nation contains upwards of 75% of people whose background is anything other than Australian/british many of which celebrate Australia Day and the beautiful country we live in. but there is one group who feel discouraged to do the same, our indigenous Australians are forced to sit out and watch on as everyone else happily celebrates while they mourn the losses of their people. why can’t they do both? Change the date of Australia day and allow our Indigenous Australians to happily participate in all Australia day celebrations?
throughout history Indigenous Australians were pushed away and excluded, in the play ‘No Sugar’ they were denied employment, they had their rations cut and soap and “meat [was no longer] included in [their] rations”, they were pushed out of their homes and forced to live in a native settlement.
disguised as a check for the skin disease scabies, the Millamura-Munday family were forced out of their home to live in the moore river native settlement. they soon found out that the move has “nothin’ to do with bloody scabies.” and that the real reason the were taken away was “so them [white people] vote for him” (referring to Mr Neal, the man who authorised the move of Indigenous Australians)
Indigenous Australians have always been excluded and treated unfairly throughout history and Australia Day being celebrated on January 26th only contributes to this.
A BETTER AUSTRALIA DAY
Australia Day is a day for all Australians to celebrate all this country has come to be. with January 26th, 1788 being the arrival of the first fleet of british ships in Port Jackson, New South Wales this is no longer a suitable date that allows all Australians to celebrate, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.
In ‘No Sugar’ we are shown the annual Australia Day celebration of the ‘White Australians’ while the Native Australians are left out. “today we are gathered here to celebrate the birth of this nation of Australia one hundred and forty-six years ago at Sydney Cove in the Eastern States.”. this is clearly not what we should be celebrating on our National Day. Australia Day should be a celebration of the present and future of this beautiful country, not a day that represents the atrocious actions of our past.
There are so many dates better fit for this celebration than January 26th:
January 28th
January 28th is a good contender as it allows the date to remain in January very close to the original date while separating the two. allowing January 26th to be a day of mourning while January 28th would be our annual celebration that all Australians can celebrate.
March 12th
having Australia Day fall on march 12th would broaden a day already celebrated by Australians in the ACT as on this date in 1913 canberra was named and Australia’s capital city was born.
May 27th
May 27th marks an important day in Australian history for Indigenous Australians as on this day in 1967 a referendum was held to include Indigenous Australians in the census. Almost 91% of Australians voted yes.
May 8
less of a serious suggestion, but May 8th is another day that would better fit the day with a light-hearted “Mate” (May-8).
Australia Day has the potential to be a much more inclusively celebrated day if it were to adopt another date.
WHAT IF IT DOESN’T CHANGE ANYTHING?
a common argument against changing Australia Day is that it “can’t change the past” or it “won’t change anything for the people affected” and yes, no amount of change can change the events of our past, but we can at least create a better Australia Day for the Indigenous Australians, one that can be celebrated and enjoyed by everyone. it will make a difference and it will allow for those unable to celebrate Australia Day to celebrate it on another day while still being able to use January 26th as a day of mourning.
CONCLUSION
Australia Day needs to be changed. it is a simple solution that can make a major difference to the thousands of Aboriginal Australians excluded from our Australia Day celebrations. Australia Day represents the invasion of the Indigenous Australians land, Indigenous Australians are being excluded from Australia Day celebrations and there are many dates that better suit the nature of Australia Day.
a truly multicultural and inclusive Australia can not exist with Australia Day being on the 26th of January.
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STATEMENT OF INTENT
Australia is known to be one of the most multicultural and inclusive countries in the world. However the current date of Australia directly contradicts that by excluding and completely disregarding the first owners of this land. i aim to convince Australian adults that if Australia is to be the multicultural and inclusive country we want it to be, the date must be changed. for my piece i have chosen to adopt the form of a persuasive blog where i use a structure of three main ideas and a rebuttal against common counter arguments broken into small paragraphs with images to make my text easy to read and comprehend. i have started my blog by arguing that Australia day represents the invasion of the Indigenous Australians country using pathos with emotive language to position the reader to be empathetic towards Indigenous Australians regarding the issues with the current date of Australia Day. i then, for my second argument, make use of logos to show how excluding the current date of Australia day is when it comes to Indigenous Australians using statistics and finally, i provide several dates for Australia day to be celebrated on that much better fit the nature and intentions behind the celebration. i have chosen to order my arguments in this way to first getting the reader to feel empathetic towards the people affected then appeal to the readers sense of logic and patriotism by providing examples in how this violates our common Australian values of being multicultural and inclusive and finally providing a solution to the issue with new potential dates for Australia day. For my arguments i have also relied heavily on examples and evidence from Jack Davis’ play ‘No Sugar’ first played in 1985 and set in the 1930’s in order to reflect a lot of the major issues with the mistreatment of Indigenous men and women and the way they would celebrate australia day. i have also embedded persuasive techniques throughout my piece such as emotive language and appeals to the readers sense justice/fairness in an effort to make the reader feel empathetic about the Indigenous Australians affected. i have also incorporated a rhetorical question to encourage the reader to think about the way they have viewed Indigenous Australians and how they feel about Australia Days current date and ultimately convince them to adopt my point of view. i have decided to not adopt a persona and instead speak on behalf of myself as an Australian young-adult and have chosen to use informal, colloquial language in order to convey a conversational tone and create a casual and relaxed effect.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://action.amnesty.org.au/act-now/change-the-date
https://www.amnesty.org.au/how-it-works/what-are-indigenous-rights/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-26/what-do-australians-think-about-australia-day-this-year/10753278
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-25/australia-day:-change-the-date-options/9359260
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/3-horrendous-anti-indigenous-laws
https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/australia-day-invasion-day
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ethnic-background-of-australians.html
YEAR 11 2E's CLASS BLOG 