This may not come as a surprise or hypocrisy to some people who know me that I’m wearing “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” T-shirt, written in Australian flag colour, are rest assured this doesn’t translate to or in support of “Australia Day”. It is an issue also worth mentioning that in my own consciousness assessment instead of calling Australia Day an “Invasion Day”, should be re-considered or compromised by reconciliation as “Settlement Day” which wouldn’t convey resentment and isolation against the custodians of the land.
I think it is a disgrace that our national holiday occurs on a day that commemorates European settlement in Australia. I am deeply proud to be an Australian, and I think it is a very important thing to have one day in our year that we can sit back and be thankful to custodians of the land for the wonderful country that we live in. But it is a shame that our only real chance to do that is on the day that white people came to settle in Australia.
Reconciliation with the Aborigines, indigenous people, of Australia, both on a practical as well as a symbolic level is one of the major and most important issues facing our country over the next couple of decades. But a mindset that says that we should celebrate the birth of our nation on the date of the arrival of the first fleet, whether we like it or not, that’s Australia Day, is a mindset that alienates and increases the psychological and ideological gap between indigenous Australians and the rest of this nation. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/indigenous-australia/indigenous-recognition-must-remove-racism-from-constitution/
It’s time for this nation to grow up, there is a huge insularity, to recognise that not everything great that happened in Australia was brought about by European settlement, and to find a national day that can unite, rather than divide this beautiful and great nation of ours.
My other principal suggestion would be the most appropriate and practical thing to call it “Reconciliation Day” which coincides with the recent apology for the incarceration and discrimination of the indigenous people.
Dozens of member nations at the United Nations human rights review meeting recommended Australia to improve treatment of the indigenous people, to stop chasing them like cat and mouse and confining them in detention centres, in their own land, for resorting to alcohol feeling hopelessness, helplessness and mistreatment and instead to improve social inequalities and enact a comprehensive national human rights act. The review which carries out its reviews every four years on all member nations also urged Australia to abolish mandatory immigration detention of asylum seekers and urged to make augmented efforts to overcome indigenous disadvantage and lack of national human rights act specifically to recognise inequality mentioning a comprehensive human rights could contribute to the alleviation of poverty, economic disparity, disadvantage, promote a stronger, healthier, more inclusive, tolerant and accepting democratic society.
There is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to equal opportunity than an education that unravels our God given potential.
The word reconciliation alone is futile unless the government allow the indigenous people to rise out of their chronic disadvantage and state of despair to a state of social, educational, cultural, economic and spiritual wellbeing, while retaining their cultural distinctness.
Although it helps to have an accessible facility, Government programmes alone won’t help our children get to their promised expectations. First and foremost, we need a spiritual transformation, a new mindset, a new set of attitudes seeing each other as one group of humanity rather than filtering the ranks, races and powerlessness. No one has written our destiny for us. Each of us is already born with it regardless of its potential to achieve our goals in life. It’s in our own hands to “use it or lose it”.
Change of Australian Government and its Flag
The true meaning of reconciliation must be grounded to bring the two heritages (Settlers and Indigenous) together to create a principled and inclusive government we all cherish- Australian Republic.
The Republic is a natural and inevitable development, but it should not preserve divisions or create new ones. An Australian Republic should unite our nation around a common understanding of our identity.
The Australian Constitution should also be changed. The British settler’s flag as a part of our flag is totally inappropriate. Canada is still a Commonwealth Country but has had their Identity Flag for a very long time. Australia like Canada has all the wealth, technology and abundant resources to stand on its feet and should amicably break free from the Royal (old) system and sustain its new identity.
I don’t have hatred against the wild & rough treatments that have happened over centuries ago out of ignorance and unfortunate & self-gratifying believes. This is now. We as a people must change and in doing so change our country for the better. There is nothing to worry about by changing the system and flag of your ancestry. You will be proud doing so and discover your true identity as an Australian-Republic of Australia. How long do you have to keep paying your money for the Royals thousand miles away? C’mon Aussie C’mon, this is new generation, it’s our time! Time for Change! It is way beyond the time for Australia to have our own identity and change of flag; it should have been changed during the centenary of the Federation in 2001.
I believe that a stable majority of Australians would support the idea that our country should not renounce her British heritage but affirm it, not only as a historical fact but as the basis for the continued development of our nation. The republican half of the electorate probably comprises a large number of people who oppose a repudiation of Australia’s British heritage, but see themselves as republicans because an Australian head of state is of great importance to them.
It is not a long-term solution that the monarchists narrowly defeated the republicans in referenda in 1999 and yet it appears that the monarchists have no strategy other than to repel the beasts the next time they assault the castle.
I was shocked to read the 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Citizenship, on their own land, was passed by 92 per cent of the Australian electorate. The Monarch (Our) Constitution is one of the hardest in the world to change, because you need a majority of voters in a majority of the states, at least 80 to 90% of the country to support the Referendum.
To get this support you need to convince those people who usually vote for the National Party; rural, conservative and regional Australia of the need for change. It will take a great deal of advocacy to build the groundswell of support across the political spectrum for the Referendum to pass.
If you want Reconciliation and an Australian Republic on common ground for progressive change then conservative and regional Australia must first be convinced.
I say to you Australia, in the spirit of hope and progress, an Australian head of state for an Australian Republic that gives equal weight to Australia’s past, present and future is within our potential: a Republic that respects its British traditions through retention of the foundation stones of history; a Republic that honours and recognizes in law the rightful place of custodians of the land through a National Agreement on Aborigine's Rights and Responsibilities; a Republic that can proudly turn its face to the modern world and show we have become a beacon of Reconciliation in a world that genuinely needs us to be.
Like everyone else I am proud to call myself Australian and instigating the change that we need to create, a unique Australia, in order to call ourselves a self-reliant country. Here are some of my proposals calling change for different flag, Republic of Australia & New Australian Logo (Coat of Arms) that represent the countries distinctiveness; so, choose the best flag that represent our country. Feel free to comment or express your opinions.
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