January 26th each year is Australia Day. It commemorates the landing in 1788 of the First Fleet of convicts sent from England to settle what was to be New South Wales and of course later Australia. Governor Arthur Phillip was in charge off this first white settlement. By the way no matter what I say below Governor Phillip made a very sincere effort to understand and live peacefully with the indigenous inhabitants.
For the indigenous Aboriginal peoples who had inhabited the Great South Land for thousands of years it was to prove a disastrous landing. It soon began the unravelling of their ancient culture and they were over the years pushed off their lands without recourse to any form of treaty. The current indigenous population of Australia (2% of there population) is divided about whether the celebration of Australia day is appropriate or whether it was an invasion of their tribal territories. Many non indigenous Australians sympathise with their indigenous brothers and sisters over this matter including yours truly GD.
Raging in Australia at this very time is a debate about whether to change the date of Australia Day and have it another time when it can be a day embraced by all Australians who are a now very multicultural population. The indigenous Australians were the first migration thousands of years ago as they crossed from SE Asia over what was then a land bridge to get to the mainland. Since then there have been wave after wave of migrations. Australia is of course now an island continent.
Personally I would change the date. However if I was back as a school Principal in a school that contained non indigenous and indigenous students I would have to remain impartial and ensure that the teachers presented a balanced view of the arguments. We as a school community could not of course take a fixed position one way or the other. On the 26th January it is currently a holiday and Australia Day ceremonies are usually held by local government authorities. It also occurs at a time when the schools across Australia are still on the long summer vacation. Phew, dodged a bullet with not having to celebrate Australia Day at school as it now stands. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had an Australia Day on a date during the school year when we could truly celebrate together what it means to be part of our wonderful country, a date other than the 26th January.
I must tell this anecdote about the time as a Superintendent of Schools I was inspecting a non government Christian school to establish whether it was efficient. The Principal and I were chatting about the creation story and somehow Aboriginal persons' views of Creation came into the conversation. I sincerely remarked to the Principal that at some stage it had occurred to me that we could bring together the Bible and the beliefs of the Aborigines with a slight adjustment to to John Ch1 V1 "In the beginning was the Dreaming and the Dreaming was with God, and the Dreaming was God." Our Aborigines have what they call the Dreamtime and it is very spiritual. The Principal of the school quickly but kindly corrected me by indicating that I was on the wrong track as the Aborigines worship the created and not the Creator. I dropped the subject. I was in no sense trying to be smart. Perhaps I had been insensitive but that was not my intention. Such rigid views worry me but our federal government funds non government Christian Schools which are entitled to hold the positions I described.
Just read an historical account of how the Indigenous Indians of North America were pushed off their lands as the USA came into being. I guess many have issues with the day known as Thanksgiving.
Do you have any comments about such matters?
May the Force be with you!
GD
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