I am one Australian who is going to encourage Australian Dads to hold a family celebration in observance of Australia Day.
We have good reason to do so. Australia makes the top ten countries listed in the US News Accolades and comes second in the UN Quality of Life Index. Having said all that, I would argue, having visited 29 of the nations of the world, that Australia is one of the best countries in the world in which to live. I am not alone.
So, have a great time with your family this Australia Day and be thankful to the ‘Father of Lights’ that you live in one of the most blessed countries on earth.
Sadly, the political and cultural elites, who have nothing better to do, seem hell bent on trying to change or abolish Australia Day. This would be a national tragedy of epic proportions.
Many people use the argument that Indigenous people don’t want the day celebrated. My musical family played music in over 100 indigenous communities from the Kimberley’s to Kakadu, from the western deserts to Queensland and up and down the east coast and almost all of my indigenous friends across Australia want to celebrate the day in spite of the tragedy and pain they have suffered as a people.
Yes, there is shocking disadvantage suffered by Aboriginal Australians, but the vast majority of our aboriginal friends agree that it is more important to unite together to address these inequalities in practical ways than engage in “political correct tokenism”. Jacinta Price, Aboriginal Councillor from Alice Springs, has spoken out wisely on this issue. Jacinta Price teamed up with Mark Latham and has become the spokesperson featured in the video campaign against this politically correct palaver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RmvMbbvI28&t=41s
Jacinta Price speaks out to Save Australia Day
Mark Latham’s article ‘Leave Australia Day alone!’ in the Daily Telegraph gets right to the point:
“Each year millions of Australians rally around Australia Day on 26 January as a chance to feel good about our country and its remarkable achievements. He Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has announced that one of his top priorities for 2018 is to “Change the date.”
The ABC had a go at this recently when Radio Triple J moved its Hottest 100 Hits to Saturday January 27.
That happens to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day — proof that given a choice between common sense and ham-fisted virtue signalling, the national broadcaster always goes for the latter.
In trying not to cause offence to Indigenous Australians, it has decided to offend Jewish Australians instead…
In running a Save Australia Day campaign for Mark Latham’s Outsiders, I have challenged the inner-city elites to specify what they are proposing to change the date to.
In truth, the Left’s grievance industry is now so comprehensive, so all-encompassing, they are triggered by every significant date on the calendar, from 26 January to Christmas Day.
They want every day of our lives to be a safe space-protected snowflake’s sanctuary, where no one takes offence and no one finds any meaning or significance in anything that’s said.
Which means they will never agree on an alternative to 26 January.
The Fairfax writer Ben Pobjie has suggested March 15, the anniversary of the first Australia-England cricket Test in 1877.
But this is also the Ides of March, a freak out for Lefties of South European descent.
In any case, it was an all-male cricket match, which will have the feminazis sending down bouncers and beam-balls at its in-built patriarchal misogyny.
January 26 is the only logical date for marking Australia Day. It has been celebrated every year since the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, initially as Foundation Day and then a public holiday under Governor Macquarie in 1818 (its 30th anniversary).
It came of age in modern Australia when it was the focus for our Bicentennial celebrations in 1988.
Like Anzac Day, it has gathered strength and numbers over the past decade.
In a world of change and uncertainty, people look forward to these special national days, when we can feel unambiguously proud to be Australian.
In a media landscape of doom and gloom, people want to enjoy Australia Day on 26 January, free from the burden of having to apologise to UN committees and Tim Soutphommasane for who we are.
This doesn’t mean it’s a day that ignores the past.
I know in my family, we make a special point of discussing Indigenous history on Australia Day, of putting January 26 in its proper perspective.
Some terrible things happened to Aboriginal Australians in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
But as hard as the Left try, no one can rewrite history. We can only learn from it. We need to find new and smarter ways of ensuring each Indigenous Australian benefits from the unique advantages of the Western civilisation that arrived here in 1788 — the economic development, advanced health services, education, housing, democracy and the rule of law.
These technologies and values have made Australia the best nation on Earth. If that’s not worth celebrating as a national day, what is?
It’s a case of the famous line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian: “What have the Romans ever done for us?”
What has Western civilisation ever done for Australia?
The answer is to look around you.
It hasn’t been perfect, our history hasn’t been flawless, but who would want to live anywhere else?”
Lovework
So, use Australia Day to celebrate and have some time with your family.
Happy Australia Day!
Yours for a united Australia Day
Warwick Marsh
PS: In the 90s I worked extensively with the Aboriginal Reconciliation Movement as the coordinator of the Praise Corroboree at Parliament House and I have found the Aboriginal people to be amazing in their forgiveness and grace towards our more recent arrivals in this nation. What they have wanted more than anything else is genuine friendship and acknowledgement as First Nation’s People.
The blatant hypocrisy of the political and cultural elites who demand a change or abolishment of Australian Day for the ‘sake of the Aboriginal people’ while refusing to listen to the Aboriginal peoples’ plea to keep marriage between a man and woman in the Uluru Bark Petition is insidiously deceptive. They are using the Aboriginal people as a battering ram to achieve their own agenda, at which point they will simply discard them, as they have done before.
The real agenda of the political and cultural elites is the destruction of our Christian heritage and our western democracy which is based on our Judeo Christian value system. That’s why the work of the Canberra Declaration is so important. Sign up if you dare!
Totally agree we must celebrate what unites us not what divides us. We can’t change the past we must remember the good and the bad. Much respect for jancinta price for speaking up and other aboriginal people who are also coming forward saying the same thing
Great comment Mark. I agree Jacinta is one very brave girl.