Australia Day, Invasion Day or Survival Day?

This coming Saturday is Australia Day. Last year on Australia Day, some Aboriginal leaders and their supporters marked the country’s national day by occupying lawns outside Parliament House in Canberra and chanting: ‘We won't stop, we won't go away. We won't celebrate Invasion Day!’

While most Australians see Australia Day as a day of celebration and an excuse for boozing and barbequing, many Aboriginal people view it as a day of mourning and refer to it as Invasion Day or Survival Day.

To them, the day commemorating when the British first settled in Australia marks the loss of their sovereign rights to the land and the practices of their culture. Up until 1988, celebrations of Australia Day involved re-enactments of Captain Arthur Phillip’s landing, including the chasing away of a group of Aboriginal people. So it was hardly surprising that many Aboriginal people refused to participate!

Yet since 1988, Australia has arguably taken a more enlightened approach to celebrating Australia Day with the National Australia Day Council viewing it as a: ‘day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the generations to come.’

Of course Aboriginal people are free to refer to Australia Day anyway they choose but calling it Survival Day instead of Invasion Day is more positive and less divisive.

Survival Day still evokes a history of pain and loss, yet rather than portraying Aboriginal people as victims of British invasion, it paints them as survivors. The name Survival Day expresses the fact that Aboriginal culture is still very much alive.

The first Survival Day concert was held in Sydney in 1992. Since then, Survival Day concerts have become one of the biggest Aboriginal cultural events staged throughout Australia.

One of the annual Australia Day concerts is the Saltwater Freshwater festival in NSW. The festival is nomadic and is held in different Mid North Coast towns each year, this year in Taree.

The Saltwater Freshwater Festival Vision is: ‘To celebrate and share our Aboriginal living culture…with the wider community and commemorate Australia Day as a positive, inclusive, family day for all communities to enjoy.’

Although there are individuals and groups who wish to focus on past grievances and use Australia Day to divide the nation, many others would like to see black and white people coming together. As the Saltwater Freshwater Ambassador says: ‘The tide has turned and I see the salt and fresh water as black and white people coming together as one to celebrate this amazing country as first nations people or first fleet people.’

When the news media report Aboriginal protests on Australia Day it is important to remember that they are just one of the many groups of Aboriginal people in Australia.

Sara Hudson is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies.