Growing up Jan 26 was often just another day. We had a public holiday on the Monday nearest to it in Queensland, and usually it marked the start of the school year. Growing up in my early years, I was on a mission station in the north west of the Territor- I knew I was very definitely on aboriginal land, with aboriginal people, Yolngu. They shaped, formed and taught me - a lot!! In preschool, I was a minority white person. Did I know it, not really - we just all got on and played together as kids. My best mate was Johnny from across the road. This was the corner where we lived. |
But it is a hard story, an uncomfortable story. It is one we are loathe to hear or pay attention to. Realities that are dismissed and easily justified. Let me invite you to listen and engage. To give attention to and time to listening and understanding. For many there is no advantage in being aboriginal in this country. No advantage. Access to land, language, to culture, and country, to community is denied to many. Our outside structures and systems continue to fragment and pull apart. Suicide rates, deaths in custody, foster care arrangements, imprisonment rates, health care issues and access, educational struggles, life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality rates - all tell a big story. Yes these are big concerns - very big, yet Jan 26 plays into this reality. It is a date that marked the beginning . . . why would you want to celebrate when all your heart wants to do cry for this story . . . .
I also hear those who are new to this country. The celebration is real for many of them - a place to belong, a place where they have a new home, a new start, a different life, hope often is part of the story they bring. Who we are together is worth celebrating - very much so.
For me - at what cost do we celebrate on this day. Many - both First and Second Nations peoples in this land want to celebrate who we are together, the enrichment of cultural diversity, shared story of new beginnings and appreciation, of hope rising in the face of destructive systems and prejudice. We want to forge a new identity as a nation that doesn't dismiss the past, but holds it respectfully and honourably. That owns what has been for what it is, and chooses to go a different path in relationship with each other.
Jan 26 is and has always been just a date. . . . but it carries a story. So I want to hold that carefully and sacredly. It is after all OUR story - first and second nations peoples stories.