Saudi FM discusses Syria's security and stability with Ahmed Al-Sharaa    Governor of NDF highlights development strategies at King Abdulaziz University panel    Trump shrugs off Elon Musk's criticism of AI announcement    Bank of Japan raises rates to highest in 17 years    Israel seeks to remain in Lebanon past Sunday withdrawal deadline    Firefighters make progress on Hughes fire as more fires erupt in Southern California    Trump says he will appeal federal judge's decision to temporarily block birthright order    China sentences man to death over attack on Japanese school bus    Injured Djokovic booed off after quitting semi-final    Alkhorayef meets global executives at WEF to boost Saudi industrial growth    Saudi crown prince and US secretary of state discuss over phone ways to enhance cooperation    NMC: Most Saudi regions to witness rain of varying intensity until Monday    Why do athletes earn such high incomes?    1.4 billion people traveled internationally in 2024 as tourism returns to pre-pandemic highs    Julian Quinones' brace secures Al Qadsiah's 2-0 win over Al Orobah    Al Ittihad defeats Al Shabab 2-1 to stay in title race with Al Hilal    Tina Turner's lost Private Dancer song rediscovered    Comeback queens, blockbusters and Succession stars: The Oscar nominations previewed    Dangerous drug-resistant bacteria are spreading in Ukraine    France issues health warning as tons 'aphrodisiac honey' seized    Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan 'out of danger' after attack at home in Mumbai    Order vs. Morality: Lessons from New York's 1977 Blackout    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Australia marks national day that stokes patriotism and anger
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 26 - 01 - 2024

"Australia Day is Dead!" Indigenous activist Gwenda Stanley chants into the loudspeaker, as a crowd of thousands breaks into applause.
It's Australia's national day, but the crowd in central Sydney seethes in anger and cheers in solidarity with Indigenous Australians, many of whom view January 26 as nothing but the anniversary of their colonial dispossession, 236 years ago this Friday.
"Australia is stolen land and we need to be united and firm in our resistance and sustain that resistance until justice is achieved under our terms," protest organizer Lynda-June Coe, a Wiradjuri woman, told CNN.
The Sydney crowd is diverse, and it's replicated in Australian cities nationwide.
Each year an increasing number of non-Indigenous Australians find it impossible to celebrate Australia Day, in the knowledge that many of their Indigenous fellow citizens treat it as a day of mourning.
"I think it's important to show up for the First Nations people in this country," says Grace, from the crowd on a hot, humid morning in Belmore Park near Sydney's Central Station.
"I think that there are plenty of other times that you can party if you want to celebrate the lots of good things about this country," she says.
Elise wears the black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag on her earrings, as her friends hold a sign saying said: "Put down ya beer, pick up a banner. This is not a day to celebrate."
Nearby, Kevin Shaw-Taylor agrees January 26 is "absolutely not" an appropriate day for national celebrations.
On the other side of the city, the Australia Day party was in full swing. The public holiday gives Australians a three-day weekend in the height of summer just a month after Christmas. Millions took full advantage.
Nowhere are the celebrations more colorful than Sydney Harbor. The city's iconic yellow and green ferries were decked out in Australia Day regalia to take part in the annual race across the very same water that British Royal Navy officer Arthur Phillip crossed in 1788, planting the British flag at Sydney Cove to proclaim the new colony on January 26.
Frank Bongiorno, a history professor at the Australian National University (ANU), says its "pretty creative" to connect that colonial date to the modern state of Australia – which was founded on January 1, 1901.
That's why many of Australia's Indigenous peoples, and an increasing number of the non-Indigenous or "settler" population, have long dubbed the national holiday "Invasion Day" or "Survival Day" – acknowledging British settlement as first and foremost an act of Indigenous dispossession.
This year, the often toxic argument over the colonial past and continued disadvantage for Indigenous people has taken on a new dimension – it's the first Australia Day since voters rejected a proposal to acknowledge the nation's first people in its constitution.
Last October, Australians were asked in a referendum whether the country's constitution should be amended to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders through the creation of an Indigenous advisory body – the Voice to Parliament – to advise on matters directly impacting Indigenous people.
Supporters said the Voice to Parliament would give First Nations people a say in efforts to remedy issues such as the eight-to-nine year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians or disproportionately high Indigenous incarceration rates.
But more than 60% of voters said no.
A study by the ANU found that most voted against the proposal because they didn't want division and were wary of giving some Australians rights not held by others – arguments promoted by the referendum's most vocal critics.
Professor Chelsea Watego, executive director of Queensland University's (UQ) Curumba Institute for Indigenous research, says the result reflected the Australian public's attitude toward Indigenous people, who make up just under 3% of the population.
"It was a test for the Australian people to finally come clean and maybe have an honest conversation about racism in this country. But they can't and they won't. They will never let go of it because it enables them to occupy stolen land and not feel guilty about it," says Watego, a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman.
Instead of guilt on Australia Day, a vast number of Australians "associate it with summer fun," says Bongiorno, from the ANU. "Its particular cultural and political implications for many people are rather muted."
But that is changing, according to both professors, who see an increasing number of non-Indigenous Australians choosing to use the day to mourn Indigenous loss and advocate for better outcomes.
Bongiorno says one ramification of a bitterly fought debate over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which descended into a swirl of misinformation and ugly rhetoric, is a sense that political capital can be won by stoking the culture war.
"The main impact has been on the domestic politics," he said.
"Clearly the (center-right) Coalition parties (led by) Peter Dutton believes they got an advantage from their opposition to the Voice and now they are attempting to squeeze further advantage out of controversies around Australia Day."
Dutton, who serves as federal opposition leader, this month called on Australians to boycott the country's largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, over its decision not to sell cheap Australia Day paraphernalia ahead of the holiday. Dutton labeled the firm's decision an "outrage" and "against the national interest."
A Woolworths store in Queensland was vandalized in the wake of Dutton's comments – spray-painted with curses and the nationalistic sporting catchphrase: "Aussie Oi Oi Oi."
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci took out full-page advertisements in national newspapers explaining the decision was a commercial one and appealing for the company's staff to be kept safe.
One prominent commercial television breakfast host goaded Banducci for serving up "wokeness on aisle 3."
"They are proud, hardworking Australians," Banducci said of the Woolworths workforce. "For them to be seen as anti-Australian or woke is fundamentally unfair. Fair to address it to me but not to them."
As emotions run high, vandalism has gone both ways. A century-old statue of Captain Cook was found face down in the grass in Melbourne on Thursday, his severed feet still attached to the plinth that celebrates his charting of Australia's east coast and his proclamation of the land as British in 1770, almost two decades before the colony was established. Red paint was also splashed over a monument to Queen Victoria.
With all the toxic rhetoric, the hurt feelings and damaged pride – there has been little room in the mainstream post-referendum debate for new initiatives to remedy the very modern, very tangible problem of Indigenous disadvantage.
Instead, the notion of the Blak Sovereign Movement has gained traction among Indigenous people who do not want to have to ask the settler population for their rights, instead vowing to empower themselves to control their own affairs.
Many proponents of Blak Sovereignty voted no in the referendum for that reason.
"I'm always excited about the way in which Blakfullas clap back, often under the most oppressive circumstances," said UQ's Watego, using a term by which many Indigenous Australians self identify.
"The 26th of January is when we come together each year, to remember not just what we've lost, but to make a powerful statement to settlers that we're not going anywhere, we're not a dying race and we're not going to be absorbed into the general population." — CNN


Clic here to read the story from its source.