It commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet from Great Britain into Sydney Harbour in 1788 to establish a convict settlement.
Not everyone is happy about this being a day to celebrate, especially the indigenous population. They see it as invasion day.
Disquiet about the date has been building for some time now. Each year the protests get more vocal and visible.
Sadly for a lot of people it is an opportunity for them to demonstrate their bogan racist, nationalistic and jingoistic attitude. Never a good look.....for any country.
The events that take place on this holiday are largely organized by the local councils.
They also are in charge of the many citizenship ceremonies that take place around the country. Some have decided not to celebrate the date at all while others have decided to keep the events but move the citizenship ceremonies away from the 26th.
This has incurred the ire of our current turd of a Prime Minister who is threatening to remove citizenship ceremony rights from errant councils.
Many are standing firm however.
Our local council had moved the January ceremony away from the 26th a long time ago (there are three or four more during the year) without a murmur. The co driver took part in one three years ago. No one turned a hair that it was not on ‘the day’.
They are one of those now standing firm.
Hopefully this and many other much more important and worrying matters will be solved when the current vacuous government is voted out and into oblivion some time before May.
Update 27th January: Australia Wide Protests
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