Australia Day: 26 January 2022

Australia Day is celebrated annually on 26 January. We celebrate and acknowledge Australia’s people, history, lifestyle, and democracy – from our First Nations (Torres Strait Islander people) and their 65,000 year heritage to the inclusion of new migrants. For example, each Australia Day over 16,000 new Australians become citizens.

Australia Day was first proclaimed an annual public holiday for 26 January in 1838 to mark the Jubilee of the British occupation of New South Wales (the state, with Sydney as the capital), and it became a national holiday across the whole country in 1871. In 1938, in Sydney, the First Nations spokespersons met on Australia Day for a Day of Mourning as a means of protest and to seek full citizen rights. In a national referendum in 1967, 91% of the population voted for First Nations peoples to receive full citizen rights.

In 1984, Australians ceased to be British subjects. The song “Advance Australia Fair” replaced “God Save the Queen” as the national anthem. Australia continues to be a Commonwealth country – its full title is the Commonwealth of Australia. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a voluntary association of 54 countries. The Head of the Commonwealth is not a hereditary position, and Commonwealth leaders will choose the future Head of the Commonwealth.

Two flags are officially recognized as the flag of Australia: 1) the blue flag with the British Union Jack and the six stars of the Southern Cross constellation used since 1903, and 2) the red, black, and yellow First Nations flag used since 1995.

Debate continues today whether to abolish the day, change the date, or to have an alternative date of commemoration and recognition for First Nations peoples.

Living overseas, it is a day to remember and celebrate all the things we love about Australia.

Thanks Julie for sending me the Australia Survival Kit so that I could celebrate the day.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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