Should Australia Commemorate White Settlement?

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Australia Day is a national holiday at the height of the Australian summer that feels, to many, like a celebration of colonization.

Every Jan. 26, Australians gather for barbecues and beach parties — or for citizenship ceremonies and fireworks — to mark the anniversary of the day in 1788 when the island was claimed by the First Fleet of British ships.

And since at least 1938, Aboriginal groups have publicly protested it.

Each year, their call for Australia Day to be moved to another date, or for the day to be recast as one of mourning, grows louder. But with a few exceptions at the local level, Australia’s political class has refused to budge.

The result: a visible standoff, played out regularly in the local news media, between Australia’s conservative white officials and the leaders of various Aboriginal groups.

But what about the rest of Australia?

As part of our Australia Diary series, which brings the unfiltered voices and stories of everyday Australians into The New York Times, we went to Parramatta in western Sydney to see what people in one of Australia’s most ethnically diverse areas — and one of the first to be settled by the British — think about Australia Day and Australia’s relationship to its past.

These are a few of the people we met, and a few of the insightful comments we collected.

‘I’ve Started to Question It’

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I got my citizenship on Australia Day in 2006. For me, it marked an era of inclusion. I’d never felt a sense of belonging to a country I wasn’t born in.

But as I’ve thought about it more, I’ve started to question it. For the Aboriginal community, it hurts. I can sympathize with them. Maybe it shouldn’t just be a day of celebration — a day of Aussie pride.

Maybe it should be a day to reflect. There should be a national dialogue, where everyone can express their views instead of it just being about flag-waving and pride.

Acuoth Achol

A refugee resettlement coordinator, originally from South Sudan

‘It’s Just a Date’

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My family are all Wiradjuri elders, in Bathurst. They’re elders in one of the biggest Aboriginal nations in Australia. And they don’t carry on about it. It was inevitable. It would have happened anyway.

What matters to them is pretty much just looking after the Aboriginal people. Better health care, keeping the culture alive and stuff like that. I do that for my paintings. I’ve got one in the back that’s in progress.

It’s just a date pretty much. There’s always other things to be worried about.

Taylor Vincent

A martial arts instructor, of the Wiradjuri clan

‘It’s About Australia’

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We usually celebrate. This year we’re working.

There’s no need to change the date. It’s not about the date. It’s about Australia. All the different people who work hard to make the place better.

Your five fingers aren’t all the same, but they are connected to the same hand.

Farrukh Panjwani

A street vendor who moved to Australia seven years ago from Pakistan

Majority Rule?

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I’m here only three days ago, I’m new here. I’m Egyptian.

Today only I got the idea that Friday is Australia Day.

If the majority of people accept the day, no problem, because you cannot find 100 percent absolute agreement. You have to follow the majority. If majority agree, minority should follow them, except if it is discriminatory. I think at that point we have to change our mind.

Hossam Farouk

A visitor seeking work, and a chance to move from Qatar to Australia

‘I Don’t Celebrate It’

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It’s not good, the way they handled it back in the day. I don’t celebrate it, to be honest. It should be for Aboriginal people to decide.

I don’t think Australia has really dealt with its past.

Sam Kassem

A personal trainer, whose parents left Lebanon for Australia in the 1970s

Fighting Eurocentrism

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I don’t agree with Australia Day being the day that it is, though I think the opposition is pretty small.

Elyas Gurbuz

A trading analyst, whose father emigrated from Turkey

Both of us are quite opposed to this whole Eurocentric culture, coming from multicultural backgrounds ourselves.

It’s celebrating when the Aboriginal people had their land taken away. It’s now like, ‘Hey, have a barbecue and a piss-up.’

Australia is still a very top-down, white-male place.

Grace Joo

A social worker, who moved to Australia from South Korea as a child

Celebrating Diversity

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I think we should move the day, and celebrate the diversity of Australia. They are asking for this one thing, and we should listen.

Ciana Coker

A student studying social work, who moved from Sierra Leone

We need to change the date. But we also need to move on.

Aquilah Bartuah

A federal government worker, originally from Liberia

Got a story or a photo, video or illustration that reflects Australia’s unique and evolving character? Share it with us. And bookmark the Australia Diary collection where you can see our past and future installments.