- The Guardian
- Issue #2177
MOURNING
We had a day of mourning. Then, not long after, we had a day of ‘celebration.’
There was a day of mourning for the victims of the Bondi shooting. Flags were at half-mast around the country. Solemn speeches were made in parliament. The victims of the abhorrent shootings were honoured.
The day of mourning came close to another, different day of mourning – 26 January, officially called ‘Australia day’, but also known as ‘Invasion Day’ or ‘Survival Day.’ Every person reading this editorial is probably familiar with the arguments around the day. There is genuine feeling over the day – from Indigenous people who have something to mourn – not just something that happened 238 years ago, but something that is still happening, as shown in rates of imprisonment and arrest, mortality rates, and numbers of children removed from parents. Indigenous Australians first marked the day as a day of mourning 88 years ago, long before the date was officially made Australia Day in 1994.
There are many other days that could be given a national day of mourning and a resolve to try harder to address the causes of the deaths being mourned. Women are killed in family violence in numbers that should – but don’t – put the issue at the top of the government’s agenda. Children are being killed by an army Australia supports through contracts with its military industry, and through Australia’s part in the supply chains that bring bombers and drones to that country’s military.
Where’s their day of mourning?
The Bondi victims deserved to be mourned, and it’s the right thing to do to take action to stop such an attack happening again. That makes it all the worse that the atrocity is being used opportunistically to further shut down and criminalise protest against genocide. The mourning is valid.
Let’s also mourn the many other deaths Australia is complicit in through its cooperation with the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
CELEBRATION
Before Australia Day became as contested as it is now, it was a fairly feeble holiday, somewhere between the Queen/King’s birthday holiday and Victoria’s Moomba celebration. Governments tried to whip up enthusiasm for it with a series of embarrassing advertising campaigns.
When it comes to Invasion Day, genuine feelings came from Indigenous people, followed by a response whipped up by governments. They used racial hatred and guilt to divert Australia’s attention from the neoliberal devastation those governments were wreaking on the working class of the country. There’s also the ‘anti-anti racism’ crowd, always protesting that they just love their country and pretending that the two antis don’t cancel each other out.
Some people say they just want to celebrate the country they love. What could be more innocent than that?
Communist Party of Australia members were out in force for Invasion Day events this year, as we are every year. You can read reports Invasion Day. One comrade, who was asked how the day went, reported on the overwhelmingly positive mood. Australians of every descriptions were at the event, cheering speakers and celebrating this country as it actually is – Aboriginal land. There is justified anger at all the steps that the country could have taken but hasn’t – like the 1991 Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody, mostly still not acted on. There is also celebration of Aboriginal survival and culture. There’s a real sense of pride from seeing and celebrating the truth of this country: Aboriginal land, belonging to the oldest continuous human civilisation.
