Australia Day Persuasive Speech

On January 26th 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and raised the British flag on Australian Soil. This is formally recognized as Australia Day. It is a day where ceremonies are taken place and consist of welcoming new citizens and honoring those who did a great service to their country. It is a day recognized to all where fun activities such as BBQ’s, performances, fireworks, and gatherings are initiated. For Indigenous Australian’s, this day is referred to as its recent name of ‘survival day’, as this defines the ongoing battle for recognition of their stolen land throughout their generations. In January 1988, members of indigenous groups made an effort to promote awareness among other Australians

of their presence, their needs and their desires that there should be communication, reconciliation and cooperation of land rights.

Rigorous investigation have been exemplified through two articles; ‘Australia day nationalism walks in the footsteps of ugly precedents’ and ‘Modern Australia’s defining moment came long after the first fleet’, regarding whether or not Australia day should be celebrated on January 26th. Article 1 portrays to the readers the historically incorrect advertising of a very important date in Australian history, while article 2 explains how Australia has had many other defining moments other than the arrival of the first fleet that was under British control.

Australia can best be defined as a modern state through the way Australians have been represented to acknowledge their mistakes and act upon their actions of recognizing historically incorrect statements within the conversations, ‘Australia day nationalism walks in the footsteps of ugly precedents’ article written by Robin Tennant-Wood.

The slogan “Australia Est. 1788”, sparked controversial debates between the indigenous and Australian communities due to the fact that a historically incorrect fact was printed onto T-shirts, approved by the government and dispatched through multiple Aldi and Big W stores for Australia day celebrations, or as the indigenous most recently refer to as “Survival Day”.

This date identifies and remarks “The anniversary of the establishment of the British colony of New South Wales” (Tennant-Wood, 2014, p. 1), retracting from the fact that indigenous occupied the land during this period of time. Robin Tennant-Wood comes to state that “although they colonized the land, the British did not discover Australia” (Tennant-Wood, 2014, p. 1), as records show that the Dutch and Portuguese dated their cognitive findings with the indigenous as early as the 1600’s. Australia day celebrations are the on going support and praise for the white settlers and the “Discredited notion of terra nullius” (Tennant-Wood, 2014, p. 2), which is why this argument is a strong representation of why the date of Australia’s identity should change to a meaningful defining moment in history.

The act of draping the Australian flag over your body, manipulated the targeted audience of young Australian’s to be patriotic and to uphold the status of accepting only the ‘white’ within the community as true Australians, therefore resulting in violent minorities.

Racial acts flooded the media in 2009 on Australia Day when the Manly riots were the initial the start of a denied ‘racially motivated’ attack on non-Anglo people. Author 1 concludes with the basic intention of changing the way Australians should “Acknowledge the past, atone for their mistakes, repudiate jingoistic nationalism and move towards a national celebration inclusive of all Australians” (Tennant-Wood, 2014, p.

3).

Modern Australia’s defining moment is the day we celebrate the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip on the first fleet in 1788. This was the historical event that marked our one significant moment, but failed to truly define us Australian’s as a nation.
Author 2 gives an insightful and thorough explanation as to why this day should not be our defining moment and explains that it came way after the first fleet.

The problematic issue that occurred due to holding our national day on the 26th of January, was the ongoing offence this had on the indigenous people as we celebrated the day their children taken away, their women raped, encounters of slavery, continuous abuse by the white settlers and “The day a British colony was established on aboriginal land and renamed to New South Wales” (Jones, 2014, p. 2).

This is something that shouldn’t be celebrated nor acknowledged as good when a loathsome act by the settlers is considered to be our defining moment in history.

Australia’s defining moment came long after the First Fleet when Goth Whitlam abolished the ‘White Australian Policy’ in 1973, allowing white and colored people to integrate with each other as “Australia abandoned the desire to create a homogenous British monoculture and instead opened their arms and hearts to a new philosophy that sees the beauty in diversity” (Jones, 2014, p. 4).

The term multiculturalism was considered an official policy within the government under Goth Whitlam’s rules, and strengthened the policy due to the Vietnamese asylum seekers who settled in Australia in change of a new life – “Multiculturalism has been an Australian success story” (Jones, 2014, p. 4). This article written by Benjamin T. Jones focused on the realization of Australia becoming a modern state and identifying the true moment a nation was born. “Multiculturalism has brought to Australia a richness and diversity that Arthur Phillip and his reluctant fellow voyagers could not have fathomed” (Jones, 2014, p.

4).

In addition, articles 1 and 2 incorporate similar notions of ideas and purposes of expressing Australia as a modern state and justifying their reasons to keep or change the date of Australia day. Robin Tennant-Wood and Benjamin T. Jones have recognized the arrival of the first fleet as the main issue behind each article. Article 1 discusses the affect of the historically incorrect slogan printed out on T-shirts that served to emphasize the main point of it being completely offensive to indigenous Australians as well as in article 2, it proclaims the issue of this being a “failure to recognize over 50’000 years of aboriginal culture” (Jones, 2014, p. 1).

This has been emphasized by the way young Australians are taught through the eyes of Europeans and not the indigenous. At the same time it condones the discredited notion of terra nullius, through the actions of taking ones ownership away from what rightfully belonged to them.

On the contrary, Article 1 and 2 have a distinct argument for when Australia Day should be celebrated. Author 1 believes that we should celebrate this day in an inclusive way, while working towards eliminating extreme nationalism. Australia day implies that the land was unoccupied when the British arrived and the terra nullius was legally discredited, as there was no recall of anything before this day.

Author 2 however believes that we shouldn’t celebrate Australia day on the 26th, as it is not the day that defines us as a nation. It emphasizes on the point that
Indigenous lives were ruined, women and children stripped form their families and land was stolen. He states that “Australia abandoned the desire to create a
homogenous British monoculture and instead opened their arms and hearts to a new philosophy that sees the beauty in diversity”. Author 2 considers the day that the white Australian policy was removed by Goth Whitlam in 1973, should be the day Australians celebrate their nationalism due to the fact that this was the first significant event that separated Britain from Australia and when multiculturalism came into place.