The 26th of January: In Recognition of the Ongoing Conversation

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An 86-Year-Old Campaign to the Change the Date

In 1938, British colonisation of Australia had reached its 150th year. European settlers saw this as cause for celebration; First Nations People publicly recognised the 26th of January as a ‘Day of Mourning’. Similar to today, a cacophony of voices erupted in disagreement. Prominent Indigenous activists and European settlers took up either side of the debate and the first formal ‘Australia Day’ protest took place.

Contemporaries such as Peter Elkin, a pastor and anthropologist, who had witnessed the brutality of the frontier and forced removal of land argued that those who bore witness to the violence of colonialism would ‘sympathise with both the protest and the appeal’.[1] Sydney’s The Worker’s Weekly asserted that ‘Australia’s march to nationhood [had] been over the tortured bodies of a people whose friendliness to the whites in the early days of British colonisation was answered with fire, poison and bullet’ and that the sesquicentenary was a moment to display allyship to First Nations People. The more established newspapers, however, shut down calls for protest out of fear that illuminating the horrific history of the date would ‘introduce a sombre note into the festivities’.[2]

The Aboriginal Progress Association (APA), supported by the Aboriginal Advancement League, led by Uncle William Cooper, Pastor Doug Nicholls, Aunty Margaret Tucker and Aunty Pearl Gibb, organised the protest. On the 26th of January, 1938 the government went ahead with the celebration, sponsoring ‘a re-enactment of the landing of the First Fleet of ships bringing people from Britain to Australia’.[3] After the ‘festivities’ finished, ‘1000 Aboriginal people and their supporters took part in a silent march through the streets of Sydney’.[4] Protestors from the APA were dressed in black to commemorate the ‘Aboriginal lives lost and pain caused by colonisation’.[5]

Prior to the event, the voices that rose from activist communities took on different stances. David Ngunaitponi, a Ngarrindjeri man, preacher, inventor and author who ‘spent much of his life transforming the minds of White Australia in the hope that one day Aboriginal people would be seen as equals’, stressed the importance of gradual change.[6] Newspapers quickly reported that Ngunaitponi argued that the protest was ‘sponsored by sympathetic white people and half-castes’ and that the best way to help Indigenous Australians was ‘not to weep and bemoan the past, but to act in the living present’.[7] In reality, those who attended the conference demanded better education for their children as well as 'full citizen status and equality [for Aborigines] in the community'.[8]

Jack Patten, another 1938 protest organiser, said: On this day the white people are rejoicing, but we, as Aborigines, have no reason to rejoice on Australia’s 150th birthday. Our purpose in meeting today is to bring home to the white people of Australia the frightful conditions in which the native Aborigines of this continent live. This land belonged to our forefathers 150 years ago, but today we are pushed further and further into the background. 

A Look At Contemporary Discussions About January 26th

 The following video released this week, 88 years after the first Australia Day protest, demonstrates key arguments from some First Nations People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHb67sakZUE

In the video, 7 people discuss the merits or otherwise of keeping Australia Day on the 26th January, changing the date but keeping the Day, or abolishing the Day altogether. Three want to change the date, while two want to keep things as they are and two want to abolish it completely.

However, what stands out in their conversation is the common ground they share. And they share this ground with Jack Patten, who spoke similarly 88 years ago when he said: this land belonged to our forefathers 150 years ago, but today we are pushed further and further into the background.

In 2022, Melbourne City Council recognised that ‘a growing number of people have come to understand the complex relationship many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have with 26 January’, a day in which ‘British colonists [raised] the Union Flag at Sydney Cove’. In response, Melbourne City Council wished to cease celebrations of ‘Australia Day’ on the 26th of January.[9] This wish was pertinent as ‘an independent survey of City of Melbourne residents and business owners [showed a] majority of support for the move from both these surveyed groups’.[10] A 2022 survey ‘of more than 1,600 City of Melbourne residents and business owners’ suggested that ‘nearly 60 per cent of respondents want to see Australia Day celebrated on a different date’.[11]

While in that jurisdiction the desire to change the date was held by the majority before and since other states and territories Australian’s have had their own reasons for leaving the 26th of January as ‘Australia Day’. The camps typically fall into two main categories, those that view the day as one of ‘national unity’ and pride regardless of the historical significance of the day the holiday fell on.[12] Meanwhile others such as historian Frank Bongiorno have been concerned that the day perpetuates the same relentless ‘fracturing’.[13] In 2020, Nicholas Bromfield and Alexander Page wrote that while Australia Day Awards facilitate a day of pride for the majority of Australians, little inclusion historically has been made for LGBTQIA+ Australians, women or people of colour.[14] This leaves us questioning who Australia Day is really for and whether it should remain on the 26th of January.

A (small) 2024 poll of 1,111 Australians across Australia by Roy Morgan shows where public opinion may lie:

Younger people and city dwellers were more likely to wish for the day to be changed, yet the majority of these demographics still wished for Australia Day to stay as it is.[15] 

Across the states, 36% of Queenslanders elected to move the date, followed by 40% in NSW and Victoria, 48% and 48.5% in Tasmania and South Australia, and a bare majority in Western Australia with 50.5% choosing to move the date.

For those interested in Invasion Day events, here is a link to what’s happening around Victoria.

References

[1] 1938, 'Our Colour Problem.', The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 January, p. 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17425992; Tigger Wise, 'Elkin, Adolphus Peter (1891–1979)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/elkin-adolphus-peter-10109/text17845, published first in hardcopy 1996.

[2] 1938 'The Aboriginal Problem', Queensland Country Life, 6 January, p. 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97038055

[3] "Day of Mourning protests held in Sydney," Deadly Story, n/d, https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Day_of_Mourning_protests_held_in_Sydney.

[4] "Day of Mourning protests held in Sydney."

[5] "Day of Mourning protests held in Sydney."

[6] "David Ngunaitponi (Unaipon)," AIATSIS, n/d, https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/david-ngunaitponi-unaipon

[7] 1938 ''Day of Mourning'', Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 13 January, p. 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162513146; 1938 'The Aborigines' Lot.', The West Australian, 13 January, p. 16, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41606663

[8] Jack Horner, 'Patten, John Thomas (Jack) (1905–1957)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/patten-john-thomas-jack-7980/text13899.

[9] "26 January," City of Melbourne, n/d, https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/26-january

[10] "26 January."

[11] "26 January."

[12] Quoting Mark Latham: Frank Bongiorno, "Why Australia Day survives, despite revealing a nation’s rifts and wounds," The Conversation, published January 22, 2018, https://theconversation.com/why-australia-day-survives-despite-revealing-a-nations-rifts-and-wounds-89768.

[13] Bongiorno, "Why Australia Day survives, despite revealing a nation’s rifts and wounds.”

[14] Nicholas Bromfield and Alexander Page, “White, male and straight – how 30 years of Australia Day speeches leave most Australians out,” The Conversation, published January 24, 2020, https://theconversation.com/white-male-and-straight-how-30-years-of-australia-day-speeches-leave-most-australians-out-130279

[15] "Australians say January 26 should be known as ‘Australia Day’, (68.5%) and say the date of Australia Day should stay on January 26 (58.5%)," Roy Morgan, January 22nd, 2024, https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9422-roy-morgan-australia-day-survey-january-22-2024

The following caption is from Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in order to represent the image appropriately: “The first Day of Mourning. From the left is William Ferguson, Jack Kinchela, Isaac Ingram, Doris Williams, Esther Ingram, Arthur Williams, Phillip Ingram, Louisa Agnes Ingram OAM holding daughter Olive Ingram, and Jack Patton. The name of the person in the background to the right is not known at this stage. AIATSIS Collection HORNER2.J03.BW”.

First Nations People and Allies protesting in Warrane/Gadigal (Sydney) 50 years after the 1938 protest. Image Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.