It saddens me greatly that our national day of celebration is so controversial these days.
It's understandable that the 'date' is controversial – I'm not sure the arrival of the First Fleet is the right thing to commemorate, given the impact that event had on Indigenous Australians, and that it would cost us nothing to choose a different date.
It's just a shame that as a result – and given the various and contradictory emotions January 26th stirs up – the controversy detracts from our ability to celebrate a national day, together, in unity.
Because we have much to celebrate, as a country. And we should.
As I've written many times, on January 26th and other dates throughout the year, that we have problems, but I don't know that there would be many countries on Earth that wouldn't swap their problems for ours.
And, as I also write regularly, we don't have to be free of those problems to celebrate the good stuff, just as we shouldn't let those celebrations blind us to the things we need to fix.
Indeed, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were here long, long before 1788, modern Australia had its roots famously (infamously?) as a penal colony.
And from that inauspicious start – criminals and dispossessed original inhabitants – we have built a modern, prosperous, tolerant society. We are blessed with natural beauty and a largely (though not entirely) benign climate.
We have a past that we are still yet to entirely or appropriately reckon with, but we have a future that can be as bright as we're prepared to make it.
Yes, economically, but more than that, too. After all, the economy is vitally important to the society, but it serves that society, not the other way around.
Australia is one of the richest nations on Earth. We aren't as equal as some, but we're far more equal than many, and even that equality sees all but the very poorest Australians better off than almost all of the rest of the world. Native-born Australians truly have won what Warren Buffett calls 'the ovarian lottery', and those who have joined us by choice have made a wonderful decision.
We have experienced social, sporting and economic success that is the envy of most other nations. And, as evidenced by recent events, we have started to infiltrate the aristocracy of Europe, and will shortly commence our takeover of those institutions. Queen Mary is playing the long game. Just wait and see… (Okay, that last point may not be entirely true. But you can't prove it's not, and it would only take a small change to our Constitution to make Denmark an Australian State. We'd even let Frederick be the first gentleman to Governor Mary Donaldson!)
No, we shouldn't start believing in an Australian 'exceptionalism' of the sort that intoxicates many of our American friends when they think about their homeland. But we should be proud of the country we are and have become.
Because from those reflections, we can take inspiration as we think about the country we aim to be. The things we want to continue doing, and being. The parts of our national life we might want to minimise or jettison, and those things we might want to do more of, or start doing, as we aim to make our country even better.
Our national flag is sometimes hijacked by those who would be less tolerant, more divisive or less caring. That's not who we are.
But also, its rejection, and the rejection of national pride or national ambition by others also misses the mark.
(No, this isn't a 'both sides' thing: The former are despicable, while the latter are simply misguided, in my view.)
We should be proud to be Australian. Proud of the economic development and success we've achieved. Proud that we were one of the first countries to grant women suffrage, and of the secret ballot (that was, for a while, known around the world as 'the Australian ballot'). Proud of the wealth we've created, and the culture we embrace. Proud of the 'fair go' and a national system of safety nets that are some of the best in the world.
We should be proud of our sportspeople who have taken on the world, and won. And also our scientists, businesspeople and diplomats. Our war veterans and our aid volunteers. The oldest continuous culture in the world. Our national parks and our philanthropists. And yes, even our sometimes-dysfunctional democracy.
I am the last person to give anyone a free pass if they're doing the wrong thing, as you may know by now. And we shouldn't paper over our issues just because other parts of our nation are wonderful. We should never lose sight of our obligation to help make things better, particularly for those who are unable to have an equal chance of making them better for themselves.
But I'm also very careful to remember that being able to point out things that, on a national scale, are usually minor imperfections in an otherwise strong and vibrant country is a privilege many others don't have – either because dissent is not allowed, or because our problems are tiny compare to the issues many others face.
I will be celebrating Australia today. Not because the date is the right one, or because we have no problems, but because those things can be true at the same time as we recognise how bloody lucky we are to live here, whether we were born here or arrived here to make a new life.
It is my deep hope that this time next year, we can all say that the last 12 months was yet another year of (imperfect) improvement for our country; another year that took the national project further in the right direction.
Happy Australia Day.
Fool on!
