Happy Australia Day?

As you may know, today, January 26, is Australia Day. It's the special day people all over the country make space for family and/or friends time to have a BBQ, wear Australian t-shirts with the Australia flag, the Australia colours (green and gold) or kangaroos on it and where some people even put on the bogan accent and talk like that the entire day. Some people go to the city and paint their face with the Australian flag (as shown above) and get drunk. All for the celebration of 'being Australian'. Having not been born in Australia where I just migrated here as a kiddo, I've always been pretty neutral with Australia Day. It wasn't the best, but I didn't mind it either.

Until I got to Year 9 history class. That's when I found out how Australia Day really came about. It was the celebration of white (British) colonisation in Australia. And with the further history classes I've had in the past and in the future, white colonisation actually brought a lot of pain, racism and discrimination in Australia within its indigenous people. Stuff that is sadly, still present today. And British settlement here happened in the late 1700's, almost 300 years ago. The very first Australia Day aimed to present Australia (then called New Holland) to the rest of the world as a British-settled/colonised/whatever you want to call it nation. White Australians were never friendly to indigenous Australians, but on Australia Day tried to make it look like they "belonged".

When I learnt about this, it really tainted my idea of Australia Day. I already didn't have a huge opinion or stance on what Australia Day might've really meant. I just saw it as a day people put aside to ponder more on how happy they are to be Australian. But when I realised its origins, I began to dislike Australia Day more. Only a couple of years after we arrived here in Australia that we attained our Australian citizenship. On Australia Day. In a personal sense, that's what Australia Day could mean for us. Our official binding to this beautiful land. But the real origins of it mean a lot more to me. Knowing the amount of racism, abuse and even genocide that occurred in order for Australia to truly become a 'white' country by wiping out its indigenous people back in the day, and how Australia Day was one event among this makes this day pretty disgusting for me.

Previous Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did say sorry in behalf of Australia to its indigenous people for the stuff we've caused. And I respect that. But there are still racists out there. Someone I have on Facebook even complained about how people this year are being racist about Australia Day too. This year. She said "we've been a multicultural country for ages now, and we'll still be. People have to stop being racist."

Australia today likes to pride itself as a multicultural nation. I think it actually is, to be honest, despite the fact that there are still racists out there who think Australians should only adhere to the white Australia culture. They say Indians living in Australia shouldn't eat curry because curry isn't Australian. But from what you see in the news or Google images when you search up 'Australia Day', that's pretty much not what you see. What I see in the news isn't mainly the celebration of Australia today, the unity of various cultures, all that sentimental riffraff. What I see are (mainly) white Australians wearing skimpy Australian-flag singlets from Supre, people with Australian-flag face paint in the CBD, with many of these people getting drunk later tonight where they wake up the next day without much memory of Australia Day 2012.

Sorry for the generalisations, but this is what I see every year. And the thing is, if this kind of thing is the representation of Australia Day today rather than the so-called celebration of every person, despite their cultural heritage, then I can't possible celebrate Australia Day meaningfully. I'm the kind of person who likes to really know what they're doing and why. I don't like to do things on the basis of face value. I prefer to know what I'm really doing. And right now, if this is how Australia Day is presented, I just have to be honest and say that I don't relate to weekend BBQ's, wearing Australian t-shirts with wallabies on them and the whole Aussie pride phenomenon. The whole barbeque and Aussie pride culture attached to Australia Day is really, erm, white Australia for me. I don't know. I'm an Australian of Filipino descent. Even my mum tells me that my pattern of thought is more Australian than Filipino. But how come I don't feel like I really belong come Australia Day, and how come I feel more comfortable painting my face with the Filipino flag than the Australian flag when the Australian culture, I will admit, is one that I feel more comfortable being in? When I visit the Philippines, I personally feel myself as being more Australian, and my everyday life here, I feel like I am just like everyone else. Except on January 26.

So, having said all that riffraff, what would I be celebrating then? I honestly don't know. But it's slowly occurring to me. Does it matter what the media or other people tell me what modern Australia Day should mean? Do I need to take out our unused barbeque pit just for the sake of "it's Australia Day" today? I honestly don't care. Maybe I just really do need to save one special day to be thankful for God in bringing us here in Australia. And hey, everything always has two sides. British settlement may have been sucky for the real people of Australia, but if it wasn't for any of that happening, my family and many other immigrants probably wouldn't be in Australia right now, living a comparably good life compared to the life they might be living in their homeland. I know that definitely goes for us. Perhaps this is what I am thankful for today. I still refuse to wear Australian t-shirts and grill beef sausages every January 26 because I don't personally feel like I need to. I'm just thankful for the opportunities I would, no way in hell, have attained if we were still in the Philippines, and I've gotten merely just because I'm here in Australia. April probably wouldn't be alive by now. There's a likely chance that I'll resemble the hunchback of Notre Dame by now too. I wouldn't be enrolling into USYD at this point. And because of the experiences I've had in this land, I like myself just the way I am today and if we weren't here, I don't think I will like myself. And these things are perhaps things to truly be thankful for today.