AHCWA acknowledges the painful history surrounding 26 January, and we affirm our commitment to promoting understanding and reconciliation. We support changing the date of this national day of celebration.
26 January—recognised as a public holiday since 1994—has long been a day of mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The date falls on the anniversary of the First Fleet landing in 1788 and the raising of the Union Flag at Sydney Cove. This began the British invasion of Australia, where Aboriginal peoples had lived for over 65,000 years.
For many, it is not a day of celebration but marks the date from which years of unlawful colonisation, dispossession, and massacres of the land’s Traditional Owners occurred—with devastating impacts that are still felt today. Among these, loss of sovereignty, land rights, family and kinship, and the right to practice culture.
Advocacy to change the date and rethink Australia’s celebration of 26 January has raged for years. Recently, growing recognition of the need to respect Aboriginal peoples’ history in relation to the anniversary have led to significant protests rallying tens of thousands of people.
In 2018, national broadcaster Triple J announced it would no longer host its iconic Hottest 100 countdown on the 26th, but instead on the fourth weekend of January. The state of Victoria also revealed it would not hold its Australia Day parade in 2023 and confirmed there were no plans to reinstate the annual event. In Western Australia, the City of Fremantle became one of the first in the country to abandon January 26 celebrations back in 2017, replacing it in recent years with a yearlong program to focus on truth telling.
The concept of Australia Day itself is a relatively modern construct that has been celebrated on various dates since its inception. The first was observed on 30 July as a fundraising effort for World War I, and held on 28 July the following year. Different states also celebrated versions of the holiday on various dates, from 28 December to 1 June.
Over time, the country unified its celebrations, and the date officially shifted to 26 January. Nonetheless, its origins were far removed from the historical and cultural context it now imposes.