Australia Day should bring all of us together as a nation.  This is not possible, now, on the 26th January.

The 26th of January is a date of invasion. For the First Peoples of Australia, it marks a period of war, slavery, massacres, loss of land, family, language and resistance. It is time to change the day of our National celebration. We ask you to join the movement, a movement that many have been championing, to find an alternative day that celebrates all Australians.  

Please sign this petition today, and join the movement to Change the Date!  

#ChangetheDate #ForAllAustralians  

Dear Prime Minister,
Australia Day should celebrate all Australians - a day that brings us together as a Nation, recognising our past and celebrating our identity and our future. Currently, Australia Day creates pain and division for many Australians. We ask you to establish a process to find an alternative day in the year that celebrates all Australians.

In the past, Australia celebrated Australia Day on other dates. The tradition of celebrating Australia Day on the 26th January was not consistent nationally until 1994.  

Changing the date is not controversial. Keeping the date is damaging.  

We are a country of survivors, strivers, fighters, innovators, creators and resistance heroes from these lands and beyond. We are a country rich in cultures.

On our National Day let us celebrate that First Nations peoples of Australia continue today as the longest, most successful cultures in the world. Let us s recognise that four in ten Australians today were born overseas, and whose energy, culture, and commitment helped create our incredible multi-cultural contemporary Australia.

Our current Australia Day denies us our history and fails to serve our future. It defines us as a mono-cultural naïve, young and myopic country. On the contrary we are an old land and an old peoples with a history richer than most.

In 1938, three Aboriginal leaders, Jack Patten, William Ferguson and William Cooper, declared 26th of January a ‘Day of Mourning’. Other Aboriginal leaders have since declared it ‘Invasion Day’, or ‘Survival Day’, or ‘Aboriginal Sovereignty Day’. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it is a day that marks a period of war, slavery, massacres, loss of land, family, language and resistance. It is a day that marks grief, trauma and pain.

The selection of a new date should focus a national conversation about who we want to be: What identity we wish to foster. And what we mean when we say: I am Australian.

Children’s Ground was established to celebrate and further the rights and wellbeing of all children and families in Australia.  Let our next generations walk on one path, together, celebrating Australia and understanding our history.

#ChangetheDate #ForAllAustralians