Understanding Australia Day

#australiaday #captaincook #invasionday #australianhistory #ClickView

Students will take a trip back in time as this video examines the origins of Australia Day and the tensions associated with it. It explores the role of Captain James Cook in Britain's discovery of Australia, and the establishment of the first colony under Captain Arthur Phillip. It also explains why some people don't celebrate the 26th January and introduces various other names for the day including Invasion Day, Day of Mourning, and Survival Day.

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[prasadnilugal]

I love Australians with bottom of my heart.

[TomoBunyip]

I know this is not meant to be a detailed account and it is good to see the effort put in to provide a balanced account. However, it would still be better to convey some basic facts if we are doing European history in Australia. People could then make up their mind about whether the 26 January is a suitable date to celebrate. Perhaps the most important fact is that the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay (that's your link to Captain Cook and in particular Joseph Banks who has a bigger role in the decision to colonise Australia). In terms of dates the first ship, HMS Supply arrives in Australia on the 18 January anchoring in Botany Bay. By the 22 January all the fleet ships had arrived at Botany Bay. On the 21 January, Captain Arthur Phillip heads north and arrives in Port Jackson with a small expedition, not the First Fleet. The First Fleet was relocated to Sydney Cove between 25 & 26 January, so happy relocation day. On shore the 26 January was a quiet day as most convicts were still on board their respective transport ships. If anyone wanted a clear date to celebrate, particularly the people of New South Wales it would be 7 February when the Colony was formally proclaimed. However, this doesn't make sense as an "Australia Day" as Australia, not even the idea of Australia, didn't exist at the time. Australia truly comes into existence on the 9 May 1901 with the opening of the first Australian parliament. It was only then that we could make our own decisions as a nation.

[fractalign]

The reason Australia does not have an annual day of national commemoration is because Australia gained nationhood on the 1st of January 1901 and most Aussies are too hung over from the night before to even care.

[johnattard]

It is a delicate topic, but something that many people tend to forget is that most of Australian Citizens are migrants or decedent from migrants. On 26 Jan 1949 the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 was introduced meaning migrants could become Australian citizens. Most naturalisation ceremonies were held on Australia Day, so Australia Day marks the anniversary of when they became Australian which is a huge reason for it to be celebrated by them on that day.
Aboriginals only make up 3% of the population, and not all aborigines are anti colonisation, as there are many happy with all the things colonisation brought with it.
If colonisation didn't take place, Australia wouldn't be the place it is today, and although our history has many dark moments, a lot of good has come from it as well.
I believe Australia Day is a time to look at how far we have come along, celebrate the good and learn from the bad. Our history shouldn't be covered up, and changing the date won't change the past. Learning from the past, letting the pain from it go, and focusing on the positives that came from it, is the only way to heal and move forward.

[darkmorningbutohtheatre]

Was this resource either produced by OR developed in collaboration OR in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? If so, please add this to the description. Please update your curriculum codes in your attached resources to align with the new V9 Australian Curriculum. Who are the authors of these videos and resources?

[kenesa]

Australia day for me is double pay - if your working.

[prasadnilugal]

I love Australia and Australian's with bottom of my heart .

[jrteee]

Thank the English for saving the native peoples from captivity and slavery from the Dutch, Spanish or Portugese. Colonisation was coming only which form was to be decided.

[Costikeke]

1:15 starts here
i say it is a day for mourning

[chooba]

Australia day should be a celebration of all Australians, including Indigenous Australians, migrants and refugees, and people from all backgrounds. By choosing a different date, it would be possible to create a day that is inclusive and respectful of the nation's history and diverse population. I would suggest always to be on a Friday in one of the cooler months and have an Australia Day long weekend.😁

[MissKim--SP]

Not trying to down play the mistreatment of anyone but there isn't one country that wasn't invaded or conquered at some point to make it the country it is today. Yes, we shouldn't continue that mistreatment and do better. We are the modern citizens. We weren't a part of those times. All of our countries have come a long way and we should be proud of what our countries have become.

[kathrynmichaelsen]

Why not 3 March, the date when the UK could no longer legislate for Australia, and the Privy Council (in London) was no longer the highest court of appeal (the Australian High Court was)... Effectively Australia's Independence Day from the UK... the day when simultaneous legislation (the Australia Act) went into effect - 3 March 1986... We can then ALL celebrate the nation as a nation... not a a penal colony, not as a dependency, and not on a date of invasion/colonization...

[Blackwater_House]

The 26th of January celebrates an Event in 1949 not an Event in 1788 nor an Event in 1770.
The 26th of January celebrates An Act of Parliament not a 1st Fleet nor a 1st Visit.
Australia Day celebrates the day on which All Residents of Australia became Australian Citizens and the Date on which Australia’s 1st Passports were issued.

1st Fleet celebrations were not added to the Event until 1988 (the Bicentennial of 1st Fleet) when a small percentage of the Australian Population (Sydney Residents) voted to include it in the celebrations.


1st Fleet landed on the 18th of January 1788 whilst Captain James Cook visited on the 29th of April 1770.

[Cjr]

Every country was racist a point but everyone gets offended by everything now days so let’s take your advice and move on and celebrate our pride for our country

[thethinkingman-]

when the first nations won the war against the natives, captain cook decided that he would not exterminate them but he let them live just like humans.
these days the aborigines live in harmony with all the peoples of australia and everyone celebrates every year on australia day.
well done Australia.

[helaina.r]

I watched this for school I am in year three almost year four!

[midlifebiker]

First Australia day was 30th July 1915 to raise funds for the diggers fighting overseas..
The date isnt important..as a 4th gen aussie with some abo blood on my dad's side..Im sick of the young generation looking for someone to blame for their UNachievements. The day is to appreciate what we have, not what we think we are entitled too...

[captainsmartass]

Australia Day was "NEVER"
about white Australians
but about "ALL" Australians.
The greatest invention of humankind has been Western Civilisation.
It arrived here 235 years ago on 26 January 1788.
What a moment, what a day to celebrate.
Happy Australia Day!!

[aggressivecalm]

The bottom line is the arrival of Europeans on this continent is not something we should be ashamed of or be afraid to celebrate, even if we regret the hardships Aboriginal people faced as a result of it. It was predominately (though not exclusively) people of European stock who built Australia into the great country it became. That undeniable fact sits uneasily with many on the political Left.

The source of trouble in Australia at large is the conservative side of the argument has been kowtowed into silence and been bowed down before our postmodern Ruling Classes, over the last couple of decades. It's a colossal injustice and a gross display of ingratitude to the millions of early Australians (including aboriginals) who toiled, suffered and literally died in order to build this nation into a modern, successful country.

(Including but not limited to our soldiers, who have died in the hundreds of thousands in the many wars defending our country since European settlement/Australia’s founding.)

Why do we acknowledge a specific ethnic group above all other Australian’s, for simply being in some way ancestrally affiliated with Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander’s, even when the greater proportion of these Australians are themselves predominantly of more European heritage? This has nothing to do with ancestry, and culture and everything to do with politics, and opportunism.

Why don’t we acknowledge Australians who have literally made the ultimate sacrifice for our free and democratic future? Why don’t we acknowledge Australians who have literally built this nation from the ground up, pragmatic Australians working under extremely harsh conditions foregoing much of their lives, to build our country's infrastructure, its roads, its schools, its hospitals for the good of all Australians? But instead we bow our heads acknowledging a specific ethnic group above all other Australians, for simply being in some way ancestrally affiliated with people who live here? Exactly the same as all Australians.

And no level of postmodern mental gymnastics can eliminate the actuality that we’re all here today because history happened.

The truth, (the fact of the matter) is beyond the fantasy, fabrication, falsehood and indeed the politics of our postmodern Ruling Classes the life of an aboriginal in 1787 was cruel, ruthless, harsh, brutish and short. They (pre colonial Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander’s) lived in a primordial rut, and were showing comprehensively no signs of rising out of that tens of thousands of years pattern, groove when British explorer, cartographer and naval officer Captain James Cook first arrived.
Indeed while human migration had brought agriculture to New Guinea and the upper islands that were part of the Torres Strait cluster dotted between the tip of northern Australia and New Guinea the Torres Strait was characterised as a ‘bridge and barrier’, or the physical ‘cultural filter, ’ separating horticulturalists on New Guinea (who had been so for thousands of years) and the hunter-gatherers in Australia.

The real truth beyond the power of our postmodern Ruling Classes to defenestrate, and unseat is the arrival of the modern world to Australia was inevitable, natural and obvious. To place it further in context it was an extension of exactly what had already been happening throughout the world since human beings began leaving Africa. Further Australian colonisation was reasonable. It was simply a matter of who showed up first/next. The real question to all the virtue-signalling Left is: what did they realistically expect to happen in 1788? For the world to just keep sailing by? For the powers that be to keep aboriginal Australia an eternally prehistoric people, that people of the day to altruistically, unreservedly, majestically, proclaim this place impervious to human exploitation? Or more accurately European (British) exploitation?
Or for Australia to be declared designated and enforced by the European powers (in this case the British Empire) as some sort of aboriginal Jurassic Park? Please read some history, any human history, be it modern, or classical. Fantasising about what ifs really isn’t responsible, balanced, or psychologically sound for that matter, it’s about time the Left grew up, and stopped pretending up was always down, and that history, global advancement has ever been about generosity and indulgence.

Honestly embracing a group's cultural ancestry to such an aggressive degree, and using this cultural ancestry as an excuse, is clearly pretty racist.

Equally blaming some other culture, and those belonging to this differing cultural ancestry is clearly and unquestionably racist.

Equality, egalitarianism, fairness, justness, and equitability are non-discriminatory, evenhanded, and unprejudiced.

The opinion that the colour of your skin, or the antecedents of an individual are the defining factors is narrow-minded, backwards, bigoted, racist, discriminatory, prejudiced, unfair, and insulting. Yet it's been the dominant thinking in the Australian government, Universities, the Australian media, (particularly the ABC) and general public discourse for decades. This retrogressive, confused, righteous stupidity has to be walked back. Australia will be burning witches again if this level of ‘objectiveness’ and ‘honesty’ continues.

Bring Australia together. Australia is for all Australians equally, with objectivity, fairness, impartiality, and even-handedness.❤🇦🇺🦘

[thethinkingman-]

firstly I would like to acknowledge and thank the Queen and all Royals past and present who allow us to live and share the lands with the British peoples and their descendants.
Further we are all thankful to captain cook and the first fleet who tamed the harsh lands and natives and created this peaceful nation for peoples of all types to share.
Now that the aborigines are trained to be like the white peoples, we all proudly stand and salute our past, each January26 to celebrate the feats the English overcame, and both white and black stand arm in arm as one !
God save our Queen.