The 26th of January is not an appropriate date for celebration.
The date is a celebration of European settlement – a settlement that resulted in over 100 years of violence against Aboriginal people and the ongoing theft of land and heritage.
It is also a New South Wales-centric date that has little relevance in contemporary Australia or for Western Australians more broadly.
Traditional owners of the land cannot celebrate a day that marks the start of an ongoing trauma that has been inflicted on our people since that day.
We cannot move forward without a process of truth-telling about the violent history of this settlement.
We cannot move forward without a formal Treaty that acknowledges and makes amends for the theft of our land, and of so many generations of our children.
We cannot move forward without a voice to parliament that gives Aboriginal people an ongoing role in addressing the disadvantage and suffering that continues today as a result of this history.
But we also cannot move forward while Australia continues to treat this date as one worthy of celebration.
Some people may feel that this is a symbolic issue that distracts from more material goals. But while the symbolism remains wrong, we cannot truly understand the many significant challenges still ahead of us.
Sovereignty was never ceded, and no honest reflection on our history can justify this date as one worthy of celebration.
Brendan Moore, SWALSC Chair