Why Australian Migrants Should Get Behind The Campaign To #ChangeTheDate

This week Junkee is publishing a series, produced by young Australian writers, called “This Is Why I Don’t Celebrate Australia Day”.

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I am a second generation Indian-Australian daughter of two migrants, and I do not celebrate Australia Day.

Australian migrants often find themselves feeling removed from the political debate surrounding Australia Day. Not being Indigenous, nor accepted entirely as Australians, migrant voices are either considered irrelevant or threatening. In spite of this, I encourage Australian migrants to realise that the fight to change the date of Australia Day is one that affects us all.

Up until a few years ago, I was happily attending Australia Day barbeques, listening to triple j’s Hottest 100 and drinking beer – the true ‘Aussie way’. Despite this, a small part of me always felt a little discomfort celebrating the best of Australia on a day which represents the destruction of an entire culture. How could I feel included as an Australian on a day which celebrates exclusion?

I’ve always taken a lot of pride in being an Australian. I revel in identifying myself as Aussie when I travel and endlessly gloat to my English friends when Australia wins the Ashes. But from the time I started school, my peers were always quick to joke about the things that made me different – from my skin colour to the fragrant curry lunches my mum would pack for me. My friends mocked my parents’ thick Indian accents. My teachers would ask me where I was really from. It was apparent to me from a young age that I did not quite fit in. Belonging as an Australian soon became closely associated with being white and masking parts of my cultural identity so no one could question my Australianness.

My parents also felt an unspoken but constant pressure to prove we were not threats to the established white Australian social fabric. This meant trying to change their accents, their dress, their language and saying ‘mate’ at every opportunity.

Unfortunately, there has not been much of a paradigm shift since my parents arrived in Australia. Migrants are still continually demanded to prove their Australianness:

The Daily Mail recently reported on migrant Muslim groups celebrating Australia Day with barbeques and flag-waving to dispel myths of their disloyalty. A Muslim group spokesperson stated that ‘there’s a lot of talk that Muslims aren’t loyal to Australia, so we want to show through our actions that we are,’ which is an example of the enormous burden Australian migrants feel to actively display their patriotism to avoid hate speech and social criticism.

Behaviour like this shows how many migrant families have inherited the indifference felt towards Indigenous people that is entrenched in January 26, in order to avoid exclusion. Victims of racism continue to celebrate the establishment of a racist national holiday in the hopes of not having to face racism themselves.

To my family and countless other migrant families in Australia, there is so much to celebrate about our beautiful country and home. With all that we have to be thankful for, and given the risk of being labelled unpatriotic or ungrateful, it is easy for us to remove ourselves from the politics of January 26 and ignore the fact that the values symbolised by this date – exclusion, ignorance and annihilation of culture – affect us too.

I urge that we, as a community, speak out against the tragedy January 26 represents to Indigenous Australians. It is not un-Australian to stand with our nation’s First People and offer our voices to help make theirs heard. It is not un-Australian to fight for our nation’s First People’s right to mourn. But it is un-Australian to celebrate the pride of our nation on a day which symbolises the loss of life, family, land and culture to so many of our own citizens.

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Trish Kashyap is a lawyer in the social justice sector who enjoys reading and exploring the great outdoors.