Australian of the year, Mick Dodson, has called for a national discussion of the idea that Australia Day should be moved, Prime Minister Rudd has quickly cut Dodson’s idea adrift before it did him any collateral political damage, as has Malcolm Turnbull.
The problem with Dodson’s idea is that it is essentially divisive. What Dodson, and other leaders both black and white, need to do is to take a page out of President Obama’s book.
Obama talks about the past only in terms of how problems have been overcome, and will be overcome. Obama, like Martin Luther King, seeks to include people in the American mainstream and not to perpetuate separate identities and histories.
It would make more sense to include reconciliation and indigenous Australians in all major national celebrations, symbols like Australia Day are always evolving and Dodson could make a big impact in that over the next 12 months as Australian of the year but not by emphasising ‘invasion’.
We need to do a lot more about celebrating, and encouraging, the achievements of indigenous Australians. As Obama showed, the mainstream will embrace a candidate who is black but not one that projects that difference as separateness. Dodson’s comments, and the political response to it, just underscore that point in the Australian context.
