Let's Talk January 26...
January 26 is rapidly approaching again, and with it, the conversations around change the date. Every year, we like to remind people what this date actually marks. Let's get the facts:
January 26 1788 is the day Sir Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Warrane (Sydney Cove) to claim the land as a British Colony. This day thus marks the beginning of a long and brutal (and ongoing) colonisation of people and country.
This is why choosing this date as 'Australia Day' is controversial, painful and traumatic for First Nations people.
January 26 wasn't always a national holiday - It wasn’t until 1994 that this happened.
Way back in 1888, on January 26, the centenary of British colonisation, First Nations leaders boycotted celebrations, but the protest went unreported and unnoticed by the wider community.
On 26 January 1938, on the 150th anniversary of Arthur Phillip’s arrival, Yorta Yorta man William Cooper and other members of the Aboriginal Progressive Association held the Day of Mourning and Protest. Since this first Day of Mourning, First Nations people and allies continue to mark this day as Day of Mourning, Survival Day or Invasion Day.
Learn more about January 26 and the history via Common Ground.
See below for our top learning resources for this time of year:
‘Each protest has been a stepping stone to the next battle...’
From the first protest of January 26th as a Day of Mourning in 1938, to the Pilbara Strike of 1946, to the struggle for the right to vote and be counted; the fight for justice for First Nations people takes many forms.
Always Was, Always Will Be takes a closer look at some of the iconic First Peoples protest movements of the last 200 years, celebrating the strength, wisdom, and bravery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people defending their land and asserting their right to self-determination through history.
ISBN: 978-1-922777-61-4
Format: Hard cover
Release date: June 2024
For 60,000 years, as sure as the sun rises and rests, our people have thrived and survived. Originally penned as a poetic response to January 26th, this is an empowering story of truth, strength and community, told by Gamilaroi and Dunghutti woman Marlee Silva and illustrated by Yamatji man Rhys Paddick.
Pages: 24
Age: Foundation to Year 3
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781760265274
Day Break is the story of a family making their way back to Country on January 26. We see the strength they draw from being together, and from sharing stories as they move through a shifting landscape.
The story refocuses the narratives around ‘Australia Day’ on Indigenous survival and resistance, and in doing so honours the past while looking to the future. Confronting yet truthful, painful yet full of hope, Day Break is a crucial story that will open up a conversation on truth-telling for the next generation.
About the Author: Amy McQuire is a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton in Central Queensland. Amy is a freelance writer and journalist, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Queensland into media representations of violence against Aboriginal women.
Format: Hardbook
Pages: 24
In Always Was, Always Will Be, bestselling author Thomas Mayo investigates 'what's next?' for reconciliation and justice in Australia after the failed October 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum.
Since the referendum, supporters and volunteers have been asking for guidance as to how to continue to support Indigenous recognition. Mayo, a leader of the Yes 23 campaign and co-author of the bestselling The Voice to Parliament Handbook, has penned a new book to answer that question.
Always Was, Always Will Be is essential reading for those people who want to keep the positive momentum going and the number of allies growing. It's for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who are ready to do everything they can to close the gap.
On writing the book Mayo said: 'The book starts with the ingredients for hope, it will cover the lessons from the past, and ultimately, Always Was, Always Will Be is about the future we want to see – one where there is justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.'
For the thousands of people who have been feeling sad, empty and powerless since last October, Always Was, Always Will Be aims to be a positive rallying cry. This book will map the path toward next steps on how to create a fairer Australia.
ISBN: 9781741179279
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Do not mourn the hands that raised you ... Do not weep for songs of land. Honouring the Stolen Generations, and all who've been taken, The Land Recalls You is a powerful story of returning, written with love and reverence by award-winning Gunai author Kirli Saunders (OAM) and illustrated by debut Bundjalung artists David and Noni Cragg.
Themes: First Nations stories, Dreaming, Stolen Generations, Country, community, Earth, ancestors, environment, connection to land and family.
ISBN: 9781760975159
Format: Hard back book
Pages: 24
A deeply personal, profound tribute to family and the Gudanji Country to which Debra Dank belongs.
We Come with This Place is a remarkable book, as rich, varied and surprising as the vast landscape in which it is set. Debra Dank has created an extraordinary mosaic of vivid episodes that move about in time and place to tell an unforgettable story of country and people.
There is great pain in these pages, and anger at injustice, but also great love, in marriage and in family, and for the land. Dank faces head on the ingrained racism, born of brutal practice and harsh legislation, that lies always under the skin of Australia, the racism that calls a little Aboriginal girl names and beats and rapes and disenfranchises the generations before hers. She describes sudden terrible violence, between races and sometimes at home. But overwhelmingly this is a book about strong, beloved parents and grandparents, guiding and teaching their children and grandchildren what country means, about joyful gatherings and the pleasures of eating food provided by the place that nourishes them, both spiritually and physically.
Dank calibrates human emotions with honesty and insight, and there is plenty of dry, down-to-earth humour. You can feel and smell and see the puffs of dust under moving feet, the ever-present burning heat, the bright exuberance of a night-time campfire, the emerald flash of a flock of budgerigars, the journeying wind, the harshness of a station shanty, the welcome scent of fresh water.
We Come with This Place is deeply personal, a profound tribute to family and the Gudanji Country to which Debra Dank belongs, but it is much more than that. Here is Australia as it has been for countless generations, land and people in effortless balance, and Australia as it became, but also Australia as it could and should be.
About the Author
Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman, married to Rick, with three adult children and two grandchildren. An educator, she has worked in teaching and learning for many years - a gift given through the hard work of her parents. She continues to experience the privilege of living with country and with family. Debra completed her PhD in Narrative Theory and Semiotics at Deakin University in 2021.
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760687397
Published: 5 July 2022