Homily for Australia Day, 26th January 2025
Readings: Isaiah 32: 15-18, Psalm 84: 9-14, 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11, Matthew 5: 1-12
Happy Australia Day.
Let’s stop right there.
Is it right to wish each other a happy day on this of all days as we reflect on our nation? Is this the right day on which to engage in such national introspection?
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Since the defeat of the 2023 referendum, we have not yet settled on a narrative acceptable to those who voted ‘Yes’ and approved by those who voted ‘No’. Some suggest a change of date, but there is no other national date with popular appeal at this time. A national day usually bears some relationship to an event which constituted the nation. We’d be hard pressed to convince our fellow citizens to run with 9 July, the date in 1900 when the Imperial Parliament passed a Bill approving our Constitution, or New Year’s Day, the date in 1901 when our federation was proclaimed by the Governor-General in Centennial Park, Sydney. And anyway, New Year’s Day is already a holiday. May 9, back in 1901, was the date of the first sitting of the Commonwealth Parliament; May 9 in 1988 was the date of the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra. I just can’t see 1 January, 9 May or 9 July cutting it. And no matter what the date, we would still need to reflect on our past as well as our future. So unless and until there is another nation defining event, I think we are stuck with January 26. There’d still be calls for national soul searching. Those of us who place the First Australians front and centre on this day are able to affirm that 26 January 1788 was the great caesura in human history in this land – marking the end of uninterrupted Aboriginal occupancy and the commencement of large scale migration from every other nation on earth. If you had to name one defining moment in the modern history of human habitation in this land, January 26 is it – whether you live in Sydney or Perth, whether you are Aboriginal or a recent migrant.
Though there has been some national introspection about the loss of the 2023 referendum, there has been no reckoning by government or by the Indigenous leadership about mistakes made in the process and the wording. On Friday at the National Press Club, the Prime Minister was asked twice to admit to any mistakes made, but he could not bring himself to do so. If there were no mistakes made, we all need to accept that the 60% rejection of the proposal is indicative of a national mood that we are happy enough to recognise by name the First Australians in our Constitution, but not to accord them special constitutional rights or entitlements.
If we are to celebrate a happy Australia Day in good faith, we can be helped when hearing the reflective words of First Australians who carry with them the tragedy suffered by their ancestors together with the hope of living in a nation where all are truly equal.
Trying to chart a way forward in the wake of the referendum defeat and the antipathies it unleashed, I have taken heart, returning to the poetry of Oodgeroo. When known as Kath Walker, she came to read her poetry to us when I was studying first year English literature at the University of Queensland in 1971. I was then privileged to know her during the Queensland land rights campaign in the 1980’s, visiting her on country on Stradbroke Island.
Back in 1962, five years before the successful 1967 referendum, Oodgeroo penned an ‘Aboriginal Charter of Rights’ which was presented at the 5th annual general meeting of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI):
We want hope, not racialism,
Brotherhood, not ostracism,
Black advance, not white ascendance:
Make us equals, not dependents.
We need help, not exploitation,
We want freedom, not frustration;
Not control, but self-reliance,
Independence, not compliance,
Not rebuff, but education,
Self-respect, not resignation.
She had a particular word for us Christians:
Give us Christ, not crucifixion.
Though baptised and blessed and Bibled
We are still tabooed and libelled.
You devout Salvation-sellers,
Make us neighbours, not fringe dwellers;
Make us mates, not poor relations,
Citizens, not serfs on stations.
This could stand as a charter for all Australians in the 21st century. This is a charter that should win approval and acceptance by all who voted in the 2023 referendum whether they voted yes or no
This Australia Day I take heart and delight in Oodgeroo’s poem United We Win:
The glare of a thousand years is shed on the black man’s wistful face,
Fringe-dweller now on the edge of towns, one of a dying race;
But he has no bitterness in his heart for the white man just the same;
He knows he has white friends today, he knows they are not to blame.
Curse no more the nation’s great, the glorious pioneers,
Murderers honoured with fame and wealth, won of our blood and tears;
Brood no more on the bloody past that is gone without regret,
But look to the light of happier days that will shine for your children yet.
For in spite of public apathy and the segregation pack
There is mateship now, and the good white hand stretched out to grip the black.
He knows there are white friends here today who will help us fight the past,
Till a world of workers from shore to shore as equals live at last.
And how good is it that in the 21st century William Barton has set this poem to music and has performed it on his didgeridoo together with a soprano and a string quartet. Now that’s the sort of vision and sound we need so that we can all in good faith celebrate a Happy Australia Day.
Oodgeroo concluded her poem A Song of Hope with these words:
To our fathers’ fathers
The pain, the sorrow;
To our children’s children
The glad tomorrow.
On Australia Day, of all days, we recall the past pain and sorrow, while praying earnestly and pledging ourselves to the glad tomorrow – a glad tomorrow for all those who are privileged to call Australia home. We give thanks for those who have contributed to our prosperous and secure country – allowing us greater prosperity and security than most of humanity has ever enjoyed in any place and at any time in history. As Australians, with humility and not nationalistic bravado, we give thanks recalling today’s first reading from Isaiah:
Until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
Happy Australia Day.
[1] Oodgeroo, My People, Wiley, 5th edition, 2012, 39.
[2] Ibid, 40.
[3] Ibid, 79.
[4] Ibid, 44.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ is serving as part of a Jesuit team of priests working within a new configuration of the Toowong, St Lucia and Indooroopilly parishes in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Frank Brennan SJ is a former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). Fr Frank’s latest book is An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a Constitutional Bridge, Garratt Publishing, 2023 and his new book is ‘Lessons from Our Failure to Build a Constitutional Bridge in the 2023 Referendum’ (Connor Court, 2024).