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How can local councils navigate the Australia Day debate to foster inclusive and meaningful national commemorations?

Practical Advice/Tips for Practitioners

• Engage in community consultation
  Local councils should actively consult First Nations groups and broader community members to ensure that commemorative events reflect diverse perspectives and foster genuine inclusion.

• Develop alternative commemorations
  There are different ways of commemorating Australia Day beyond traditional January 26 celebrations. Local councils have led the way in developing a range of alternative commemorations that acknowledge the country’s full history and bring community together, including Mourning ceremonies, Survival Day festivals, and community events held close to, but not on, January 26.

• Balancing representation and leadership
  Local councils have to increasingly balance local representation with leadership on contentious issues. While it is important to be representative of local views, local councils should take leadership on policies concerning Indigenous reconciliation to ensure the cultural load is not left solely to First Nations peoples.

Abstract

In recent years, a small but growing number of Australian local councils have emerged as major actors in the movement to change the date of Australia Day by electing to replace or cancel local events held on 26 January. This article draws on Lyn Spillman’s analysis of the 1988 Australia Bicentenary to make sense of these developments and their implications for cultures of national commemoration in Australia. For Spillman, the Bicentenary marked a shift towards a thinner conception of national identity which was intended to increase buy-in for Australia Day but risked fostering fragmentation. Arguing that local council actions to ‘Change the Date’ can be understood within these fragmentary dynamics, the article shows how the federal politicisation of Australia Day has seen these councils present local vernacular commemorations as preferable to official ones and promote an alternative moral vision of the place of Indigenous peoples in the nation.

Full paper access

Busbridge, R. (2023). Changing the date: Local councils, Australia Day and cultures of national commemoration. Journal of Sociology, 59(2), 403-420.

Contact the researcher

Associate Professor Rachel Busbridge
Rachel.Busbridge@acu.edu.au

Learn more about Associate Professor Rachel Busbridge’s research