Benjamin Millar
Almost 40,000 postcards are being delivered to Maribyrnong residents seeking views on how the council should recognise the legacy of January 26.
The council is stepping up consultancy on how to respond to the date, which it will mark this coming January by lowering the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half mast.
Mayor Michael Clarke said the lowering of the flags would “recognise the dispossession, suffering and hurt experienced by Aboriginal people”.
Councillors voted earlier this year to engage with “the First Nations and the wider established and newly arrived people of Maribyrnong” to formulate a clear direction on how to respond to January 26, variously referred to as “Australia Day”, “Invasion Day” and “Survival Day”.
The decision came after Cr Jorge Jorquera earlier failed to gain majority support for a motion “that council acknowledges January 26, the day Captain Arthur Phillip first raised the Union Jack flag in Sydney Cove as Invasion Day, a symbol of the forceful dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and a recurring reminder of over 200 years’ injustice”.
Cr Clarke said ‘Australia Day’, which has been a national holiday since 1994, has a complex history for many Australians, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“While for some, 26 January is controversial, painful and traumatic, and represents a day of mourning and sorrow, for others, it is a national day to celebrate,” he said.
Cr Clarke said the issue is an important conversation that the council was taking care not to rush.
“And it is also a complex one that will require empathy and understanding and many more conversations with our community as we gather and unpack their thinking.”
Postcards will arrive in 38,000 letterboxes early this month posing the question, which can also be answered online.
Cr Clarke said the council would prefer the Federal government took a lead on the issue, but in the absence of a national led conversation, the council must respond to the concerns of the community.
“We do not have the luxury of avoidance.”
Further details and feedback: yourcityyourvoice.com.au/january26
