What is Australia Day?

Recent polls indicate that the Australian public is more and more wanting January 26^th as Australia Day – in the aftermath of the failed referendum of 2023.

So, the question: what is Australia Day: celebrating the landing at Sydney Cove and Governor Phillip taking possession of the land?.

Celebrating national spirit?

Indigenous peoples see 26^th January 1788 as a Day of Invasion. Governor Philip raised the British flag and took possession of the land as a British colony. Possession – Dispossession. January 25^th 1788 was the last day of indigenous ownership of this land.

Bishops endorse Uluru Statement from the Heart/ Endorsement by the Plenary Synod.

Australia’s Catholic bishops, on the recommendation of their key Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisers, have endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The bishops’ consideration of the matter was informed by the words of St John Paul II, who in a visit to Alice Springs in 1986 said to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: “Your culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear… Your songs, your stories, your paintings, your dances, your languages, must never be lost.”

Our 2023 Provincial Council affirmed the Uluru Statement.