This is a tricky one. First, as is the case with many things, no matter what changes are made to Australia Day, there will always be people who feel disenfranchised.

The changes suggested all have some merit - for example, changing the emphasis from celebrating the beginning of European settlement to that of the Federation of the colonies.

However, Australia and the Australian "identity" was not formed due to Federation; Federation arose BECAUSE of that growing Australian identity finally separating legally and politically from Great Britain (if not culturally). As far as I am aware, Federation did nothing to alleviate the suffering and disposession experienced by the continent's original inhabitants, and so the current protests and observance of the parallel "Invasion Day" would simply morph into another version of the same set of publicly expressed grievances.

There are other possible dates - 10 August, which is the date of the 1967 referendum that fixed a number of constitutional injustices and made the nation more "whole". Or... 26 January! This is the date of European settlement AND the date in 1972 on which the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was erected in Canberra. Both events helped bring about cultural changes to the nation.

But no matter what we do with Australia Day, until the myriad of problems for the original inhabitants that arose from the original colonisation and continue to this day are solved; and until new arrivals from non-European cultures are re-educated into accepting that they cannot bring with them the failed ideals and cultures that turned the countries they used to live in into war-torn cesspools of racial and religious bigotry; then there will always be those who celebrate the day, others who revile it, and others to whom it means absolutely nothing. Australia Day will mean many things to different people and it's a situation unlikely to change within our lifetime.

hj