We need to celebrate our own National Day!

Good idea. What about 1st January? That’s the day when Australia actually became a Nation!

No way - we all have hangovers on 1_st _January!

_Has to be 26__th _January.

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Because … ?

_ __It’s the day that a bunch of British troops __established a correctional facility on aboriginal _land on the shores of Sydney Harbour! Cool, eh?

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**But for our National Day shouldn’t we be **celebrating something that we Australians did?

_ __Those Poms were white and they all spoke English - _that’s close enough!

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**But shouldn’t we be celebrating something more ****praiseworthy or heroic for our National Day? Like **the French, who celebrate storming the Bastille?

_ __The Poms had just sailed halfway round the world - __give them a break! But they did chop down a few _trees, pitch a few tents and run up a Pommy flag!

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**Hang on! Most countries celebrate their ****_independence _****on their National Day: when they ****_stopped _being someone’s colony. But isn’t 26th ****January the day Australia ****_started _**being a colony?

_ _Shows we don’t just mindlessly follow the majority!

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**Shouldn’t we have first tried to negotiated a treaty **with the indigenous people, like in New Zealand?

_ __Waste of time - we were going to take all of their _land anyway, whatever they said.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.