January 26th

January 26th is a day the majority of us living in mainstream Australia have grown up knowing as Australia Day, a day to celebrate this land being discovered by Captain Cook and its beginning of colonlisation. For many it's just another excuse to party and the deeper meaning behind this day goes forgotten in personal satisfaction.

For those fortunate enough to have meaningful interaction and friendship with Indigenous people we came to realise that it was a day of different emotions for them and a painful trigger to all the past and present pain that Europeans coming to this land inflicted on their culture.

I aspire to think that these days more people are becoming more conscious of this bitter sweet day as it is, and have empathy and respect for our First Peoples and what it means to them.

I am not sure what happens widely across Australia about this day in schools but I am pretty aware that in the forward thinking, openhearted area around Byron Bay many are taking this angle of honouring Indigenous people on this day, and our younger generations are growing up with a much different perspective than say myself being in the public system in the 1980's where we were taught very little about culture let alone some brought into our classroom.

It's also such a wonderful thing to observe all local mobs standing strong and making the day one of celebration and survival of culture, bringing together all races and saying..."Here we are...we survived...we have so much to share...join us and keep culture alive! 

Becci ❤️