“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives” – Jean-Francois Lyotard
Postmodernism deracinates the foundations and traditions of society as it demands a suspension of norms, traditions and beliefs. Thus, metanarratives can be reconsidered as society introspects and tries to redefine itself. Postmodernism, when applied selectively, can have positive effects on society, as introspection and critical thinking provides the intellectual groundwork for progress, innovation and alternate realities to be formed which may benefit society in general. The following essay on why Australia day is a day worth celebrating (metanarrative) will be analysed through the lens of the postmodernist zeitgeist.
Now and again, postmodern attitudes are intentionally applied to certain metanarratives in order to fulfil more treacherous aims. In the postmodern flux we live in today – this era of secular wokeness – it has ironically become a sick tradition for certain individuals to attack the foundations of our nation in the lead up to Australia Day. The cultural Marxist elites and their braindead locusts argue that it is culturally insensitive toward Aborigines to celebrate our national holiday on the day that marks British settlement. For these ConHeads, Australia Day remains “Invasion day”.
Others ramp up discussion of the Republic in order to stimulate dialogue, their aim being to encourage Australians to reconsider their own identity. The Australian Republican Movement constantly asks the question, “Who do we want to be?” This presupposes that as Australians we have a national identity but it can be changed like a pair of pants. National identities certainly evolve, however they ought to evolve organically in a way that fulfils the vision of our founding fathers as opposed to being pushed into a blizzard of multiracialism laced with secularism.
David Muir, an avid Republican and chair of the “Real Republican Movement” in his article in the Courier Mail, “Australia Day celebrates the arrival of convicts while a republic would be worth celebrating”, stated that Australia Day festivities are “archaic” as such a celebration reminds us of the First Fleet. Since when do Australians shy away from the fact that our history began on 26 January 1788? The vast majority of Australians accept Australia Day for what it is and most Republicans I know proudly display their flags as testament to their appreciation of our history, which whether Muir likes it or not, includes the arrival of the First Fleet.
The most recent poll by the Institute of Public Affairs found that in 2020, 71% of Australians supported Australia day remaining on January 26 while the same percentage &1%) also felt that “Australia had a history to be proud of”. Individuals such as Muir aim to purge Australia’s British influence from the national psyche as Britain represents the Monarchy, and a strong attachment to Monarchy in public discourse does not serve the Republican cause. Muir is not speaking on behalf of most Republicans since most Republicans celebrate Australia Day because they respect the reality of our history and don’t seek to alter it. Muir in effect is being a postmodernist for postmodernism’s sake. Whether he intends it or not, the dialogue he is creating foments doubt about our nation’s origins and promotes a sense of shame and disaffection toward our Western history.
The morbid and sensationalist noises from traitors who dub it “Invasion Day” seem to be growing louder as the years go by. These politically correct attitudes trickle down into the social sphere as they provide the ideological framework for those who seek to divide Australians on ideological grounds. From the incessant vandalism of Captain Cook’s Cottage to the banning of ALDI’s, “Est 1788 t-shirts”, and “I am the property of an Aussie boy” T-shirts and in more recent times the defacement of Captain Cook statues, it seems the cultural Marxists pounce whenever something passes their threshold of acceptance.
They cancel, deface, ban and attack all to promote their agenda of division and cultural disdain. They are the termites of a dilapidated house called Australia. They tear apart the foundations, hell bent on deracinating the foundations of our national culture. This is not an over-embellished analogy on my part. A case in point is Tarneen Onus Williams, who stated at an anti-Australia day rally in In Melbourne 2018, “Fuck Australia. I hope it fucking burns to the ground”.
Colonisation – whether one is sympathetic to its effects or not – is a historical reality. Perhaps some mistakes were made, but these blemishes are best remembered, analysed and discussed so they are never repeated. The balance sheet of history however is quite clear: colonisation has benefited humanity enormously. Colonisation spread technology, ideas and people, and established trade routes introducing countless cultures to the virtues of the West. Colonisation linked humanity and catalysed globalisation to which we owe our prosperity.
Many people who mention the mistakes of history seem to be very selective about their interpretation of Australia’s historical narrative. More often than not they focus on the negatives. Those who subscribe to the notion of “Invasion Day” claim that we shouldn’t celebrate on 26th of January. Well, which day should we celebrate Australia Day and would the ConHeads – if the date were to change – join the celebrations? Some might but it is quite clear most wouldn’t, as to them Australian history is nothing more than a sad story of racism, sexism and other forms of Wrongthink. Even if the day were to be changed, they wouldn’t bother celebrating what is in their eyes a shameful heritage.
So why cave in to these traitors? Nothing will ever satisfy them and we should stand up and be proud of our race and the achievements of our ancestors and never let these locusts destroy and undermine our ability to be proud of who we are as Australians and the achievements or our forebears.
The same cultural Marxists who oppose colonialism and its effects are the same ones who welcome the invasion of Australia by third world illegals and hordes of celestials. They are more than happy to lecture the fair dinkums about why we must “welcome the poor refugees” and that boat people are harmless victims who will contribute to society, yet by the same token they see the pioneers of 1788 as evil racists who destroyed the aboriginal nations. The hypocrisy is astounding, as Aboriginal culture and identity will continue to suffer so long as more alien cultures are imported at the expense of Aboriginal culture. Australian culture will also suffer if trends continue, yet the cultural Marxists supporting rapid demographic change can’t seem to apply the lessons of history to the modern day.
Our forefathers created Australia, built entire towns and societies, infrastructure and institutions. They put Australia on the map of the International community. What are the detractors complaining about? Would they rather the land mass of Australia reverts to terra nullius? That Australia remain a cesspool of warring cannibalistic tribes with a low life expectancy and absolutely no concept of Western ideas and values?
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Some of the proposed dates for Australia day to be moved to are extremely ridiculous and, ironically, racist. I have seen many prominent figures in the media such as Brooke Boney suggest Australia day should be changed to the 1st January, the day of Federation. Brooke claims to be Aboriginal; but how can she want to celebrate Australia day on a day which led to the formalisation of the White Australia Policy? One of the main reasons for federation was to allow the states of Australia to properly control its own borders and its ethnic composition as a White nation. This is precisely why the first Act passed by parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act, colloquially known as the “White Australia Policy”.
Federation also did not recognise Aboriginals as citizens. Men such as Henry Parkes and Edmund Barton, both pioneers and supporters of federation, espoused strong support for White Australia at the Federation conventions which began in 1891. In 1889, Parkes called for a federal constitution, and apart from defence, he also cited the danger of emigration of undesirables, or “the countless millions of inferior members of the human family who are within easy sail of these shores.” Barton himself recommended the bill to parliament while holding a copy of Charles Pearson’s “National Life and Character” in his hand and quoting at length about the perils confronting the white races,
Given these facts, January 1st 1901 is not exactly an appropriate date for promoting unity, as it quite literally led to the rejection of non-whites coming to Australia as well as the non-recognition of Aboriginals as civic equals to whites. As a nationalist, I have absolutely no issue with this and I actually agree with it from a political point of view. What I find absurd and hypocritical are these cultural Marxists like Brooke who, with their apparent historical amnesia, recommend that we change the date from a day colonisation to a day where the homogenous and arguably racist nation state of Australia was born.
This begs the question: Do the purveyors of the postmodernist perspective focus their energies on criticising Australia because they have a sharp disdain for our history, rather than a genuine concern for contributing an alternative day which everyone can relate to? The ultimate aim of their constant criticism is to make Australians feel ashamed the land was colonised. In 2014, delinquents vandalised Captain Cook’s Cottage in Fitzroy, spraying “26th of January Australia’s Shame!!!”. In more recent times, Greens activist and celestial Xiaoran Shi, a staffer for Greens MLC David Shoebridge, as well as Charmaine Morrison-Mills were arrested for defacing the statue of Captain Cook in Sydney in the wake of the Black Lives Matter rallies. While their subsequent convictions were a positive development, none of their employers fired them. In fact, Shi’s employer refused to condemn the actions of his staffer by stating in the chamber, “I will not be sacking my staffer for what she did.” He also justified her actions by stating they occurred “outside of work hours,” as if illegality can be justified when those committing the crime are off the clock.
The political message of “Invasion Day” is ridiculous as it implies that the arrival of the first British settlers on January 26 1788 is an event that we should all be ashamed of. May I remind the subscribers to this view that we live in a free, liberal democracy precisely because the British sought to acquire Australia. Our forefathers progressively pioneered our heritage. They established our political, judicial, cultural and social framework, and these processes culminated into the Australian constitution, undergirded by the British Monarchy and finalised by Federation in 1901. Our nation only exists because of the Western influence on the formation of our institutions, laws and culture.
Modern Australia is engaging in national self-flagellation regarding our British colonialist past. This is our heritage and we should proudly cherish and celebrate it rather than forget and be ashamed of it. It seems a bit rich to live in a free country where we enjoy a very relaxed and prosperous way of life yet some people living in that system advocate disdain for how we arrived to this great status quo. Lydia Thorpe is a prime example of a non-Australian who benefits from colonisation who wants to destroy this country as we know it. She attended the same anti Australia day rally in 2018 where Tarneen Onus Williams stated “Fuck Australia I hope it burns to the ground”. She never condemned those statements, even as a member of the Greens at the time. And now in 2020, Lydia herself has replaced Richard Di Natale in the Senate and has recently called for the renaming of Victoria due to the inherent colonial nature of the name.
There was a time in Australia when public discourse was benign and unconstrained. Today, people are afraid to express their true beliefs out of fear of causing unintentional offence. This fear is largely attributed to a loud minority of woke elites who mobilise their locusts in order to hijack public discourse. There was a time in Australia where something offensive would be laughed off or swept aside. Now, the pendulum has swung so far that beer companies are changing their brand to comport themselves to the new woke order. Even iconic Australian cheese brands are being asked to change their entire brand.
This must change. If expressing one’s pride in being Australian on Australia Day can be termed racist, if companies are being cancelled due to woke pressure then, what future does our nation have?
The PC crowd are determined to engender the perception that events such as Australia Day are exclusive to only some Australians. They seek to divide Australians on ideological lines. A few years ago, Kon Karapanagiotidis of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre called for a boycott of Australia Day celebrations saying that on that day his organization will be celebrating only Aboriginal culture.
Australia Day should be celebrated by everyone no matter what their politics or ethnicity. These people are attacking the very idea of having pride in one’s nation and are encouraging their followers to not engage in mainstream patriotic celebrations. That is something we must all ignore, expose and reciprocate by doing exactly the opposite; showing our pride for Australia.
Those who advocate division and historical amnesia for the positive aspects of our past should take to heart the words of former ALP National President, Warren Mundine. In response to the decision for ALDI to remove the Est 1788 t-shirts, Mundine criticised those who pressured ALDI to remove them, “We’ve got Aboriginal kids with health problems and kids not going to school – if you want to get fired up about something, try that … not a bloody T-shirt”.
The cultural Marxists also claim that changing Australia day to a date that is more culturally sensitive will aide in the “healing process” as well as reconciliation. There is absolutely no evidence of this. Kevin Rudd apologised in 2007, and the countless government programs, handouts and Aboriginal-only job opportunities have done absolutely nothing to lift the socio-economic status of Aborigines.
Further, reconciliation is also a two-way street. If KRudd apologised on behalf of whites, where is the apology from the Aboriginal community for the crimes of their ancestors? Case in point the Maria massacre, where 26 shipwrecked passengers, including women and 6 children, were slaughtered by the local Aboriginal tribe near Coorong, Adelaide in 1840. There were plenty of black-on-white massacres as well as rapes of white women which in turn led to reprisal attacks by Europeans. The Maria massacre, however, cannot be justified given that the 26 shipwrecked Europeans were innocent, yet where is the apology from today’s aboriginal community for this terrible crime, as well as all the other dirty deeds of their ancestors? Isn’t reconciliation a two-way street? How can healing genuinely occur when clearly whites also suffered at the hands of Aboriginals? Where is our apology?
Australians should ignore those who seek to only mention the blemishes of our history. The black-armband view of Australian history seeks to divide Australians and promote a guilt complex to a generation which has no connection to the events of the past. While I disagree with this approach to history, I reject with equal distaste the white blindfold view of history. We should be aware of our mistakes but never apologise for them, especially when those asking for an apology don’t apologise for the crimes of their ancestors.
We must all be cognisant of the fact that mistakes were made and these mistakes must be remembered. Hence, a middle-of-the-road view of history is necessary: an interpretation which celebrates the obvious greatness of our nation while refusing to outright condemn the misdemeanours of the past, but also acknowledges that mistakes were made. The positives, however, must bear greater emphasis to engender a collective appreciation of our rich past in order to instil national pride unity.
As Australians nationalists we must also remind the normies of the racial nationalist origins of Australia day. Australia day as we know it, was for many years known as ‘A.N.A’ Day, A.N.A standing for the Australian Natives Association. Anyone reasonably well-versed in Australian history will recall how A.N.A day was a celebration of White, Native-born Australians in their hard-worked, inter-colonial Commonwealth.
The Natives Association were the sole force in Australian society which staunchly, and endearingly lobbied the federal government for the creation of ‘Australia Day’; many older Australians will still call it ‘A.N.A Day,’ as they remember it was the Australian Natives Association who had sole control over this celebration until the 1970s. The celebration was indeed a large celebration of the accomplishments of the White, Australian Natives, in the setting of entertainment in Australian competitions like woodcutting, rallies, music, camp drafting and buckjumping.
Australia Day as a celebration, entirely finds its historical roots in the staunchly racial-nationalist Australian Natives Association. It as a celebration and should be time to venerate the great achievements of the Native-born white men of Australia, the families that struggled and fought for years to establish a White Man’s Commonwealth.
We must reject the postmodernist interpretation of our national story and accept our story for what it is. Celebrating Australia Day on the 26th of January is not just an expression of national pride. It is a timeless tradition that must prosper in order to protect the free expression, unity and right to nationalism of all Australians.
Australian Natives Association Day, 26th of January 1898
