Merchandise Or Not To Merchandise

There is controversy over the fact that one of the major grocery chains has decided to forgo the Australian Day merchandise this year as the lead up to Australia Day draws closer. This has sparked outrage by several Australians who liken this as a betrayal, unAustralian, as well as political who are catering to the “minority” and as one commenter said “Can you imagine this happening on the 4^th of July? There would be another Boston Tea Party!”

Let us break all that down shall we.

The main reason that this has occurred is there is no more profit in selling Australia day merchandise. It costs more for it to be made, shipped, and displayed than it does to sell the items due to a decrease in sales of those products. It will not take long until other grocers will follow suit. And this makes sense as a business, however in today's climate it would not have mattered what the business did, it would be viewed in the political scope. If they kept the merchandise, they do not care about Aboriginal people who view the day as a day of mourning, an invasion day. Since they have publicly stated not having the merchandise many see it as a betrayal. The “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” in real time

The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest the British Parliament taxation of tea with the cry of “no taxation without representation”. The British government viewed it as an act of treason. Australia though it is a separate country in regard to location we are still under the ruling of the British, so if those who are hating the concept of no Australia Day merchandise were to conduct a “Boston Tea Party” style protest they are protesting the British who they use for their “proud to be white” mentality. This leads into the whole “Can you imagine this happening on the 4^th of July?” aspect. This too, is a celebration of the separation of the Bristish ruling over The United States of America. Many who want Australia Day to change the date, also want to have separation from the British ruling. Both concepts are something that the left wing of the political bird want. The right wing of that bird is the one hating the idea of the Australian Day merchandise not being sold. Kinda ironic.

With the “betrayal” side of things, that goes hand in hand with what the country has been through from day dot. There was a betrayal of the original inhabitants of this land by claiming that there was no one here first. That is where the land was called Terra Nullius which is Latin for “nobody’s land”. The law at the time was to make a treaty with any inhabitant of a land of which British wanted to inhabit themselves. However, with the establishment of Terra Nullius, that law would be able to be circumvented. This is where we can say that the land was stolen because it was. The furthering of that betrayal is the killing of the inhabitants in massacres including one on the 26^th of January that resulted in 50 Aboriginal people killed. In fact, in 1938 the 26^th of January was called the Day of Mourning. It was a protest in which the call to have Aboriginal people to have the same rights as white Australians, including having citizenship. That day also marked Anniversary Day which including a re-enactment of the First Fleet, including having a group of Aboriginal men from Menindee to play the role of Eora Mob of Port Jackson. The protestors marched silently from Town Hall to Australian Hall in Elizabeth Street at about 1:30pm. While there were relatively small numbers by today's standards, those 100 had speakers who spoke up about the atrocious and inhumane living and working conditions of Aboriginal children, and adults. One such speaker Pearl Gibbs said on the day ‘Conditions on all the Aboriginal stations are a disgrace. They are all very much alike. At Brewarrina the children are taught by a man who is not a qualified teacher. Two old men on that station, one blind, the other a cripple, are left by themselves in a half-starved state. I spoke to these old men, and when they told me how badly they were treated it made me cry, and pray that this movement will be a success.’ And in early February, ‘You white people awoke on Anniversary Day with a feeling of pride at what you had done…but did you not think of the Aborigine’s broken hearts, and that for them it was a day of mourning? What has any white man or woman done in this country to help my people, the Aborigines? The Aborigines are now taking up the matter for themselves and asking for citizenship. It is not ridiculous or silly for them to ask for citizenship in a country that is their own.’ Why is it that in 2024, 84 years later we are still having to protest the same things?

How can anyone be proud of the overtaking of another country by deadly force?

Yes, it is unAustralian to not have the Australian Day merchandise in the store because Australia has been anti – first inhabitants from the very start and any step in trying to fix the issue will be fought with disdain. That is something that Aboriginal people have dealt with since the Bristish came here and colonized – stole, this land. What would not have been a minority issue if the British did not kill en masse Aboriginal people in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with the changing of the date to one which would appease both sides of the fence. A white flag so to speak. There is nothing stopping anyone from organizing a BBQ for their family and friends if they want to. In my opinion, if we were to sperate from British ruling and then have a date that can easily become the new Australia Day, complete with a rebranding of the flag to remove the Union Jack from the current Australian Flag, we will see a more harmonized Australia.