Australia Day
Jan. 27th, 2020 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yesterday (26th January) was Australia Day, marking the day in 1788 the first European settlers turned up in Sydney Harbour, planted a flag & got down to business. This, of course, didn't go down too well with, or subsequently for, the indigenous people who have received the short & occasionally sharp end of the stick ever since
Certainly in my lifetime, there has been an increasingly visible & audible protest movement against the national day itself & its callous celebration of what the indigenous people refer to as 'Invasion Day'. Leaving aside the fiercely argued cases on both sides for a moment, I'm curious about what happens in other countries with similar origins - most notably the USA. How do the Native Americans feel about days like Thanksgiving, or Founders Day etc..? Is there, or has there ever been a protest movement about the whitewashing of indigenous history, similar to what I've seen over the last few decades?
Certainly in my lifetime, there has been an increasingly visible & audible protest movement against the national day itself & its callous celebration of what the indigenous people refer to as 'Invasion Day'. Leaving aside the fiercely argued cases on both sides for a moment, I'm curious about what happens in other countries with similar origins - most notably the USA. How do the Native Americans feel about days like Thanksgiving, or Founders Day etc..? Is there, or has there ever been a protest movement about the whitewashing of indigenous history, similar to what I've seen over the last few decades?