60,000 years young and free in Australia- Change has come!

 

    “ONE AND FREE”

Australia, the largest country in Oceania, is in the news again. Last year (2020) Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of New South Wales, suggested a change of the wording in the country’s national anthem. She felt that the phrase “for we are young and free” ignored the country’s “proud first nations culture.”

On New Year’s Eve Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote this piece in the Melbourne-based Age newspaper: “Australia as a modern nation may be relatively young, but our country’s story is ancient, as are the stories of the many First Nations peoples whose stewardship we rightly acknowledge and respect.”

“Changing “young and free” to “one and free” takes nothing away but I believe it adds much,” the report on Aljazeera stated.

Australia’s national anthem Advance Australia Fair was written by Peter Dodds McCormick and performed for the first time in 1878. In 1984 it became the country’s National Anthem and replaced “God Save the Queen.”

“Australia has struggled for decades to reconcile with its Indigenous people who lived on the continent for tens of thousands of years before the British colonists arrived,” the article said.

On January 26 Australia marks Australia Day. On that day in 1788 the first fleet sailed into Sydney Harbor bringing troops from Britain along with many convicts. Some indigenous people refer to that day as Invasion Day.

First Nations Foundation Chairman Ian Hamm commented that “in terms of culture, society and population we go back 60,000 years. We are definitely not young. One and free looks at what brings us together. It’s actually a focal point for that discussion about who we are as a country.”

A report in The New York Times (Dec. 31, 2020) was headlined: “Australia Tweaks Anthem to Recognize Indigenous History.”  

“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years” it added.

On December 5, Olivia Fox sang Australia’s national anthem in the Indigenous Eora language before a Tri Nations Rugby match.

Thus, one word has been altered to recognize the Indigenous history of Australia. The anthem now describes the country as “one and free.”

The move to change “young and free” to “one and free” adds much, the leader of the Liberal Party, Scott Morrison, said.

The Opposition leader said Australia “should be proud of the fact that we have the oldest continuous civilization on the planet right here with First Nations people.”

Advance Australia Fair written in 1878 became the national anthem in 1984.

#Australia #Indigenous #British #Queen

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