Not a date to celebrate. ANDY HAMILTON SJ contends that we must strive for a national day that celebrates and reaffirms all Australians’ commitment to respecting human flourishing.
In its present form, Australia Day is clearly not satisfactory as a celebration of the nation. The event it commemorates, the Landing of the First Fleet, is divisive. But even in its present form, Australia Day does invite us to ask what we want our nation to be like and where our reality falls short. Such reflection is important after a year in which we have seen the horror of war in Gaza and Ukraine, the threat of a wider conflict, uncertain relationships with an unpredictable United States, economic pressures experienced unequally by Australians, polarised public conversation about a variety of social issues, and neglect of the urgent need to deal with global warming and to the potential of new technologies to change human life.
These challenges make it doubly important to have a large vision of Australian society as one in which each human being can flourish. We are all of equal value, equally precious, and our worth does not depend on our wealth, intelligence, achievement, race, religion or political allegiances. In this vision, we do not flourish by ourselves but through our relationships with others. We depend on others to be born and reared, to communicate, to do business, to form a family, and to trade. No person is self-made. Human flourishing depends on peaceable and cooperative relationships at every level of society.
Underlying good relationships is a respect for difference and complexity. It makes us aware of the many historical and contemporary relationships that have shaped human lives and of the ways in which those relationships have been wounded. This generous and complex view of the world is always under pressure, especially in hard times. People prefer a black and white, oversimplified view. That has been evident in the attempts to reduce the war in Gaza to a simple conflict between good and evil and to define the people of Israel and of Gaza the worthy and unworthy. We have also seen it in Australia, in the introduction of harsh laws directed at children who have committed serious offences. The call to submit children to the same penalties as adults has failed to respect the gradual growth of children into taking responsibility for their actions, the need of children for the support of family, and the destructive impact of confinement on their well-being. Treating children as adults often leads to different, and frequently catastrophic, outcomes. Respect needs to take account of difference.
Similarly, respect for Indigenous Australians must take account of the complexity of their historical relationships to settlers. The simplistic claim that all Australians must be treated the same ignores the effects of Australian settlement, dispossession, exclusion and discrimination against Indigenous Australians and on their descendants. If we are committed to make Australia a nation in which all people can flourish, we have many reasons to thank those who have gone before us. Respect for human dignity is embodied in the rule of law and in the institutions that support it. A national day that celebrates and reaffirms all Australians’ commitment to respecting human flourishing is worth striving for.