There Is Nothing To Celebrate On January 26

I have nothing to add to the January 26 debate. Colonial violence persists across our nation, and that’s not something we can celebrate.

Cultural warning: This piece contains images and graphic references to First Nations people who have passed away. Trigger warning: Massacres, Deaths in Custody, destruction of Country.

Colonial violence continues to impact First Nations communities across our nation, in implicit and explicit ways that have continued since 1788. The legacy of Australia is founded on genocide and dispossession, something First Nations leaders have consistently reminded Australians of since the founding of the Day of Mourning in 1938.

What’s happening in this generation is built upon the colonial systems, mindsets and stories that have come from the generation before us. From the massacres to stolen generations, destruction of Country to deaths in custody; this is intertwined into the current experiences of First Nations people within our national identity.

A photo essay by Rona Glynn-McDonald.

Our people were killed, are killed

G. C. Mundy, ‘Mounted Police and Blacks’ depicts the massacre of Aboriginal people at Waterloo Creek by British troops, 1852

K. Beavan, Yuendumu people gather to smoke the police station after the police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, 2019

The destruction of our sacred sites continues

Workers on a coffee plantation at Kuranda, Queensland, circa 1900

Rio Tinto blew up sacred site Juukan Gorge, PKKP Aboriginal Corporation, 2020

There is not just one Stolen Generation

J van Hasselt, Journey to the Heart of Australia: The Stolen Generation, Getty Images, 1934

H. Cross, National Indigenous Times, 2019

The defence of whiteness persists

A.O. Neville, Australia’s coloured minority: its place in the community, State Library of Western Australia, 1948

D Arnold, Sydneysiders Rally Against Black Deaths In Custody, Getty Images, 2020

We still fight, we resist, we survive

State Library of NSW, Aborigines Conference: Day of Mourning, 1938

Junkee, All The Invasion Day Protests Happening Around Australia, 2020

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What future are we wanting to shape? One that centres the truths of our past and present, or one that continues to perpetuate colonial violence and celebrates the date this all began?

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Rona Glynn-McDonald is a Kaytetye woman from Central Australia and founder of Common Ground, an Aboriginal-led organisation capturing and sharing First Nations culture to educate wider Australia. Follow her on @ronaglynn