Jordan Raskopoulos Reckons We Should Change Australia Day To May 8, Maaate
"Sure, it might be a bit cold in May, but it's not as cold as ignoring genocide."
With the #changethedate movement picking up well-warranted momentum lately, your Facebook feed is likely full of calls to move our national day of celebration to a date that isn’t so deeply offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Triple J recently contemplated moving the Hottest 100 to a different day (and what the hell else do our great nation’s citizens do besides listen to the countdown on Australia Day?) But until now, nobody has really agreed on an appropriate alternative date.
Well, comedian and Axis of Awesome frontwoman Jordan Raskopoulos thinks she may have found a possible solution.
I say it every year but can we just have Australia day on May 8? May8? M8! maaaaaate
— Jordan Raskopoulos (@JordanRasko) January 10, 2017
She’s expanded on her idea in a video for Junkee today. “For some Australians, [January 26] is a bit of a shitty day”, Raskopolous says in the clip. “It’s the day Australia was invaded by colonists.”
She then goes on to explain why changing the date is just the decent thing to do. “Let’s imagine that Australia is one big sharehouse. And you live in that sharehouse. And your housemates come home and say ‘We’re going to have a party on Friday night,’ and you say ‘Can we not do it on Friday night? That’s the day my dad died’.
“Good housemates would say ‘Sure, let’s have it next week, we want to make sure everyone has a good time. It’s kind of like that, except your housemates moved in without permission, they don’t pay rent, and their dad killed your dad.'”
“Sure, it might be a bit cold in May, but it’s not as cold as ignoring genocide.”
Check out the whole clip here: