Australia Day Quotes

“What is it that Australians celebrate on 26 January? Significantly, many of them are not quite sure what event they are commemorating. Their state of mind fascinated Egon Kisch, an inquisitive Czech who was in Sydney at the end of January 1935. Kisch has a place in our history as the victim, or hero, of a ludicrous chapter in the history of our immigration laws. He had been invited to Melbourne for a Congress against War and Fascism, and was forbidden to land by order of the attorney-general, R. G. Menzies. He had jumped overboard, broken his leg, gone to hospital, failed a dictation test in Gaelic and been sentenced to imprisonment and deportation. When the High Court declared Gaelic not a language, Kisch was free to hobble on our soil...”
― K.S. Inglis, Observing Australia: 1959–1999

“Australia Day isn't about racism. It's about belonging and being a part of one of the best countries on Earth.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Blood and Blunder
(The Sonnet)

The world is filled with atrocious holidays,
Columbus Day, Australia Day and Thanksgiving.
Holidays steeped in blood and blunder, are
passed on proudly as occasion of merrymaking.

Imagine celebrating 9/11 as a day of freedom,
Yet colonizers do exactly that without shame.
And these animal holidays are a thousand times
more atrocious than the crash of nine eleven.

Nine eleven is a ghastly stain upon history,
there is no doubt or question about that.
But what about the infinitely larger stains,
inflicted, respected and celebrated by cowards!

Human rights can never prevail till we
dismantle every false celebration.
Animals find honor in blood and blunder,
We become human through course correction.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee