CEO message: We’ve changed the date ourselves
Happy New Year to all of our colleagues and supporters, we hope you’ve had a wonderful start to 2025 so far. We’re excited to be back in the office and looking forward to diving into our priorities for the year.
We acknowledge there are many diverse views surrounding Australia’s national day on 26 January, and that many people want to celebrate the day. At CMY, we recognise the truth of this day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We firmly believe this is not the right day to celebrate our nation.
It is a day of mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, also known as Invasion Day or Survival Day. The date marks the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788, the dispossession of First Nations land and the ongoing traumatic impacts of colonisation.
As an organisation, we’ve been on a journey of reflection and learning over the past couple of years, through our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). We want to contribute to an Australia in which First Nations peoples’ rights to self-determination, culture and land are recognised and respected, first and foremost.
Our staff have been building their knowledge of the true history and experiences of Australia’s First Nations peoples, including the significance of 26 January. With this understanding, a majority of CMY staff (over 70%) have signed on to Change the Date ourselves for a third consecutive year. They have elected to work on Monday 27 January, and will take an alternate public holiday later in the year.
CMY feels strongly that Australia’s national day should be held on a more inclusive date that everyone, from First Nations to newly-arrived communities, can feel united and proud to celebrate together. We’re heartened by our staff commitment to taking this stand, while recognising it is only a small and symbolic step towards reconciliation and there is still much more work to be done.
We look with hope towards a future where all of us can acknowledge Australia’s true history, appreciate our richly diverse cultural heritage, and celebrate on a date that unites us rather than divides us.
To hear a range of views and perspectives from Indigenous Australians on the 26 January, check out ABC’s Hear Me Out: Australia Day.
You can find a guide to events happening across Victoria on NIT’s website here.
Carmel Guerra OAM
CMY CEO
Artwork featured in this post is by Merindah-Gunya, commissioned for CMY’s Reconciliation Action Plan.