Artists divided as some boycott Australia Day

No matter what you call it – Australia Day, Invasion Day, Survival Day – there’s no doubt that 26 January is a day of deep-rooted tension.
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For some, 26 January is a day to celebrate the founding of the country we now call Australia. For others it’s an excuse for a barbie and a day off. But for ​many Australians – especially Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders – 26 January is a day of mourning, marking the European invasion of Australia and a subsequent history of dispossession, oppression and intergenerational trauma.

Australia Day concerts, festivals and fireworks will take place around the country on Thursday but there will also be events commemorating the tragedies of colonisation and celebrating the survival of the world’s oldest continual culture – in spite of the trauma and disruption caused by white settlement.  

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts