Submitted by Alexis Withers on the 2019 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering…
Time is really flying here in Australia! Everyone has been so excited lately. The school kids are on summer break (returning back sometime next week). It’s nice and warm outside; today the high was 108 degrees! Tomorrow is Australia Day, a holiday that is very popular here in the country. I asked a local if Australia Day is similar to the United States’ 4th of July and they immediately answered “NO” and that was the end of the conversation. When I got back to the dorm that night, I did some research. Apparently, Australia Day is like Thanksgiving in the U.S. and now the reaction made more sense. Australia Day marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. Similar to Thanksgiving, Australia Day is very a controversial holiday as it celebrates the time when white men seized land from it’s original natives. Thinking about the background of the holiday, it disgusts me. Why would anyone want to celebrate a holiday when it means suffering, pain, discrimination, etc. forced upon another race? It makes no sense to me, yet, I still celebrate Thanksgiving myself. This historical background gave me a bit of shock and forced me to do a bit of self reflection. I am excited to take part in tomorrow’s activities, we are going on an evening boat tour to watch fireworks and celebrate (celebrate what? I’m not too sure). I can only hope the future gets better from here!