Pride with a Price: My Personal Reflections on Australia Day

By Patrick Luo

Picture Credit: Johan Mouchet

It is January 26th. Australia Day.

Thousands of Australians, particularly Indigenous Australians, march through Sydney holding banners reading “Invasion Day – January 26, 1788.”

Nearby, thousands of others wave blue Australian flags, carrying signs that say “Proud to be a True Blue Aussie.”

That image reflects an internal battle within me about where I stand.

Is January 26, 1788, a day worth celebrating?

Is it a day to celebrate what we know as modern Australia and its achievements?

Or is it a day that should not be celebrated, because a modern nation was built on the persecution of Indigenous Australians, a persecution that continues today?

If this date is so polarising, should we change the date, or change the way we celebrate it?

Economically, I am deeply grateful for my family, part of the many migrants who came to Australia and worked with determination despite language barriers, long working hours, and financial risks. Yet when I return to my room and look at my laptop, I am met with headlines showing statistics of Aboriginal youth like me struggling with education and being overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

Politically, standing at the Hyde Park War Memorial in Sydney, I feel immense respect for Australian servicemen and servicewomen who served abroad to ensure that young Australians like me never have to pick up a rifle to protect ourselves. Yet as I watch documentaries, I see Indigenous war veterans recalling, with anger still in their eyes, how they were barred from voting until the 1960s despite having sacrificed so much.

I also celebrate an Australia where diversity is not seen as a limit, but as an opportunity to build coexistence under a stable and strong framework. This was evident when Australians from all backgrounds held a moment of silence during New Year’s 2025, paying tribute to 15 Australians, mostly Jewish, killed in a terrorist attack at Bondi Beach. Yet I cannot forget what we were taught in school: Aboriginal children systematically separated from their families, entire generations losing cultural connections as they were forced into mission homes to assimilate.

During the Olympics, I celebrate the determination that pushed Australia to fourth place at the 2024 Paris Games, outranking the host nation, France. Yet as the world cheers Australia’s performance, I vividly remember watching on television as boos filled the stadium when Adam Goodes played. An Indigenous Australian footballer, he dedicated himself to forcing our society to confront racism after being called an “ape” by a 13-year-old girl during a match in 2013.

When I look at other countries’ national days, they often appear rooted in moments of clear triumph. France celebrates July 14, marking the storming of the Bastille in 1789. The United States, a settler colony like Australia, does not celebrate the day of settlement, but July 4, 1776, when the thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain. Critics may argue that no national day is purely good. France’s revolution led to a republic that later practiced brutal colonialism. American independence marked the beginning of a state that systematically dispossessed Native Americans through reservations.

So if January 26 is so polarising, why do Australians, even as society becomes increasingly multicultural, resist changing the date?

From my experience, there is one overarching reason: Australia struggles to find an alternative date with the same emotional weight that does not clash with another major event. January 1, the day Australia federated in 1901, clashes with New Year’s Day. March 3, marking full legislative independence from Britain in 1986, lacks emotional resonance. April 25, commemorating the Gallipoli landings, is seen as a day of remembrance for fallen servicepeople, not celebration.

Without another date that carries similar national significance, Australians are repeatedly pulled back to the polarising date of January 26, 1788.

I have made my decision individually: Pride with a price. I celebrate modern Australia’s achievements on January 26, but I do so while also celebrating the achievements of Aboriginal Australians, achieved not because of the nation’s history, but in spite of its repression.