Analysis: Moving Australia Day for Cultural Sensitivity & Inclusion

This report examines the ongoing debate surrounding Australia Day, celebrated annually on January 26th, and the growing movement advocating for a change in date to one that is more culturally sensitive and inclusive of all Australians, particularly Indigenous populations. The report highlights that January 26th marks the beginning of the dispossession of Australia's First Peoples in 1788, making it a day of mourning for many. It discusses the role of the Federal government in legislating such a change and emphasizes the importance of effective communication strategies, including traditional, non-traditional, and new media, to raise awareness and garner support for the campaign. The report concludes that a date change is crucial for fostering a more unified and respectful national identity, and it advocates for continued dialogue and action towards achieving this goal.

Changing the date of
Australia day, the push
to move it to a more
culturally sensitive
inclusive date
Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The Australia Day is an official national day for the people of Australia which is observed on
every 26th January as it marks 1788 landing of first fleet at the Sydney Cove and also raising of
Union flag by Arthur Phillip. This date marked proclamation of the British sovereignty over
eastern seaboard of the Australia. At present, this day is now celebrated with an aim to reflect
diverse society and the landscape of nation and also is marked by family and community events.
It reflects community awards as well as citizen’s ceremonies so as to welcome the new members
of Australian community (Chou & Busbridge, (2019)). This report will cover about changing the
date of the Australia day with an aim to move in more culturally sensitive inclusion date.
MAIN BODY
There have been many things which the Australian wants to celebrate about Australia but
January 26th do not represent the same as the inclusion day for everyone. The dispossession of
the first people of Australia have begun in the year 1788 on this date which represents the day of
mourning rather than a celebration. There has been the growing movement to change the date in
Australia for Australia Day to the day which is more inclusive of all the Australians.
In Australia, it is the Federal government who has the power to make changes in the legislations
being made in the country. The new commonwealth law at national level can be made only or the
existing law can be removed or changed by or under an authority of Federal Parliament by or in
accordance with Act of Parliament (Wainwright, (2017)). For the area of changing the date of
Australia Day, the power lies in Federal government as it is a matter of national interest and the
Federal government can bring change. Although the local as well as state government can bring
initiative and ask the change in Australia Day. In order to initiate the campaign for the change of
Australia Day, it can be initiated in the area of Federal government (Darian-Smith, (2017)).
One of the most significant social innovation competencies in the communication is focused
mainly on cooperation with the other parties like team members, beneficiaries or the funders. In
order to communicate the details of the campaign, there are many communication techniques
which will be used which includes the following-
 Placing the event in sequence and time: For making the successful communication of
the campaign, there must be communication of the time and the sequence in which the

details of the campaign will be communicated. It is essential that the campaign which is
such a wide range is communicated to all within time and in sequence.
 Using traditional media: In order to communicate the details of the campaign to large
audience, there must be use of various channels such as print advertisement, billboards,
television commercial and many others so that the people are delivered with the
awareness of the campaign. Moreover, the traditional media helps in targeting the broad
target audience as its range is larger and takes less time to reach large number of people
altogether. There are many benefits being attached with the usage of traditional media
which can be gained by choosing the right form of media and this choice mainly depends
upon demographic within which the campaign and its message is required to be reached.
By using this media, the campaign can be communicated easily and more and more
people will join it so that the positive outcome is taken. By using this medium, the people
who are not active on digital media can get to know about it easily as newspaper is such a
media which is reached to every home (Kakkar, (2020)).
 Using non- traditional media: There are many channels to it which includes mobile,
social, outdoor, etc. It is use of anything other than radio, TV, direct advertising or the
standard print. It includes street chalk art, viral videos, concerts, stunts, etc. There is no
limit for the creativity in this within which the target audience for the campaign can be
reached. It makes use of the uncommon or unusual advertising method or space. It has
now become the old method of communication as people has now become advanced and
started using digital channels (Wiyono and et. al., (2019, October)).
 New media: As now the generation is very advanced and fast, the traditional as well as
non- traditional media techniques cannot work for them so the details of the campaign
can also be communicated by using the methods of new media. It includes social media,
banner ads, use of mobile applications, etc. It basically involves using the digital channels
which can help in gaining popularity in advertising space. For communicating the details
of campaign, the social media can be used wherein the details of it can be reached to
broad range of audience in a single click (Morris, (2018)).
Hence, by making use of the above mentioned media such as traditional, new and non-
traditional media, the campaign for brining change in the Australia Day can be communicated

easily and be reached to large number of people in order to gain their support to make the
campaign successful.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that 26Th January is observed as the Australia Day in the state
of Australia. Although this day is widely criticized by the Australian people as they want to
move this day to a date which is more culturally sensitive. In order to make the campaign for the
change of date successful, there are many communication techniques which may be used that
includes traditional, non-traditional and new media which will help in reaching marge audience
in short period of time. Hence, for initiating the campaign, the Federal government is the area
being targeted as they are one who are responsible to bring change in this date.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chou, M., & Busbridge, R. (2019). Culture wars, local government, and the Australia day
controversy: Insights from urban politics research. Urban Policy and Research. 37(3).
367-377.
Darian-Smith, K. (2017). Turnbull Renounces City’s Vote to Drop References to Australia Day:
interview with Jaqueline Williams.
Kakkar, A. (2020). A survey on secure communication techniques for 5G wireless
heterogeneous networks. Information Fusion. 62. 89-109.
Morris, D. S. (2018). Twitter versus the traditional media: A survey experiment comparing
public perceptions of campaign messages in the 2016 US presidential election. Social
Science Computer Review. 36(4). 456-468.
Wainwright, S. (2017). Australia day versus truth and justice. Green Left Weekly. (1150). 5.
Wiyono, B. B., and et. al., (2019, October). The Comparative Analysis of Using Communication
Technology and Direct Techniques in Building School Public Relation. In 2019 5th
International Conference on Education and Technology (ICET) (pp. 81-86). IEEE.