Australia Day Persuasive Speech

1232 Words3 Pages

On January 26th 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and raised the British flag on Australian Soil. This is formally recognized as Australia Day. It is a day where ceremonies are taken place and consist of welcoming new citizens and honoring those who did a great service to their country. It is a day recognized to all where fun activities such as BBQ’s, performances, fireworks, and gatherings are initiated. For Indigenous Australian’s, this day is referred to as its recent name of ‘survival day’, as this defines the ongoing battle for recognition of their stolen land throughout their generations. In January 1988, members of indigenous groups made an effort to promote awareness among other Australians …show more content…

Racial acts flooded the media in 2009 on Australia Day when the Manly riots were the initial the start of a denied ‘racially motivated’ attack on non-Anglo people. Author 1 concludes with the basic intention of changing the way Australians should “Acknowledge the past, atone for their mistakes, repudiate jingoistic nationalism and move towards a national celebration inclusive of all Australians” (Tennant-Wood, 2014, p. …show more content…

Australia’s defining moment came long after the First Fleet when Goth Whitlam abolished the ‘White Australian Policy’ in 1973, allowing white and colored people to integrate with each other as “Australia abandoned the desire to create a homogenous British monoculture and instead opened their arms and hearts to a new philosophy that sees the beauty in diversity” (Jones, 2014, p. 4).

The term multiculturalism was considered an official policy within the government under Goth Whitlam’s rules, and strengthened the policy due to the Vietnamese asylum seekers who settled in Australia in change of a new life – “Multiculturalism has been an Australian success story” (Jones, 2014, p. 4). This article written by Benjamin T. Jones focused on the realization of Australia becoming a modern state and identifying the true moment a nation was born. “Multiculturalism has brought to Australia a richness and diversity that Arthur Phillip and his reluctant fellow voyagers could not have fathomed” (Jones, 2014, p.

Open Document