1/01/2021
Conflicting emotions abound as I examine the change to our National Anthem initiated and implemented by the Prime Minister. On the one hand it stops the whitewash of 60-80,000 years of First Nations Peoples history. And this is a welcome start to a change process which needs to be far more pervasive.
On the other hand, the change is being implemented at a time when this same government has imprisoned, on Christmas Island, a family of four, two of whom are born in Australia. Priya and Nades and their two girls have now been in that detention area for over one thousand days.
Whatever their status, we cannot be “one and free” whilst these people languish in their detention centre.
There are also many Aboriginal people wrongfully detained for petty crimes that defy the meaning of the phrase as changed by the PM.
Sincerely
Suresh Rajan