Happy Australia day !!!!

Yes .

Well said!! Happy Straya day to you all

here here

,

goof stuff Blowin. I just had a chiko roll, beers-possible??? Big Grey felt the tremors. Bet the mob been spooked. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tremors all building towards energy amp on full moon, jan 31. Best way to avoid any crap is to to take Blowin's advice and be thankful and celebrate your life. That's a nice vibration and resonance creates a pattern in the electromagnetic spectrum for ya. Waves are a coming- get shacked everyone.

Minus the fact that some Australians feel like the day celebrates the genocide of the Indigenous race.

Amen to the OP

brc. A Prime Minister has said sorry. All of us are. We missed the opportunity to learn knowledge. But Life history shows a record of wasted opportunities- all of us know it. Accept it, admit it, release it and focus on the present to give our future a gift- a gift of unity, a celebration of our diversity and the maturity to not repeat our past mistakes. Australia Day can be whatever you want it to be- wow, freedom to choose- you little beauty- ozzie ozzie ozzie- even cliche's allowed- groan- so don't moan- the seeds been sown- Appreciation.

Keep on truckin' Dave!

thanks boys, life loves ya. lap it up.

Australia Day rose to social and national prominence during the 1990's coinciding with JWH's government's conservative narrative (along with other symbols of our nationalism e.g Anzacs).

Australia Day wasn't a national holiday until 1994.

Respectful debate about the date is legitimate reflecting the increased voice and representation of Aboriginals in our political life. Like the republic debate all this will wash out in the end.

Loved your 10.03 words Blowin, we do live in a great country, we are very lucky. Have a great day everyone.

Im pleasantly surprised it took nine post to get to the predicted topic, was honestly expecting it to be in the first or second post.

A quick history read about how it became known as Australia Day
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/5189193/time-will-tell-what-a-differen...

Happy Australia Day to all and sundry
Cheers big ears

"But Life history shows a record of wasted opportunities- all of us know it. Accept it, admit it, release it "

Sure, but celebrate it? Glorify our making of a nation under a legal fiction, and pretend it isn't there?

Can't abide the jingoism of Australia Day.

Doesn't mean I don't count myself lucky, or keep tabs on the blessings that have come my way. I'll tolerate this day, but not celebrate it.

I agree batfink.

I agree blowin.

BF and BB, you blokes blackfellas??????? My grandfather got a job working with Ram Chandra the Snakeman, cause he was the best local to know snakes. You blokes do and think and act how you want- and that's acceptable- in modern day australia- which we are celebrating- 2018.
My Nan died last night and she was all for forgiving fuck ups and looking at life- RIGHT NOW< RIGHT NOW. LOkk, are you blessed, are you dressed or are you depressed. If so just press de button for blessings my friends, they are all around you. Maybe even inside you. I'm listening to the Sunnyboys, drinking beer and watching pretty girls go by, yeah baby, thanks Australia, thanks life.

Fair comment but I will not celebrate Australia Day until it is widely accepted in the indigenous community. Thousand marching in Invasion Day protests today suggest that is not the case. But if you want to celebrate I wish you well.

Thanks brutha, may you be happy with what you define as being happy is , too.In fact, may you be whatever you like.

And the Australia Day Swellnet Award of the year goes to Davetherave for being the most open and optimistic contributor to grace the annuals of Swellnet. Special mention goes to Blowin for his colourful stories and opinions. Dont worry Ben, Stu and Craig ,you 3 get the best Surf website award ....oi oi oi

+ 1 for Dave.

And apropos of nothing at all, I'm currently drinking champagne.

Champagne!

If I was aboriginal, I would be not celebrating the birthday of genocide and horror.
Its a Fucking sick joke.

Yeh ant but what alternative do you have, to show explicit gratitude for living in the country you do? It requires a nationally recognised day to incite the feelings we all feel today, positive or negative, gratitude or despair.
I temper my gratitude and joy of celebrating where I live today with the recognition that there is much work to do with reconciling with the indigenous people of our land.
The way forward might involve increasing the significance, for all Australians, of a day like sorry day.

"They tell us to 'get over it, forget it and move on!' Move on? Well, Gallipoli was about 100 years ago, so let's f---ing move on from that too. But no – that's 'Aussie spirit'."

Briggs. Smh. Jan 12. 2018.

I think this changing the date thing has now just become a power thing, with one side of politics pushing for it to show they have the power and the other side resisting it to show they are not going to be pushed around, each just pandering for certain demographic (left/right)

I think its just one of those things that will happen in time i think the smart move for the liberals is to change the date so Labor can't claim it as a victory once back in power.

Just say we are changing the date in respect to Aboriginal people, but also make it clear the meaning of Australia day and what we celebrate doesn't change, do all your historical reenactments or whatever you like.

IMHO actually dates are irrelevant i think if the date was changed this would become clear, and you would get similar controversy around the day, or maybe I'm wrong maybe if they change the date Aboriginal people are suddenly going to be celebrating Australia day.

I'm with batfink and BB on this one. When Dave the rave and I were in school together, there was no Australia day. It didn't exist. So it's not like Bastille Day, or July 4..
Jan 26 is a NSW centric day.. It has no relevance to me. It has no relevance to Qld, or Victoria, or S.A or any other state or territory. .... July 9 1900, and Jan 1st 1901 should mean more to all Australians than Jan 26- the day Queen Victoria signed our "freedom", and the day Australia, the WHOLE of Australia, became a federation. But we're too young and immature to celebrate Jan 1st...

And as a white man, I'm not going to tell Joe Pilot (remember him and Freddy, dave) how to feel. Listen to their hurt.. Put all of your made in China flags down for a minute. Have some empathy... That's what an Aussie would do... Listen...

But the most meaningful date/s to me?
On the 10th of August 1967, the amendments voted on re' the 27/5/1967 referendum in regards to recognising Aboriginals and including them in AUSTRALIA'S POPULATION became law.

It's a no brainer... In 1967, our indigenous brothers and sisters were no longer counted as fauna, and included in the census.. I feel sort of dirty that I was actually alive at the time this happened, a mere baby, but alive when Aboriginals were just wild life.

Absolutely sheepdog!

We all should feel a little dirty for that one. 1967, such recent history!

But with a ninety something percent result, thats also a proud time for australia

There is lots to celebrate, just choose a better date, especially considering its only been on jan 26 for such a short time. The event hasn't been around long enough to develop the nostalgia to defend yet. But now here we are, caught up in the date culture wars

Just choose a better date and get on with it

well, as usual, everyone is allowed to voice their view. Such a panorama. Just to clarify, Australia Day to me is everyday. Everyday I choose to be kind. I choose to be supportive. I choose to be tolerant. I choose to be respectful. I choose to be appreciative. Sheepdog, Freddy P was from TI???? and Jan 1 to me is my nan's birthday, Jan 26 is the day I learnt she had died. So as far as dates go, you can stick them up your da.....colander oh calender/kenny, or who bloody cares.
I thank everyday for being special regardless of it's so called title.
Yes it's jingoism, christmas is commercial, the easter bunny is bigger than yeshua, it's humanity insanity, bloody entertaining, a little bit whacky, but here we are, so we can enjoy the show, it all helps us grow, so you gotta know, Australians all let us rejoice for we are old, creaky arthritic and pussywhipped- love the anthem boys, just love it. All of the above is in jest. If you can't laugh, well, you can't laugh! No responsibility taken as day leave was not official.

As i wake up with a slight?! hangover i must say i'm a proud aussie, but not proud of some of the nongas who i had a beer with yesterday, still living with their archaic bogan views on this subject. I asked them could you forget & forgive if your mother, grandmother ,son, daughter,
was taken from you just because of skin colour? Years later finding out they had died before you got to know them, be with them as family, learn from them, love them. The answer..
move on, get over it, shit happens...i guess one can only say that when one hasn't experienced losing a special someone. We still have a lot to learn! The 26th ,NSW becomes a colony, Jan 1st 1901 this land becomes AUSTRALIA , a nation. That's the day!

I think the date ought to be changed. January 1st (agree with Sheepdog and others). But celebrate Australia Day without being a republic and changing the flag??? .... so change the date to January the 1st, become a republic and get rid of the Union Jack from the flag and you have right there a reason for a massive big party under the Southern Cross ... and after the hangover clears we could think about getting an independent foreign policy ... more reason to be a proud Aussie and hit the piss a 2nd time round.

Yep, change the day. The trouble with January 1, the most logical choice, is that day is already reserved as a holiday for sleep ins and hang overs. It wouldn’t work. July 9 would be ok, Be we lose that summer bbq vibe it’s got going, and would become less “celebrated”. It’s actually a tricky little problem with no perfect solution. Best wait till we become a republic, and move it to that day.

Cheers to you Blowin, and all the other legends that make this land such a pleasure

So some people see Australia day ,as a time to celebrate their personal well being and happiness , but I would like to think Australia day is about reflecting on how we , collectively as Australians are faring?
If you look back over the past year how are we as a Nation travelling?
Would you take into account , how our politicians performed this year ,are our environmental policies working , refugees , are our indigenous people better off , is the economy working for everyone , how would you rate the future Australia and what is being left for our kids?
Some people just liked to go and have a Barby Q , get pissed , self gratification , or the classic , " I'm alright Jack!" , the idea of Australia collectively celebrating a National day is fine , but for who?

Yesterday the influence of Australia day was close to zero for me, i caught up with family but we didn't mention anything about Australia day, it was obvious it was a public holiday because the roads were busy, but when i was out and about i saw no signs of Australia day like flags etc, even on my Facebook feed i think i only saw one Aussie flag and maybe five post max on Australia day which i quickly skipped over, then this thread here, i didn't even smell any BBQ's going or no party or music in our area, i didn't turn the TV on so saw nothing in that way, we had Indonesian friends over for dinner but Australia day subject never came up, i pretty much forgot it was Australia day until i saw this thread.

sharkman makes some good points. thats why I am continually working behind the scenes to evolve Australia into the community I can visualise. But doing it through a surfing site forum is not the best place. Swellnet forum is a great site. Lot's of interesting people with great ideas and outlook. But when I decided to get the government to investigate corporate tax payments, I went through the freedom of information act people, i went through the ATO, I emailed all the national media about asking how much tax did so and so company pay last year. Fortunately the ABC got and board and we pestered the govt especially to do their jobs as ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE"S OF THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC and get these cock suckers to pay some tax. I wanted more, but it was a start.
That was all done through the correct channels though, not through a surfing forum. Go straight to where a decision can be made,bypass all the who-har. Airing your views on Swellnet wont get policy changed, not alone anyway
But for clarification.
I no longer believe in nations, or any of their patriotic fear-vor, we are all beings living on/ in/ within one biosphere. Not just aboriginals have been persecuted/ ripped off/ killed/defamed/mistreated/ frauded/ stolen- fuck we are still doing it to each other today- blind freddy and deaf dora can understand- it doesn't work. WHY, because any energy that is transmitted has to eventually return the transmission to the sender. You give hate- you get hate etc etc. All human being fucking idiotic behaviour and problems stem from this misunderstanding. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself is not a soundbite or a slogan from a silly bloody religious dogma as some would see it all, but an exact scientific understanding of electro magnetic energy transference in regards to being a human whilst having a life on planet earth.
australia is going okay, we are all going okay, is their room for improvements, I think yes, there is, but this excites me because if we can use our mistake ridden past as a friend that says- don't do this, don't be like this, i think our future and our kids future can be a lot better, but all I can do about that is be the best version of me that I can be- and I wish that for all you as well in whatever way you desire it to be.

Bravo Blowin and Dave.
That's one thing I do regret that we lost - the knowledge of the energy field lines within the landscape and the people. There was understanding of this within the Indigenous population, hope it can resurface. It's coming back, it will return. Peace to you all. Surfing brain out over Australia day holiday weekend. What a great country, love it, we are all so lucky.

Did someone mention energy fields, maybe cosmic waves?

Cheers sheepdog.. voice of reason amongst a sea of denial. I'm with you.

Happy to have a day off for Australia Day, such that it is. Have a swim, little paddle and a few beers, but I won't party on Australia Day. It's not a date to celebrate.

It does highlight the conflicted position we as a country now find ourselves in. We have a lot we could celebrate, but much we still need to honestly address. Upon doing that we have the chance to strike out on a new path as one united nation. We didn't ask for this British Colonial legacy, but no one else is going to do the healing for us. So let's get on with that. Indigenous Treaty, Republic, New Flag, New Australia Day to Celebrate!

Anyone know if the majority Hawaiians have a problem with having the unionjack on there flag?

Hawai’s national flag is the Stars and Stripes. Same flag as the rest of the USA.

As to their state flag, my guess is that like every other state flag in the world, the locals wouldn’t have the foggiest what it is. I certainly have no idea what the NSW state flag looks like. But I might just be projecting my ignorance onto others.

I think your selling the Hawaiians a bit short there chook i'd be staggered if they didnt know what there flag looks like. JJF & AI are/were heroes and they are/were always draped in them.

You’re right...I’m totally wrong about US states are their flag.
I haven’t seen the surfers drapped in flags. I Don’t follow comps. But Californians display their state flag with the bear on it everywhere.