Commemorating the Nation Roslyn Russell looks at memorabilia in the Library to see how The ‘imagined community’ that is the nation of However, some celebrations of this date were larger and more significant than the rest. They occurred at 50-year intervals—the Centenary in 1888, the Sesquicentenary in 1938 and the Bicentenary in 1988. And the organisers of each celebration chose a different thematic focus around which to create a national mood, and to evoke national aspirations. All of these anniversaries were contested by particular groups which considered that there was scant reason for celebration of this particular date. The National Library of Australia holds a rich collection of material relating to all the significant anniversaries. Through this, it is possible to demonstrate the fluctuating fortunes of the celebration of Australia Day at these key times, and to participate in the prevailing national moods created around them. Beneath the effusions of national rhetoric, the banners and posters, the photographs and videos, the surrounding graphic styles of three different eras reveal the ways in which Australians represented themselves to themselves, and to the wider world.
The year that British settlement in The Centenary was celebrated unevenly across the continent. South Australia did not bother. Victoria and New South Wales shared the celebratory burden, with the southern colony offering to host a Centennial International Exhibition in the grand building constructed for its first international exhibition in 1880–81 (now The New South Wales Court in the exhibition, given pride of place in the building, featured an enormous bust of Captain James Cook, who was hailed in the rhetoric surrounding the exhibition as the man who had brought civilisation to the continent of
Nevertheless, a pamphlet held in the National Library’s Special Collections shows that the New South Wales Commissioner, R. Burdett-Smith, was anxious to see that the other ‘founding father’ of white What time could be more appropriate than during the celebration of our first centenary to do meet justice to the memory of … Captain Arthur Phillip … the illustrious man who, a hundred years ago on January 26 next, unfurled the British standard on our shores, and mainly laid the foundations of social life under circumstances of great difficulty and perplexity, requiring much prudence, forethought, self-denial and courage. Burdett-Smith delicately avoided mentioning the fact that Phillip governed a colony composed mainly of felons transported from Britain. The Bulletin was not so circumspect: a cartoon published at the time of the Centenary showed a convict in leg irons dancing to the piping of a military guard in 1788; and an Australian bushman dancing to the accordion tune of the imperial capitalist, John Bull, in 1888. According to The Bulletin,
By 1938, the sesquicentenary of British settlement, any perceived slights to Governor Arthur Phillip were well and truly being redressed. The first governor was the centrepiece of the celebrations, and each phase of his arrival on the shores of They were all armed, but on seeing the Governor approach with signs of friendship, alone and unarmed, they readily returned his confidence by laying down their weapons … The presents offered by their new visitors were all readily accepted, nor did any kind of disagreement arise while the ships remained in Botany Bay. This very pleasing effect was produced in no small degree by the personal address as well as by the great care and attention of the Governor.
Once the premier had spoken, the massed band of the Royal Australian Navy played, among other tunes, the ‘Serenade’ from The Student Prince by Romberg, and the ‘March’ from Aida by Verdi, followed by ‘Advance The year before, on 3 June 1937, the Commonwealth of Australia had erected a monument to Phillip’s memory in Bath Abbey, in the city where he died on 3 August 1814. Details of the service, and other pamphlets commemorating Phillip’s residences in Bath and London, are held in the Library’s Special Collections. In one of these is recorded the service held to dedicate the Phillip Memorial. The dedicatory prayer concludes, somewhat surprisingly, in an expression of contrition at possible misdeeds perpetrated throughout the course of white settlement: ‘Forgive, O Lord, the faults, neglects and errors of the past in the course of our Empire development and grant us wisdom to fulfil Thy laws of eternal righteousness, through Jesus Christ our Lord’. Those damaged by that settlement process were beginning to make their feelings known. While some Aboriginal people from country New South Wales were co-opted to take part in a re-enactment of Phillip’s landing at Botany Bay, others banded together to observe a Day of Mourning. The first stirrings of the movement for Aboriginal rights were aligned with the celebration of the sesquicentenary of white occupation of
By 1988, this low-key protest had become a far more substantial movement. While Australia entered a year-long jamboree of festivities for its bicentenary, on 26 January the nation’s Indigenous people commemorated Survival Day, with a march described as ‘the biggest gathering of Aboriginal people in their 50 000 year history’. It culminated in Belmore Park near Central Railway. Wendy Bacon, in a pamphlet in the Library’s collection titled Aboriginal Perspectives on the Bicentenary, published by the ACT Schools Authority (1988), noted that ‘For once, white supporters also gathered for the first time in tens of thousands and stood back as the traditional leaders from Northern Australia wove their way into the park’. The Bicentenary avoided the insensitivity of tying the celebration to a British naval officer such as Cook and Phillip, or an event such as the arrival of the First Fleet (although there was a ‘Tall Ships’ celebration on Sydney Harbour anyway). Rather, the twin themes of the Bicentenary were the celebration of the land of
The 1988 Bicentenary resulted in a number of initiatives of lasting value to The papers of the Australian Bicentennial Authority are held in the National Library in 36 boxes, along with posters. Some of the images generated by the Bicentenary can be viewed online at <nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn1711918>. Since that time, Australia Day has, like ANZAC Day, been celebrated on the day it falls during the week, rather than as a Monday public holiday. Citizenship ceremonies are held then, and Australia Day honours are announced. While 26 January is still a contested date, commemorating an event that has negative connotations for Indigenous Australians, the day has moved away from the emphasis on colonisation to one of social inclusion. Time will tell whether another date will supplant it as the official annual celebration of the Australian nation. ROSLYN RUSSELL is a historian and museum consultant based in Canberra. |
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