Indian-origin Giridharan Sivaraman, who serves as the race discrimination commissioner of the Albanese government in Australia, said the country should not celebrate January 26 as Australia Day as it isthe day when colonization began displacing the First People from their own country.
Australia is a stolen land and there is nothing to celebrate on January 26, Sivaraman said, triggering a massive row. The comment came at an SBS podcast where Sivaraman said he feels very conflicted about Australia Day as there is an undercurrent of nationalism about this day. “When it comes to January 26, it becomes so difficult, because there’s this undercurrent of nationalism – love it or leave it phenomenon – where people go, well ‘unless you’re with us, you’re against us’, and so you’ve just got to, on January 26, you’ve got to kiss the flag, love the country, otherwise go away,” Sivaraman said.“January 26 is such a conflicted day, and for many, as a migrant from India, I was born in India, I came here when I was young, I feel very, very conflicted when I think about January 26 because I think, well, what are we celebrating? We’re all on stolen land and we actually need truth-telling about the history of this land.”“We want systems and institutions to reflect us, to be safe for us. Why don’t they do that? Because they were built to really privilege colonialism and whiteness.
“And why were they built to do that?“Because they were to cover a lie – the lie that no one was here before.”Sivaram said the date of Australia Day should be changed as the date was co-opted by “white supremacists”. “It is a day when colonisation began which led to First Peoples being forced off their country and on to missions and reserves, genocidal acts, massacres, systematic child removal and more,” he said.
“It is appropriate for the Race Discrimination Commissioner to talk about the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of their land … it is also appropriate to talk about nationalism, like white supremacists who have used Australia Day as a platform for racism and racist hate.”The comment drew backlash as Sivaraman was called ‘ill-informed’. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said Australia Day was an opportunity for Australians to “celebrate everything that unites us as a nation”. Opposition spokesperson Andrew Wallace called Mr Sivaraman “ill-informed”. “To somehow suggest that [Australia’s] institutions are biased against people because of the colour of their skin is an outrageous slur,” he said.Sky News host James Macpherson says if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is serious about social cohesion, then he should fire Giridharan Sivaraman. “If uniting the country is the goal, well, it is hard to see how paying a public servant $400,000 a year to preach division is part of the plan,” Macpherson said, asking why Sivaraman was still here. “Most of us were born on this allegedly stolen land, but he is an Indian immigrant.
He arrived with his parents and made this stolen land his home. He could go back to his own land and wake up on January 26 with a compleley clear conscience.”
