Turnbull is wrong - Australia Day and its history aren’t ‘complex’ for Indigenous people | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Wed, 16/08/2017 - 3:40pm

26 January always was and always will be Invasion Day. Melbourne’s Yarra council is right to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on this day

Paul Daley is a Guardian Australia columnist

Each year as the country emerges from its summer slumber with the festival of jingoistic self-congratulation that is Australia Day, the Indigenous protests and vigils marking the 26 January anniversary of British invasion become bigger and louder.

Invasion Day commemorations in some capital cities already rival in size and volume Anzac Day commemorations. And I reckon that, in decades to come, Invasion Day will still – as it will always – be commemorated on 26 January whereas our country’s supposedly inclusive and cohesive Australia Day commemoration will not.