Aboriginal community leaders in Orange have welcomed a proposal by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to have a national public holiday celebrating Indigenous people to help resolve the Australia Day debate.
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Mr Morrison has rejected calls to move Australia Day from January 26.
Instead he suggested a new national day.
“It should be a day for celebrating and acknowledging and respecting our Indigenous peoples … and what they've been able to achieve over 60,000 years-plus,” Mr Morrison told Channel Seven on Tuesday.
He did not suggest a date but among those to be considered included May 27, the anniversary of the 1967 Indigenous referendum.
Aboriginal man and government frontbencher Ken Wyatt, suggested holding the event during NAIDOC Week in July, an idea backed by Orange Aboriginal Medical Services CEO Jamie Newman.
“I think there can be some compromise here,” Mr Newman said.
“I don’t think that you are going to find 100 per cent agreement on the Australia Day debate.”
Mr Newman said there was “some merit” in expanding the NAIDOC Week celebrations to appeal to the wider community and include a day that concentrates on Aboriginal history.
“The flavour of NAIDOC Week can change so that we are celebrating our history and not just themes,” he said.
Mr Newman said he wanted Orange to continue to hold its NAIDOC Week activities in October when the weather is better but it could also embrace a national day in July.
“In Orange we have a broad representation from the wider community,” he said.
“It is a significant day and week in Orange.
“July is terrible weather here in Orange.”
Chair of the Orange NAIDOC Week policy committee Gerald Power said a national Indigenous day was important however it would not resolve all the issues surrounding January 26.
“It is a tricky one that,” he said.
Mr Power said the referendum anniversary was “quite significant” and could be appropriate for a national day.
“It was the first time we were able to have a voice and really able to be counted,” he said.
“The date of the 26th is something totally different from my point of view, [with] colonisation and the dismantling of the First Nation people and their rights.”
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Mr Power said Aboriginal people needed support from the rest of Australia to make a national day happen.
“There is only 500,000 of us left compared to the 24 million [population],” he said.
“We need the wider Australian community to back the processes to back our ideas.”
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