AUSTRALIA CHANGES NATIONAL ANTHEM TO ACKNOWLEDGE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

Friday 01 January 2021:

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he has been encouraged by the strong response from Australians to a change in Advance Australia Fair that recognises our “timeless land of ancient First Nations peoples”.

Scott Morrison’s decision to tweak Australia’s national anthem so it no longer ignores tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history has won support from across the political spectrum.

But the prime minister’s surprise move to change the line “young and free” to “one and free” also triggered calls for the government to take more ambitious steps to improve the treatment of First Nations peoples.

Indigenous leaders have also welcomed the new wording.

From today, the second line of Australia’s national anthem will change from, “For we are young and free” to “For we are one and free”.

First Nations Foundation chairman and Yorta Yorta man Ian Hamm said the fresh line was an important symbol.

The Labor party also welcomed the change, announced late on New Year’s Eve, but called on Morrison to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution, saying “actions are more important”. The Greens vowed to pursue a treaty between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Critics have long argued the anthem excludes Indigenous Australians by using the term “young”.

But federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Representatives, said more needed to be done.

“Changing a single word in the national anthem while First Nations people aren’t even recognised in our national constitution is simply not good enough,” Mr Albanese said.

Indigenous boxing star Anthony Mundine – who has led calls for boycotts of the anthem at sporting events – was also unimpressed.

“It’s always gonna be a white supremacy song until the whole song is rewritten,” Mundine said in a statement reported by Nine’s Wide World of Sports.

When Hawke made Advance Australia Fair the official national anthem in 1984, replacing God Save the Queen, his cabinet changed some of the original words, opting for “Australians all, let us rejoice” instead of “Australia’s sons” rejoicing.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent