Controversy Surrounds Australia Day: Simultaneous Demonstrations Protesting Citizenship Oaths
Tens of thousands of Australians took to the streets today to protest on January 26th, Australia's controversial National Day, which commemorates the arrival of European settlers at Sydney Cove in 1788, with demonstrators calling it an 'invasion day'.
For most Australians, the day means holidays, barbecues, cricket matches, trips to the seaside, and the end of the summer vacation. Many anti-colonialists and Aboriginal people regarded it as an 'invasion day' for British colonization. On the eve of the Fourth of July, a statue of the British explorer Captain Cook in Melbourne was sawn off at the ankle on the 25th, and a monument to Queen Victoria near the city center was splattered with paint. In Sydney, Melbourne and several other cities, crowds protesting the January 26th 'Invasion Day' demanded a change in the date of the National Day.
Opinion polls show that most Australians want to keep the national holidays, but views on changing the dates are divided, with about half in favor and half against.
It is also an Australian tradition to hold naturalization ceremonies on National Day. This year more than 20,000 immigrants from more than 150 countries took the oath of Australian citizenship on the day. The first naturalization ceremony in Australia's history was held on February 3, 1949, and in the 75 years since citizenship was introduced in Australia, more than six million immigrants have become citizens at ceremonies held around the country.
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