Key Points
- Merri-bek Council will bin Australia Day citizenship ceremonies, instead hosting a day of mourning.
- The motion to abolish the events was carried over by one vote in the council meeting.
- The Council is the third Melbourne suburb to bin celebrations following Yarra and Darebin.
A Melbourne council will cease hosting citizenship ceremonies on January 26, instead acknowledging it as a day of mourning.
Merri-bek Council in Melbourne's north will host the mourning ceremony on the day to acknowledge the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples following colonisation.
"The very idea that we celebrate, hold parties and welcome new people to this country on this day is pretty shameful," Councillor James Conlan told a local council meeting on Wednesday night.
"In a deeply twisted irony... the council asks First Nations elders to conduct their culturally significant Welcome to Country ceremony on a day that signifies their own dispossession."
Day 'without baggage' needed
Elder Gary Murray told the meeting that establishing a day of mourning on January 26 would be courageous.
"We need to move onto a better day, that's inclusive, that's multicultural, and involves First Nations," he said.
"[One] that hasn't got the baggage of being tainted by what's happened in the past."
Melbourne suburb Merri-Bek, previously known as Moreland. Source: AAP
"We've seen councils across the city be stripped of their rights," Councillor Helen Davidson told the meeting.
"It's a monumental occasion and I'm not prepared to lose that."
But the motion was ultimately carried by one vote, to loud applause from the public gallery.
Yoorrook Justice Commission Deputy Chair and Wurundjeri and Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman, Sue-Anne Hunter praised the Council.
“It is pleasing to see the Merri-bek Council acknowledge the true history of what took place on January 26, which continues to be a very sad and difficult day for many First Peoples," she told NITV.
Merri-bek Council, formerly Moreland, changed its name in June of this year.
The council opted for Merri-bek, a Woi-wurrung word meaning 'rocky Country'. The rename was in an attempt to remove links to an 18th-century Jamaican slave estate.
Merri-bek Council is the third Melbourne council to discontinue Australia Day citizenship ceremonies, after the Yarra and Darebin councils did the same in 2017.
Those two councils are now not allowed to host citizenship ceremonies at any time of the year, following an order from the then-coalition federal government.
The Melbourne City Council in September also voted to advocate the federal government to change the date of Australia Day.
Citizenship ceremonies will still happen in the city on January 26 but council will also support efforts to acknowledge First Nations perspectives of the day.
