I love Australia.

I love its people

and I love that we celebrate that.

There,

I said it.

For years I felt embarrassed that I celebrated ‘invasion day’.

Oh, don’t get me wrong.

I understand that the generations that have gone before us have made terrible mistakes

and that we still have alot to answer for

but for me

Australia Day is celebrating

all that is good about us

and I do mean all of us

because what is really amazing about Australia

is that we are a multicultural land.

Right from the very beginning, when indigenous met the original ‘boat people’,

we have come from all walks of life.

Yesterday we went out and celebrated

with everyone else.

We bought our Aussie flags

and walked along the waters edge.

We watched a celebration of Hinduism and talked about Indian culture and meditation.

We listened to beautiful music sung in Spanish and watched as the Irish dancers jigged.

We had Thai satay, hot chips and tomato sauce and Chinese Spring rolls for lunch

and backed that up with Baclava, a recipe that originated from Greece, for dessert.

We listened to a Scottish bagpipe group and a marching band

and we watched an indigenous story being played out through music and dance.

We celebrated all that was wonderful about our local area too,

with tugboat ballet,

young Australian performers

and the sad, scary, wonderful, amazing tapestry of our past.

It was hot and crowded and messy.

It was a total mix of humanity,

it was lovely

and at the end of the day

when we all returned home,

a little bit sunburnt and tired

I thought about my country and everything that it is

and what I wanted to teach my children.

I want them to know about making mistakes

and about forgiveness.

I want them to see that we are all just people

and that it doesn’t matter what the colour of our skin is

or the cultures and the traditions that we uphold -

we are all in it together,

in this crazy mish mash of a world.

We are all important -

The elderly,

the working, the not working, the studying, the homeless,

the stay at home parents, the people who are struggling

the notable and the everyday heroes

and the young.

We all matter

and

if my kids can see that,

know it in their hearts

then that is most definitely worth celebrating.