Each year, the appropriateness of celebrating Australia Day on January 26 comes into focus, with people expressing strident views on both sides of the debate.
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The relevance of the January 26 date can be traced back to 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip raised the flag of Great Britain in Port Jackson, later known as Sydney Cove.
It was the date on which the First Fleet arrived with its human cargo, including convicts, to start building what would become European Australia.
January 26 was known back then as "Founding Day" or "Foundation Day" and would not become widely adopted as "Australia Day" until 1935.
In the intervening 147 years, the name and the date would change repeatedly.
In 1915, the first Australia Day committee was formed in a bid to drum up patriotism in the lead-up to World War 1, and the date they settled on was July 30.
In the following years it would move to July 28 in 1916, then July 27 in 1917, and then July 26 in 1918.
It also went through several name changes, from "First Landing Day" to "Founding Day" to "Australia Day".
In some quarters it was referred to as "ANA Day" after the Australian Natives' Association, which advocated for federation and the white Australia policy.
In 1901, the different colonies banded together as the Federation of Australia, and they began brainstorming options for a national day of celebration.
It was not until 1935 that the different states and territories agreed to call January 26 Australia Day.
In practice, the actual day of celebration would continue to shift around to accommodate a long weekend, and it was not until 1994 that it was set in stone as a national public holiday.
Australia is one of the few colonies that chooses to actively celebrate the arrival of the British.
Former colonies such as America and India choose to mark their day of independence from the British as their day of national pride.
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Whatever the date and whatever the name, Australia Day has traditionally been marked by "drinking and merriment" according to historian Manning Clark.
For some, it is a day of boisterous celebration that represents the beginning of Australia and all the achievements that have followed.
However, for many Indigenous people the day represents the beginning of colonial tyranny and the end to a traditional way of life.
Such is the view of Wiradjuri elder Cheryl Penrith, who is a passionate advocate for changing the date of Australia Day.
Ms Penrith said she would not be celebrating on January 26, instead opting to light a candle and commemorate those who lost their way of life.
Two of her own grandaunts were victims of the stolen generation.
"I don't celebrate January 26 because for my people it's the day our lives changed forever, not a peaceful landing but one of force and violence," Ms Penrith said.
"I would love to celebrate on a date where we are respected and valued and included, because we live in the best country in the world and have the longest surviving people and culture on earth."
Elder Gail Manderson, who was adopted into a white family when she was five days old, grew up oblivious to her cultural heritage.
She only discovered her roots when she was welcomed into the NSW Riverina's Wiradjuri community in Wagga Wagga in 2002.
The 68-year-old is now proud to say that she has reclaimed her culture, having learnt the Wiradjuri language, art and dance.
Aunty Gail now teaches the younger generation the Wiradjuri tongue, and says her young students make her optimistic about the future.
Today, she will be giving the Welcome to Country at Junee's Australia Day ceremony.
"I know there's a lot of pain with Australia Day or Survival Day or Day of Mourning or Invasion Day: it doesn't matter what label you put on it, we are still one people," Ms Manderson said. "You've only got to look at the drought, then the bushfires, then COVID, then Black Lives Matter. We came together in those events as one people - why can't we do that every day?"
Among the population as a whole, surveys have shown that Australians are generally against changing the date.
A recent Ipsos poll found that 48 per cent were opposed to changing the date, 28 per cent were for, and 24 per cent were on the fence.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is among those who insist on keeping Australia Day on January 26, saying that the early convicts had their fair share of suffering too.
"When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn't a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either," Mr Morrison said.
His comments were met with heated criticism from some Indigenous circles.