Strange gods are set up in the market-place and strange doctrines are preached at the street corner. A call goes out to all Australians who love their country to rally to her cause. All men of good-will, irrespective of affiliation should unite in that common bond, that deep and sincere love of country, which animates every true Australian heart. It burns strongly in every breast, It is easy to find when one speaks In public, the people invariably respond to the chord, they do indeed love their country. We must tell them that Australia needs her children, that the old Australian ways are in danger, that we must all unite to preserve our national heritage. After all. The things that unite us are wider and deeper than those that divide us.
We admire the Scotsman’s love for ‘Bonnie Scotland,’ the Irishman’s devotion to the green valley of Erin, and the Englishman’s reverence for the historic shores of his native land, but for us it must always be first and foremost, the wattle clad hills of Australia. She is fair and beautiful our country, she is well worthy of our love and devotion, she calls to us and the call must not be in vain.
Yours
S. R. Hayes,
Branch President, Australian Natives Association
Mackay Queensland
26th January 1949
Australia Day in 2021 has been no exception to the now annual tradition of bashing Australia’s heritage. This bashing is currently delivered in a two-pronged assault: firstly the corrosion of our right of claim to the land against various Aboriginal tribes and secondly the very terms of reference for defining an Australian.
The Natives Association would firstly contend that the concept of an Australian Nation is a European construct. Australia was born of European-descent men who settled this continent and committed themselves and their offspring to it. We contend that the right of claim to land is only maintained under the condition that the land is physically occupied and defended. Various tribes of aboriginals roaming the land for speculated periods of time does not establish a defensible claim particularly given now the historical circumstance in which Australian men of European descent have spilled enormous quantities of blood to hold it against foreign aggression (particularly the Japanese). Free land bought by the sacrifice of white blood makes it a White Man’s land. If ownership is to be settled upon the merit of first arrival it should then be handed to the Pygmies who were racially exterminated by Aboriginal conquest.
The second fork in the assault on Australia Day is the Federal Government’s campaign to de-racialise Australian identity and make it a civic identity to which membership only requires the correct paperwork. To disconnect Australians from their great patriotic and socialistic heritage (which is inseparable from our ethnic heritage) is to effectively neutralise any resistance to the overwhelming force of international capitalism which seeks to continue the pillaging of our country for its own benefit.
The take-away message from today is to stand firm and don’t be on the back-foot for advocacy of Australia’s great heritage. Venerate the great efforts of our ancestors in the building and defence of a country worth living in.