A south-west Indigenous elder has backed a move to change the date of Australia Day.
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Framlingham elder Lenny Clarke said a “grown up nation” should celebrate Australia Day on a day that united all.
Mr Clarke said Aboriginal people had never felt part of Australia Day and it was celebrated at the exclusion of them.
“Any intelligent person would realise that and want to change it,” he said.
“It meant nothing...and I don’t mean any disrespect to white fella day.
“But who said Australia Day should be on the 26th?
“We’ve grown up as a nation, let’s get a date to include everyone.”
Former ATSIC boss Geoff Clark said he supported changing Australia Day to a more appropriate date.
“It’s a day to celebrate and unite the community,” he said. “The Australia Day celebration is a celebration of the coming of Europeans. I support changing the day to a more appropriate day.
“What that appropriate day is has not yet occurred.”
He said there was a growing feeling within the broader Australian society that the date was inappropriate and insensitive.
The push comes after two Melbourne councils, Yarra and Darebin, voted to stop referring to January 26 as Australia Day.
The federal government has since stripped both council’s power to host citizen ceremonies.
In state parliament on Wednesday Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay slammed the move and said “traditional values” were under attack.
“I can't help wondering what our war veterans would have thought as they so gallantly defended the rights and freedoms of Australians - and Australian values - if they knew what was going to happen to those values within decades,” he said.
“Would they have given their lives for a nation that would now condemn them?
“The traditional values that made this nation great are under attack by those who think they are more educated, worldly or more socially aware.”
On Saturday The Standard reported that south-west councils appeared unlikely to follow the Melbourne councils’ lead.
Moyne Shire mayor Jim Doukas said Australia Day celebrations would continue as normal in 2018.