Taryn Brumfitt named Australian of the Year; honors revealed

Meanwhile, in Victoria, hundreds have gathered for a morning church service and a smoking ceremony in St Kilda.

The service – organized by the City of Port Phillip and Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council – included calls to change the date of Australia Day.

Addressing the crowd, Boonwurrung man N’arweet Jason Briggs said the morning service was an honorable symbolic event but he could not ignore “the elephant in the room” – the date of Australia Day.

Briggs suggested alternative dates for Australia Day, including March 3 – when the Australia Act came into force – National Equality Day on May 27 or NAIDOC Day on the first Tuesday in July.

“These are ideas for all Australians to come together to have these discussions and debates and revisit this holiday for a better outcome for everyone,” he said.

“Honoring the past, learning from it, redefining the narrative of our collective history, and being proud of it.”

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Victorian MP Josh Burns said Australia’s colonial history began with invasion and is still fraught with dispossession, discrimination, denial, destruction and disease.

“January 26 marks the beginning of European colonial settlements in this country,” he said. “Its use as a national holiday came much later, when First Nations began referring to the day as a day of mourning.”

Burns called for the establishment of a constitutional First Nations voice in Parliament.

“A mere recognition is not enough,” he said. “Reconciliation is an act, not a promise.”