The FastDay Forum

Today 26th Jan, Australia celebrates Australia day. Happy Oz day everyone.

And sincere thoughts to the Aboriginals of this country too. I guess its a bit of a sad day for you. And hopefully the future will be bright and beautiful for everybody.

Any plans for this day for you all in Australia ?.

I am chilling and watching OH making Chile (our amazing Chile con carne).. yesterday it was the gathering of the ingredients
- Pork
- Beef
- Lamb
- Chorizo sausage
- Red Onion and Garlic
- Chillies
- Chocolate (yes, chocolate)
- Spices like cumin and thyme
- tomatoes
- Tomato paste
- Capsicum paste
- Capsicums
- Celery
- Mango chutney (for the serving)

we make 3 huge pots and freeze for a few months.
Not very Australian traditional but very yummmy

and we are both definitely NOT fasting.. Sunday is normally fast day but will move it to Monday this week... ahhh the beauty and flexibility of 5:2 ...

for those that don't know this is why we all celebrate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Day

and for info on Australia day from the perspective of Aboriginals, to balance the picture.. probably a good summary is here

http://www.creativespirits.info/aborigi ... vasion-day

HAPPY ANZAC DAY TO OUR LOVELY AUSSIE FRIENDS XX

I don't actually know what Australia Day is but I hope you all enjoy it anyway,



Ballerina x

Well Ballerina, then you can read the two excellent links that Juliana has provided, and increase your knowledge of our shared history.

Juliana, thank you so much for your balanced portrayal. It's complicated! I have 4 British ancestors from the second fleet, arriving in 1793, who were transported for various periods, from 7 years to life, who were considered the detritus of British society at that time, and were conveniently "got rid of", but who subsequently crafted a life for themselves in Sydney, but at a huge cost to the original Aboriginal owners and guardians of the land, who had 200 distinct nations here prior to white "settlement" (or invasion, possibly more accurately), and have been here for more than 40 THOUSAND years.

Maybe the appointment of Adam Goodes (a prominent Aboriginal AFL footballer) as Australian of the Year yesterday, will be more than a token gesture for reconciliation - I hope so! I personally have such a mixture of pride and shame today, that if I don't burst it will be a marvel. I shall celebrate by watching again the wonderful SBS series, First Australians, and ponder what I can do to advance reconciliation in this country.

I love your chilli recipe, Juliana! Happy cooking!

And thank you for your wishes, CandiceMarie! (But ANZAC day is different, primarily a war memorial day, celebrated on 25th April - that's another big slice of our history)

So happy Australia Day/Survival Day everyone!

Ohh damn! I thought i was being soooo knowledgeable!x

[Tracieknits]

Ah so a bit like our "thanksgiving" holiday rolled into our fourth of July then? I hope you have a wonderful time!

Our favorite chili recipe also has chocolate in it, btw I have a lovely low calorie turkey version I can share with you - we sometimes have it on fast night.

@jools7 I took your advice and read Juliana's links, and thank you, I glad I took the time to do so. Both aspects were very interesting, don't feel quite so ignorant now,

Ballerina x

[Debs]

Yep, Happy Australia Day too, plus Happy India National day in case any Indian friends are around!
Very pleased to see Adam Goodes recognised for his work.
I am at work, so nowt going on here. No doubt some of the lads will be doing that very Australian thing and burning some meat on the BBQ .

Happy oz day everybody - sounds yummy @Juliana.Rivers

Im down at the beach enjoying some sun and walks - food today will be some delicious seafood of some kind.

Have a great day.
cheers maggie.

Happy Straaaya Day. I spending it on the lounge recovering from far too much partying last night

And congratualations to Adam Goodes for being declared Australian on the year.. a good article for those that wish to find out who Adam is. http://www.smh.com.au/national/australi ... 31ffk.html

Thanks @Jools7 for your post

Thanks @Tracieknits, would love that recipe

Grateful some people have followed the links. both important and yes i always look at this day with mixed feelings. I am here due to my parents fleeing wartorn Europe so i am grateful that at the time, the country accepted them and indeed called out for many people to populate the country.

Hope all Ausssies here arent fasting cause you need room for things like Pavolova! theres always tomorrow.

Anyone young here listening to the other event that coincides with Australia day.. top 100 hits by Triple J.. been running for 26 years! http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/13/

What a great balanced post, Juliana Rivers. Complex day, for sure. I didn't approve of people graffiti-ing Captain Cook's cottage in Melbourne as an anti-Australia Day statement but also I feel Aboriginal disposession should be more officially acknowledged. And I'm not sure that naming an Aboriginal footballer as Australian of the year quite cuts the mustard.

I have had a shamefully relaxed morning, sitting about in my dressing gown, reading, looking at Facebook and such like. Now I am ready to work: Recruiting volunteers to help us get Greens elected in the upcoming state election, Very Australian activity I would think. Save our beautiful country from being ripped apart by mining companies and pulp mills.

My ancestors came to Australia from England. On my mothers side they came in the 1830s and 40s, quite early in our history. None of them were convicts and they came to Adelaide. On my father's side, his parents came during the first world war for the sake of my aunt's health. She was asthmatic and they came from Sheffield.

There is someone on the forum from Lewis which is the town one family of ancestors came from in England. I really want to go there one day and seek out this family as they were Quakers and I became a Quaker later in life and then my great aunt told me that her grand father - who came from Lewis in 1838, had been a Quaker.

[Tracieknits]

Yes, I always look at our Thanksgiving the same way - confounded by the fact that my ancestors came over on the Mayflower and were likely at the first Thanksgiving. What we did to our Native Americans after that in "thanks" is so shameful - and they saved our lives and the colony!

Oh, lovely to hear about some ancestry - often forgotten in our "young" country - well the European bit. Also sometimes covered in guilt & shame and thus hard to access & bring into the present! I was actually taught this by an amazing Ngarrindjeri woman - she asked me once, "who's your mob, Julia?"to which I answered - "I don't have a mob, I'm just white".But she persisted and said, "everyone's got a mob, you just have to find them & claim them". Makes me cry actually...

Beautiful thread happening here so thank you @Julianna.Rivers for this thread.

It is such a complex issue and looking even more complex as the day progresses with what is now on the media. @jools7 my folks first came out in the first (a highway robber) and third fleet (in the first group of Irish women). So our relatives were in the first few hundred people who arrived. It's a small world, back then even smaller

@Sallyo I agree the dispossession of the first Australians doesn't sit well with me and the legacy still causing great pain.

I always seem to around Australia Day start fossicking online and thinking I ought to do something to contribute with linking in my family's history. So there I was yesterday online finding photos of my forebears in Trove and on some ancestry sites.

Cheers to all Australians today and may we find ways to reconcile as we do live in a beautiful country