An Indigenous author claims Australia Day generates “hordes” of people adorned with “Australian flag tattoos” saying “fuck black people”, “kill black people” and “white power all the way”.
The claim was made during intense clashes on the first episode of Hear Me Out, a new half-hour ABC show dedicated to airing the views of younger Indigenous people.
Indigenous author Bebe Oliver, who wants to change the date to January 26, found himself clashing on several occasions with academic and social commentator Anthony Dillon, who wants to keep the national day as is.
Dillon said he did not personally know anyone who celebrated “theft or genocide” on Australia Day, but Oliver claimed it still happened.
“Every year in Naarm, Melbourne, you walk the streets on January 26 and you come across groups and hordes of people,” Oliver said.
‘(They) have their Australian flag tattoos, their double-button thongs, the towels, the capes and the flags that basically say ‘down with the blacks’, ‘fuck the blacks’, ‘white power all the way’ .
“If you don’t see people personally celebrating the robbery and invasion, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”
Indigenous model and actress Guyala Bales backed this up, saying she saw it while attending Invasion Day marches, which protest the day Europeans began colonizing Australia.
“We see white boys coming out and participating in our marches bringing their white Australian flags and calling us very discriminatory racist comments,” Bales helps.
Indigenous author Bebe Oliver says Australia Day attracts our ‘hordes’ of ‘kill black people’ and celebrating ‘white power’
Mr. Dillion was not convinced.
‘I don’t know if they are celebrating the genocide. I doubt that’s the case,’ he said.
“I am a witness to what these people are saying and if you want the literal account of what they are saying, screw the blacks, kill the blacks,” Mr. Oliver responded.
“That’s explicitly what they’re saying.”
Dillon questioned whether the people Oliver meets on Australia Day were responding to the type of slogans he displayed on a T-shirt he wore for the photo shoot.
‘That is not exactly the same as promoting genocide. “They could be responding to the false messages on that T-shirt that black lives matter,” Dillon argued.
“So what they’re celebrating is white supremacy,” Oliver responded.
“That white matters more than black, ‘down with the blacks’, it’s about the Australian flag, it’s all in the same boat.”
Former Bachelor star and Wiradjuri woman Kiki Morris was another contestant on the show who also believed in changing the date or even abolishing the national day altogether, as did all but two of the panel members.

On ABC’s new show Hear Me Out, five of the participants in an Australia Day debate wanted the national day to be changed or abolished altogether (Anthony Dillon above left and Bebe Oliver, top third from the left)
“I think Australia is a wonderful country and offers a safe space for many people to live and raise their families,” he said.
“To those people, we deserve to celebrate what Australia means to all of us, but the date definitely needs to be changed.”
“We need to be sensitive to our ancestors and also to our history.”
Last week, right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs released a poll showing a rise in support for January 26 as Australia Day, particularly among young people.
The survey, which is conducted annually, found that 69 percent of 1,002 respondents agreed that the national holiday should remain on Jan. 26, a six-point increase from 12 months ago.
There was an even more dramatic rise in support from those ages 18 to 24, with 52 percent backing it on Jan. 26, up from 42 percent last year.
The survey showed that a majority in all age groups now prefers January 26 as the date for the national commemoration.
It also found that 86 per cent of respondents were “proud to be Australian”, while 68 per cent agreed that Australia has “a history to be proud of”.
January 26, which marks the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney’s Port Jackson in 1788, has been labeled Invasion Day by those who see it as a date to mourn the colonization and dispossession of indigenous Australians.