Today is Australia Day and many families and individuals will be out celebrating - whether at a beach or a river or a dam, a picnic ground, a backyard, or even at one of the many events organised by local councils and community groups. My wife and JJ have  gone down to Glenbrook for the annual AD celebration.

Another group of Australians will be having 'Invasion Day' events - marches and gatherings to protest the aligning of a national day with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. While it was not strictly speaking a planned military invasion, it might just have well have been for the indigenous population. The consequences have been largely identical.

I have a foot in either camp, knowing that Australians have precious few national days already, outside of Anzac Day, but also that January 26 cannot but have a profoundly negative meaning for Aboriginal people. My preference would be to find another day to celebrate Australia Day. That in itself is a fraught task, for how many days are free from any taint?

In this respect I am in the minority, for a recent poll showed that 70% of Australians don't want the date to change. That is a strong majority indeed.

For now, I think we are all big enough to live with the tension that arises from these two positions, opposed as they are, but also informing each other. Let it be peaceful and respectful. Who knows, perhaps one day there will be a convergence by mutual agreement.