The anthem, “Advance Australia Fair”, has been adjusted to recognize the country’s history and indigenous communities, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday night, hours before 2021.
The first line, “All of us Australians, will rejoice because we are young and free”, will now end with “one and free”.
“Australia as a modern nation may be relatively young, but our country’s history is old, as are the stories of many First Nations people whose management we recognize and respect correctly,” wrote Morrison in an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald .
“In the spirit of unity, it is right that we now recognize this and ensure that our national anthem reflects that truth and shared appreciation. Changing ‘young and free’ to ‘one and free’ takes nothing away, but I think it adds a lot of. “
The government has a history of changing music to be more inclusive – when Peter Dodds McCormick’s original 1878 composition was declared the official national anthem in 1984, replacing “God Save the Queen”, two instances of “sons” were replaced by gender- neutral phrasing.
The anthem has become controversial in recent years, amid growing conversations about indigenous representation, systemic inequality and racial injustice. In particular, many have rejected the phrase “because we are young and free” – a tribute to when Great Britain’s First Fleet landed in Australia in 1788 – given that Australia is home to one of the oldest known civilizations in the world.
In 2018, a 9-year-old girl was beaten by prominent politicians, who asked her to be expelled from school for refusing to stand during the hymn out of respect for the indigenous population. In 2019, athletes made headlines for refusing to sing the anthem at football games. And in 2020, players from the national rugby union sang the anthem in the language of the Eora Nation – the first time it was sung in an indigenous language at a major sporting event.
Peter Vickery, the founder and president of the non-profit organization Representation In Anthem, has been campaigning for a more inclusive anthem since 2016. “Many of our indigenous peoples found it difficult, if not impossible, to sing the excluding words of ‘Advance Australia Fair’, said Vickery on Friday. “We just can’t have a hymn that hurts its own people.”
Vickery worked with other indigenous leaders and singers to create alternative and more inclusive lyrics – a change from the phrase “one and free” that Morrison adopted. Their campaign gained greater visibility and momentum last year, when Gladys Berejiklian, Prime Minister of the state of New South Wales, expressed his support.
“Frankly, I’m overjoyed,” said Vickery. “This achieves a main objective of our work, which was to convert words of hurt or exclusion into words of inclusion and embrace a multicultural society of the 21st century”.
Other prominent Australian indigenous figures, including the Minister of Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt and the Olympic gold medal winner
Cathy Freeman, also celebrated the change.
But he was also met with skepticism from some who called it insubstantial and more symbolic than making any real changes.
“Changing one word of the hymn is not enough!” tweeted a former world champion in indigenous boxing
Anthony Mundine on Friday, adding that the country needed to “discard music and start from scratch with a little black history and white history”.
Vickery openly acknowledged these criticisms, saying that the campaign’s symbolic power “can never be a substitute for substance.” But, he added, the hymn was still “a critically important first step.”
Other critics have argued that the message of unity, and the inclusion of “free” in the lyrics, is
undermined for controversial policies for asylum seekers and refugees detained in Australia’s notorious offshore immigration centers, as well as the systemic barriers that still face the indigenous population.
Although the country’s indigenous population represents 3.3% of its 25 million inhabitants, they represent more than a quarter of its 41,000 prisoners. Indigenous Australians are also almost twice as likely to die from suicide, have an almost nine-year lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates than non-indigenous Australians.
The unemployment rate for indigenous Australians is more than 4 times the national average.
Ian Hamm, president of the indigenous organization First Nations Foundation, praised the amended letter – but also highlighted other more concrete actions that need to be taken.
For example, Australia does not yet have a treaty between its government and its indigenous people – unlike other Commonwealth countries, such as New Zealand and Canada. The Australian constitution also does not explicitly mention the country’s indigenous population.
“I think it’s a good step, but after all, it’s just a step, one thing,” said Hamm. “And the hymn itself is just that – it’s a song. There are a lot of other initiatives, changes and efforts to be made to create equal opportunities for Aboriginal people and equal life outcomes for Aboriginal people.”
