Australia Day: Channel 10’s Jessica Rowe said kids want to change the date of Australia Day from January 26
Channel 10 star says Australian kids ‘don’t want to celebrate’ January 26 after her network BOYCOTT holiday
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Famed Australian journalist Jessica Rowe said it’s ‘so and true’ time to change the date of Australia Day – saying even her children don’t want to celebrate the holiday.
Rowe appeared on her former morning show Studio 10 on Thursday to declare she is ‘sorry’ for Australia’s past and supports the campaign to move Australia Day to a date other than January 26.
“I’m so sorry about what happened, I think we should say sorry to move on,” she said.
“Today is not a date to celebrate at all and we need to change that date, it really is.”
Former Studio 10 host Jessica Rowe (pictured with her daughters) said her family no longer celebrates Australia Day and supports the campaign to change the holiday
Rowe, who is married to Nine Sydney newsreader Peter Overton, said her two teenage daughters no longer celebrate the holiday due to the date’s complicated history.
“Let’s find a date that really celebrates who we are as a nation… this is what I’m hoping for, (and) my daughters are very passionate about it,” she said.
“I think kids that age know a lot more and they’re not celebrating today, they don’t want to celebrate today.”
Australia Day has been shrouded in controversy for years, with Aussies divided over whether January 26 marks the beginning of modern Australia or the beginning of Indigenous oppression.
26 January 1788, was the day the First Fleet landed in Sydney Harbor – having abandoned plans days earlier to settle in the south at Botany Bay – with Governor Arthur Phillip raising the British flag to mark the establishment of New South Wales flag.
Activists have long called for the date of the holiday to be changed, but no alternative day has been agreed.