NOT everyone will agree, but the cartoon at the top of this editorial - Australia Day reflecting its shadow name, Invasion Day - very clearly defines the debate around a date that had arguably become too jingoistic for its own good.
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As we remarked last Thursday when the City of Newcastle named Worimi surgeon Dr Kelvin Kong as our Citizen of the Year, it is no longer possible to credibly deny the violent side of the European colonisation of this continent.
Sooner or later, Australia will surely have a formal - and hopefully fair and final - reparation with its Indigenous population.
It will no doubt be resisted in some quarters, but until the serious questions surrounding the birth of this nation are addressed in ways that satisfy modern sensibilities, Australia Day will remain a lightning rod for a discontent increasingly realised as legitimate.
Then again, today was once a powerful magnet for republican sentiment, as well, but as Peter Broelman's cartoon also shows - perhaps deliberately - the southern stars still have a Union Jack in the corner.
But enough of politics.
Or those politics, anyway, for the January 26 honours are also entwined in our political system.
At the same time, they are an occasion for the nation to recognise great deeds and community sacrifice, and in this spirit, the Newcastle Herald congratulates clerical abuse survivor and advocate Peter Gogarty - whose herculean determination has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia.
And we pay tribute to this region's other recipients, including academics Margaret Alston and Graham Goodwin, and RSL figure Neil Cromarty.
Events today will be unavoidably trammelled by the issue that transformed the world in 2020 - the coronavirus.
At Fort Scratchley, the traditional firing of the cannon has been expanded to allow 24 of the region's frontline health workers to light the touchpaper.
The headland fort will have COVID crowd limits today, but the salutes will be heard across the city centre.
Away from the formalities, though, today will be, for most Hunter residents, something far more casual: the last day of holiday before the challenges of the new year make themselves felt.
So to all we say: enjoy yourselves today.
We've earned it.
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
