Poster sends a message

A poster featuring collage art pieces made at a Survival Day gathering in Warragul this year, will be soon on display across Baw Baw Shire.
The vibrant poster is the culmination of a collaboration between the Brayakoloong Allies group and Koori students from Warragul Regional College who played a key role in the design process, also creating their own collages that will be displayed at the school.
Attendees at the fifth annual Survival Day gathering in January, were invited to create small collages, in response to the theme 'It's not a date to celebrate'. Prompts reflected Indigenous perspectives on why the date Australia Day is celebrated needed to change which included:
January 26 is a day of survival, mourning and reflection, not celebration.
As a nation that prides itself on multiculturalism and equality, Australia must strive to commemorate a time that unites rather than divides its people.
Australia Day should be held on a day when all people from all cultural and racial backgrounds can be included.
Moving Australia Day to a different date would get us one step closer to reconciliation.
Australia Day has been only officially celebrated on January 26 nationally since 1994.
January 26 1788 was when the British First Fleet carrying convicts arrived in Sydney Cove and a penal colony was established in New South Wales.
Celebrating on such a sensitive and sad occasion reproduces racial discrimination and social exclusion.
The poster will be displayed in public spaces across the municipality including community centres, businesses and health and education settings.