Reeling Back

It was on January 26, 1818, that the governor of New South Wales proclaimed Foundation Day, a celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of British settlement. Founded as a penal colony — England needed someplace to dump its human detritus after the loss of the 13 American colonies in 1783 — the modern nation still keeps Australia Day as its national holiday. Not everyone agrees that the arrival of 11 ships transporting some 700 convicts should be a cause for patriotic revelry. Since at least 1938, Aboriginal groups have marked January 26 as Invasion Day, making their feelings known by marching to protest the official festivities. In his address on Sunday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on the nation to acknowledge its stories “of drought, bushfires [and] adapting to the many changes that come with living in this great continent.” While Morrison, a notorious climate change denier, is a political prat, he does remind us that stories are important. Among those worth recalling today are the incendiary tales of change in the lives of the continent’s women, including that of feminist icon and author of The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer, born on this day (January 29) in 1939. She was part of an activist generation that included filmmakers such as Bruce Beresford and Gillian Armstrong. The former contributed three remarkable female coming-of-age dramas, a trilogy that that concluded with 1986’s The Fringe Dwellers.