Australia Day - 26 January - is a day that has our country a little divided. Some Indigenous Australians refer to it as "Invasion Day" because this date commemorates the day that Australia was colonised by the British in 1788, thus ultimately stealing the land from those who were here "first". I have grown up in the Torres Strait and worked most of my career in Cape York so have heard many of the horrific stories of what happened to Indigenous people, how rights were stripped, how families were torn apart, and kids taken far far away from their homes.......Whilst I can empathise with these tales and I fully acknowledge and remember these atrocities occurred, this conquering of land and people happened all over the world to many Indigenous cultures. And whilst the arrival of the First Fleet marked the beginning of some terrible cruel treatment of Indigenous people within Australia, it was still the start of my nation as I live in it today. And as with all countries, there is good and bad in the past, but it was all part of the course to today - the present. This country has come a long way, and it will continue to evolve and change, along with the rest of the world, in directions we, as individuals, will like or dislike. And regardless of this, it still makes up our country as it stands today. My personal belief is that Australia Day should be used to celebrate all the positive qualities that makes Australia the unique country that it is, put our differences aside and come together as Australians, people who are lucky enough to live in this beautiful place and call it home. So, as a proud Australian, what are we known for:

LAIDBACK
In typical Aussie fashion, we like public holidays . We especially like them when they back onto weekends, thus giving long weekends. This year, Australia Day falls on a Tuesday, so to fully enjoy our day off in our laid back nature we add an extra day off by (trying) to also get the Monday off = 4 day weekend!!!! And if you're really lucky, some take the Friday before or Wednesday after off too! It's just how we roll :)

TOO LAZY TO SPEAK
Aussies are renowned for shortening words to save time, and originally, back in the day, we mumbled so we wouldn't have to open our lips too much because of the risk the flies would fly in your mouth - a real risk if you lived in the "out back". Here's an example of some of our words we've shortened:
 
Ambulance Officer = Ambo; Tradesman = Tradie; Postman = Postie; Service station/Petrol station = servo; Barbeque (BBQ) = barbie; Breakfast = brekkie; Sandwich = sanga; Sausages = snags; Football = footy; Umbrella = brolly; Registration = rego; Aggressive = agro; Definitely = defo; Devastated = devo; Pregnant = preggas; Chicken = chook; Tracksuit pants = trackie daks; Christmas = chrissy; Present = pressie; Christmas present = Chrissy pressie; Chocolate = choccy; Biscuit = bickie; Chocolate biscuit = choccy bickie
 
This afternoon = this arvo/sarvo (e .g. See you sarvo!)
That's no problem at all/it will all work out in the end with nothing to worry about = she'll be right!
I'm going to take a day off work, but not because I'm actually sick = chuck a sickie
Australian = Aussie
Australia = 'Straya

BEING A BOGAN
Wikipedia gives the definition of a "Bogan" as: "a person of lower working class background, whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplify values and behaviour considered unrefined or unsophisticated." We use it a lot in Aussie slang to describe people......
For 'Straya Day today, we are going winching on the Mulgrave River. Winching is a cross between cable ski and wake boarding behind a boat - but you get pulled by a cable along the foreshore by a winch on the back of a car! We've done this activity a couple of times before but we keep improving each time, with bigger and better ramps, winch system and progression of riders! The spot along the river that offers the best bank for our winch session today is only accessible by 4WD . As we roll up one by one, start pitching our sun shades by the 4WDs, take our our eskies full of beer, our BBQs for the meat and put together the ramps, I take look at the gathering unfolding before me and for a second I think to myself "What a bunch of crazy Bogans!" Yep, that's me and my friends but really, my friends are awesome and every idea turns into a reality! These are geat people to surround myself with because I know nothing is impossible and everything we do is fun! My mates are amazing!!

We spend our day smashing the ramps and give everything a go. We prove you can winch on a wake board, wake skate and a Stand Up Paddle (SUP) board. Some of us are first time Winchers, others veterans. It was an awesome day to cool down in the water, have some beers, eat bad food (sausage sangas and hamburgers.....and a little salad), make fun of each other and have some good laughs with great mates. The way Australia Day should be spent! 
 
I've traveled to a lot of places in the world and I still haven't found a place I would like to settle for a bit and live ......And I think the problem may be that I grew up and live in a pretty amazing place. I have the reef, rainforest, rivers, creeks, waterfalls, islands, and more, all at my finger tips. It's warm, sunny and blue skies most days. We haven't experienced great wars or destruction like so many other countries. And despite what happened in the past, today we are relatively free to express ourselves and be who we want to be without persecution. We don't have to risk our lives to escape from bombs, gun fire and potential death from our country men. And I can make choices in my life. Whether or not I agree or disagree with the way it was run in the past or the way it is run now, it is still my birth country and I will always be proud to be a true blue Aussie! Happy Straya Day!