{"id":91932,"date":"2019-04-15T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T02:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=91932"},"modified":"2019-05-17T15:23:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T04:23:51","slug":"stan-grant-australia-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2019\/04\/15\/stan-grant-australia-day\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Stan Grant on Australia Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who are we? What does it mean to call yourself Australian? What is it that binds us together? These are the questions at the heart of Stan Grant\u2019s new book, Australia Day<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written after intense debates took place in 2018 surrounding the appropriateness of having January 26th as Australia Day, Stan set about exploring the notion of our national identity and how we can move forward from the current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a rich and moving book that is both a deeply personal meditation on identity, as well as a passionate call to national unity. It is about January 26th and Australia Day yes, but it is about so much more – for instance, the crucial difference between justice and reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou cannot have a reconciliation that is meaningful if you ignore the past. You can\u2019t have that.\u201d Stan says. \u201cBut you can\u2019t have a reconciliation that is meaningful either if you continually prosecute the past, if you live endlessly with grievance and resentment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stan<\/a>
Stan Grant with his new book, Australia Day<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

January 26th has become the date on which we\u2019re forced to confront all of these issues, because every Australian is a product of that day in 1788. But can we actually live with the tensions created by it? It will be difficult, but Stan wholeheartedly believes that we can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs someone who is born out of that tension, I have to make a decision about how I reconcile in a way that is healthy and helps to build peace, rather than fan resentment and anger that leads to violence. It is a tough, tough question to ask yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stan believes that the tension created from the Australia Day debate doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be destructive – we need to live in the tension and not just smooth over it, for to do so means that we run the risk of silencing the past. We need to be able to hear the stories, to allow indigenous people to speak to Australia\u2019s true history in a way that sets us free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book gives us a chance to reevaluate not only who we are as Australians but what a day like Australia Day says about us, and it is a vital and incredible work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Stan came in to sign some copies of Australia Day<\/em> before sitting down for a discussion of the book with Joel Naoum and Ben Hunter, our non-fiction and fiction specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can listen to the entire podcast below, and you can also buy yourself a signed copy of <\/a>Australia Day<\/a><\/em> here (be quick, these are only available as long as stocks last)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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