Launching Change the Date? A conversation on Australia Day, reconciliation and the politics of division

When questions of history, identity and belonging become divisive, conversation matters.  

Aunty Serena Williams Ngunnawal Elder welcomed a large and engaged audience at The Australian National University (ANU) on 23 September 2026 for the launch of Change the Date? Australia Day, Reconciliation and the Politics of Division (IN260100178), a four-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Indigenous project led by Dr Jen Mason. It is a multi-institutional research collaboration between ANU, Swinburne University of Technology and Charles Sturt University, funded by the Australian Research Council. 

Held as part of Immersia, the annual flagship community outreach program of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language (CHL), the event was presented in collaboration with the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP) and the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS). It was opened by CAP Acting Dean and CHL Director Professor Matthew Tomlinson. The event drew a strong audience for a research project yet to begin.

A conversation before the research begins 

The launch was held ahead of the project’s official commencement on 16 October 2026, due to the public interest the project has already generated. “We wanted the audience to hear directly from the research team about what this project is and what it is not,” said Dr Mason, the Lead Chief Investigator and organiser of the event. “We are not arguing for or against a particular date. We want to understand how public conversations about Australia Day become so divided, and what that means for reconciliation.”

No data was collected at the launch event, giving attendees space to ask questions and share views freely. Anyone wishing to follow the project as it unfolds can do so at www.ctdq.org.au.

Five perspectives, one conversation 

The panel brought together the project’s five Chief Investigators, whose combined expertise reflects the project’s interdisciplinary design: 

• Dr Jen Mason, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. Jen leads the project. Her research sits at the meeting point of Indigenous methodologies, cultural heritage governance and creative practice.
• Professor Rob Ackland, School of Sociology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. Rob works on online social and organisational networks, social network analysis and computational social science.
• Professor Dominic O’Sullivan, School of Social Work and Arts, Charles Sturt University. Dominic is a political scientist focusing on comparative Indigenous politics and public policy.
• Professor Tanya Jakimow, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. Tanya is an anthropologist working on gender equity in politics, development and urban futures.
• Professor Dean Lusher, School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology. Dean is a Professor of Management, the School’s Academic Director Indigenous, and a social network researcher.

Together, the team brings Indigenous, political, anthropological and computational social science perspectives to a debate that is too often reduced to two opposing sides.

The discussion was facilitated by Professor Mathieu O’Neil (University of Canberra), whose own research at the intersection of political communication and sociology made him a natural fit and whose involvement extends the project’s collaboration beyond its partner institutions. His questions sparked lively discussion, and feedback from attendees was highly positive.

The impetus behind the research 

Research is about asking the questions that are sometimes hard to ask, and the question mark in the project title reflects this. The project is anchored in Australia Day, an event which in recent years has increasingly involved prominent and polarising public discourse around Indigeneity, to the detriment of social inclusion. Arguments about the date touch on history, identity, belonging and the unfinished business of reconciliation, and they play out across mainstream and social media, political campaigns and local council chambers.

“Our national day should be inclusive of all Australians,” said Dr Mason. “We will go beyond the surface polarisation to investigate how these discourses affect people across the country. We will ask people across Australia what their views are, why they hold them, and what they mean to them.”

The timing is apt. Newly appointed National Australia Day Council Chair Melissa Doyle has spoken of working with local councils, committees and First Nations communities “to make sure Australia Day is inclusive and respectful of the full story of this country, beginning 65,000 years ago”.

Through narrative mapping, local council case studies, national surveys, the project -our team fondly calls CTDQ-, will examine the narratives that shape these public debates and how they resonate with people across Australia. An inclusive outreach approach will examine the diverse lived experiences and interpret what they reveal about the way these questions are understood. The project aims to produce freely available resources that support truth-telling and bridge divides rather than deepen them.

The team extends sincere thanks to the School of Sociology for generously sponsoring the catering, as well as to the Immersia team and CASS for their collaboration in bringing the event together. Special thanks to Canberra Multicultural Community Radio for recording the event to share with their listeners. 

As CTDQ project moves into its research program, the questions raised at its launch will now be taken into communities across Australia examining not only what Australians think about Australia Day, but how those views are formed, contested and understood.

This research is funded by the Australian Research Council under the Discovery Indigenous program, project IN260100178. The views expressed herein are those of the Research team and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council or the Australian Government.