Australia has changed one word in its national anthem to reflect what the Prime Minister called “the spirit of unity” and the country’s indigenous people. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on New Year’s Eve that the second line of the national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, has been changed from ‘Because we are young and free’ to ‘Because we are one and free’.
The change took effect on Friday.
“It is time to make sure that this great unity is more fully expressed in our national anthem,” said Morrison, adding that Australia was “the most successful multicultural nation on Earth.”
“While Australia may be relatively young as a modern nation, the story of our country is old, as are the stories of the many First Nations peoples whose stewardship we rightly recognize and respect,” Morrison said.
“In the spirit of unity, it is only right that we ensure that our national anthem reflects this truth and shared appreciation.”
Indigenous Australian Minister Ken Wyatt said in a statement that he had been asked about the change and supported it.
Wyatt, the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the lower house of the federal parliament, said the one-word change was “minor in nature but significant in purpose.”
“It is a recognition that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are 65,000 years old,” he said.
The change comes less than two months after New South Wales State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian expressed support for Indigenous Australians who said the national anthem did not reflect them and their history.
Professor Megan Davis, a law professor at the University of New South Wales, a Cobble Cobble woman from the Barrungam nation in southwest Queensland, criticized the lack of consultation with the indigenous people about the change.
“This is a disappointing way to end 2020 and start 2021. Everything about us, without us,” she wrote on social media.
Last month, Australia’s national rugby union team, the Wallabies, became the first sports team to sing the national anthem in an indigenous language before their match against Argentina.
Advance Australia Fair was composed by Peter Dodds McCormick and first performed in 1878. It was adopted as the national anthem in 1984.
Lee Jin-man / AP