Ashleigh Gardner has condemned the women’s cricket team’s decision to play a Twenty20 international match against Pakistan on Australia’s National Day on 26 January.
Gardner, her second Indigenous woman to play Test cricket in Australia, said her National Day was “a day of hurt and a day of mourning for her” for her people. said. In her tweet, Gardner said playing that day was “not a good fit for me as an individual and for all the people I represent.
“For those who don’t understand exactly what this day means, it was the beginning of genocide, slaughter and looting,” she said. , I certainly look back on the lives of all my ancestors and those who have changed since that day.”
The holiday commemorates the arrival of the ‘First Fleet’, which brought the first white settlers to Australia in 1778. However, some Aboriginal Australians commemorate this day as Invasion Day or Colonization Day. Because the arrival caused the confiscation of land and the decline of Aboriginal Australian culture.
Cricket Australia has yet to confirm details of the match, but the Associated Press reported that Australian players are likely to perform barefoot ceremonies before the match and wear indigenous-themed uniforms. .
In 2021, Cricket Australia became the first national sports body to phase out the use of the term Australia Day. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has since been very critical of the move. The last time the Australian women’s team played was on National Day 2016.