So, it's your birthday?

It's your birthday and some people don't like you celebrating your birthday? What can you do about it? Change the date of your birthday?
There is yet another argument erupting about celebrating Australia Day on the 26th January. Some members of the indigenous community see Australia Day as offensive. They claim it is Invasion Day...the day the "whites" took over  their country. They want the date changed, indeed they would prefer there was no such thing as Australia Day.
I got bailed up  in the shopping centre yesterday and asked for my opinion. It is the sort of thing I dread. It doesn't matter what you say someone is going to disagree with you.
I am however with the new Prime Minister on this issue. You don't change the date of your birthday. The birthday of Downunder is considered to be the day the First Fleet arrived in 1788 and Captain Philip raised the Union Jack in Sydney Cove. It should be left that way.
I know a considerable number of people with indigenous heritage and only two of around almost one hundred have reservations about "Australia Day".  They don't see any reason to change it. Those angling to change it do not appear to be in the majority. It is, as with many other things, a minority who claim they want it changed. 
One of them, a well educated and very aware man, has gone as far as to say, "Australia was not invaded. One fleet of ships does not make an invasion. People who say that don't understand their own history."
He may well be right. Some dreadful things were done to the indigenous population but the country is vast. People didn't move that far. It wasn't a nation. It was tribal. There were tribal wars. It took almost 200 years before contact was made with all the indigenous people.
 But the same educated man has said more than once, "What do people want? Do they want to go back to living the lifestyle of their far distant ancestors? Would they like everyone else to leave? Would they expect them to leave all the benefits behind or could they take all the schools and hospitals, the transport and communication?"
It's not a simple thing. It's not simply a matter of saying "you invaded us and took away our land". In many cases those saying such things have ancestors who are the people they now claim to be invaders. Some of the most outspoken are people whose indigenous heritage forms only a tiny part of their ancestry. The most outspoken person I know, one who would like "Australia Day wiped off the calendar", has just one indigenous great-great grandparent. The rest are a mix of Irish, Afghan and Chinese. That is something she would like to deny but it remains a fact. 
The new Prime Minister has suggested having a day which acknowledges those who were here before white settlement. Some would welcome that but it would not satisfy this outspoken person. She has already complained about that. 
My own view, apart from keeping the date as it is? I think it is time to look at the actual past, not the past people would like it to be - and weigh it up from there.