While my Australian citizenship has been approved, I am awaiting my citizenship ceremony to make it official.

So, I am calling this my 3rd Australia Day as a permanent resident and my 8th Australia Day overall.

As previous Australia Days, I reflect instead of celebrate. I understand the error of my thought about having a citizenship ceremony on this day. It was wrong of me to want that on Australia Day. In my eyes, I see it would now be as if I had landed and slaughtered the First Peoples all over again.

I’m happy to become an Australian citizen on any other day of the year. Not today. Not on the 26th of January.

I honour and respect the First Peoples that came before me and that are here to guide us, me.

In continuing my education of their history, I allow myself to see their story, to hear their story, to feel their story.

Today, I do not celebrate but I sit in reflection with my hand on my heart, my feet on Gadigal land, and give my respects to what the First Peoples have lost.

I respect and acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land where I live. I pay my respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. Through learning about your songlines, I found my own. #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe