January 26 is not a national milestone. It is a regional anniversary of the colonial occupation of the Gadigal shores.
For too long, the Australian state has enforced a single timeline that treats the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 as the ‘Big Bang’ of our continent’s history. This is not only a historical inaccuracy; it is an act of epistemic violence.
By centring the 1788 Sydney timeline, the country erases the distinct histories, resistance movements and continuing sovereignty of Nations like the Yugambeh Nation.
Yugambeh Country after 1788
While Sydney was grappling with its early penal colony, Yugambeh Country remained an autonomous Indigenous space. We were not undiscovered, and we were not waiting for 1788. Our laws, our kinship systems and our land management remained absolute for decades after the First Fleet arrived.
The colonial frontier did not breach our borders until well into the mid-nineteenth century (see February 1842). To apply a 1788 ‘founding’ date to our region is a geographical and historical absurdity. The story of New South Wales is not the story of all Australia.
We are not a sub-plot in the story of New South Wales. We are the Yugambeh Nation: sovereign then, sovereign now, and sovereign always.
Adapted from a Yugambeh Nation post of 26 January 2026.