Australia Day
Melbourne 2020
Today is Australia Day, commemorating the landing of the British First Fleet in Sydney Cove on Jan. 26, 1788 and the establishment of the settlement that was the embryo that grew into today's nation of Australia.
But it's complicated. That first settlement was a penal colony for convicts, and indigenous Australians don't see the arrival of Europeans as something to celebrate, much as native Americans don't celebrate Columbus Day. Nevertheless, Australia Day is a national holiday, and it's celebrated across Australia.
Today we look at the 2020 World Naked Bike Ride in Melbourne, Australia. The ride took place on March 15, not on Australia Day, but I'm featuring it today to mark the holiday with something Australian.
This guy caught my attention, apparently going for the formal look with a bowler hat and black bow tie (and nothing else).
The slogan on his chest is rather informal, though.
Here's a rear view of him, with his blond curls sticking out under his hat.
Several videos of the 2020 Melbourne WNBR were posted, but at first I couldn't find our bowler-hatted friend. Then I saw that for the ride, he replaced his bowler hat with an orange and black bicycle helmet, but you can recognize him by the "On ya bike" slogan on his chest. Here he is emerging from the park onto the city streets.
In the video above, he is riding along when his pack falls off his bike and he has to stop and retrieve it, along with something smaller that apparently also fell off.
Here are the riders on a city street, with a view of Mr. On Ya Bike in the foreground.
And we end with him giving us a wave as he passes by.
Happy Australia Day!
5 comments:
love the guy with a black hat too!
Funny how the indigenous peoples of all countries forget that they, too, migrated....
Yes, but they migrated first and didn't have to treat anyone badly to settle
@orbarebear - Like I said, it’s complicated. Yes, the very first migrants didn’t have to displace anyone, but afterwards, history is full of wars among indigenous peoples. Native American tribes engaged in “mourning wars” to avenge the death of a relative by capturing men from another tribe who would then be tortured to death. So, yes, the Europeans treated the indigenous peoples badly, but it’s not true that indigenous peoples didn’t “treat anyone badly.”
What I love about Australia is full bush, and their foreskin snout…
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