The same people arguing that January 26 isn’t a divisive date and saying it’s a non-issue are the same people who said five years ago marriage equality wouldn’t happen and wasn’t important to Australians. History will prove them wrong.

South Australia is a progressive and compassionate state. I believe we can come together to back our indigenous communities in their struggle for recognition. We’ve seen the Adelaide and Marion councils wade into the discussion on changing the date, from different sides, before they’ve decided to stay out of it. Councils should stick to rates, roads and rubbish, they say. But as institutions that offer information on local services, host community-building events and provide a helping hand to new migrants to our suburbs (and naturalises them in citizenship ceremonies), they are a great place to start.

The Turnbull Government likes to threaten councils with stripping them of their duty to hold citizenship ceremonies if they dare not bust out the party poppers on January 26. They accuse those people in the community who want to move to a date that we as a nation can all celebrate, of stoking the fire of division.

It’s a far cry from the Malcolm Turnbull of old. Back in 2009, Malcolm Turnbull said that while he didn’t support changing the date of Australia Day, he celebrated how we’re all “free to express our opinions” on the issue. These days, councils aren’t free to express their opinions about our national day of unity. They’re attacked for it.

It’s sad to see the Prime Minister bullied into taking such a hard-line position by the hard-right of his party. The far-right of the Liberal Party has been practically frothing at the mouth about the need retain January 26. Alex Hawke, for example, has been leading the charge within the Liberal ranks, called the suggestion to change the date “pathetic” and objecting to an elected councillor referring to Australia as “stolen land”.

We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this is the same Alex Hawke that told a reporter in 2005 that “there is no Stolen Generation”. Instead, he said our well-documented record of genocide and dispossession was nothing more than “this deliberate attempt to rewrite history”.

Good on him for staking his claim to be the most reactionary culture warrior within a party in no short supply of them. Speaking for mainstream Australia? Not so much.

There is plenty Australia has to celebrate, and no-one is suggesting we don’t. The decision to celebrate January 26 is a political one. We get to choose what we celebrate as a nation. And celebrating a day when a group of convicts to whom only 20 per cent of modern Australians share a lineage raised another nation’s flag is a political choice we’re right to question.

I am one of those many non-indigenous Australians who is saddened and increasingly uncomfortable that we celebrate the day British settlers arrived and the subsequent slaughter of innocent and unsuspecting men, women and children that followed. I want a day we can all celebrate. We’ve got 364 other days of the year to choose from, and none of them marks the arrival of those who began the genocide of a people who are inherently more connected to this land than the rest of us could dream of.

Positive change isn’t always comfortable, particularly while it’s happening. Australia is growing, maturing and evolving into a more inclusive and sympathetic nation. The fact we’re having this conversation now shows that, for at least some of us, this is a day that isn’t unifying: we’ve got other days, and they could be.

In the feedback I’ve received from the South Australian indigenous community, one thing has become abundantly clear: there are many in the broader community who have a terribly low level of understanding of Australia’s history. This push isn’t just another scheme by the PC brigade to ‘destroy our way of life’, but rather, to enrich it and allow us all to enjoy life together.

On January 26, I will take a moment to acknowledge that indigenous people are in mourning. I didn’t invent their mourning. Rather, I’m simply recognising it. We choose to celebrate January 26 but that choice isn’t set in stone. Australia Day doesn’t have to be January 26: it wasn’t celebrated as such until the 1930s and it didn’t become a public holiday until 1994. What day would be better is a decision we should all consider.

I will continue to stand with the South Australian indigenous community and support them in their determination to see our national day changed. It was January 1, after all, when we actually became a nation.

I stand with the inclusive, welcoming Australia I know and love. A little bit of acceptance goes a long way – and should be celebrated.

Sarah Hanson-Young is an Australian Greens Senator for South Australia.