Australia Day celebrations are being ignored today by some Queensland Catholic workers as a protest against what they say is the continuing dispossession of Aborigines, says an Australian Associated Press story from Brisbane.

The AAP story continues:-

Staff at the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Brisbane are at work today while other Queenslanders prepare for celebrations across the state.

Peace commission executive officer Peter Arndt said celebrating Australia Day on January 26 was divisive because it reminded indigenous Australians of their continuing dispossession.

He said commission staff would instead mark their own Australia Day holiday in June around the anniversary of the 1992 High Court's Mabo decision.

"We would much rather celebrate the Mabo decision with a holiday because it is a sign of hope for all Australians," Mr Arndt said.

"The Mabo decision recognised that indigenous people owned this land when the First Fleet landed on January 26, 1788, and the High Court made this decision using the law which applies equally to all Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous alike.

"The Mabo decision was the beginning of the process of finally righting the wrong of Aboriginal dispossession."

Mr Arndt said he hoped other Christians would show their commitment to justice for all Australians by going to work as usual today.

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