RON Barassi has called for Australia Day to be moved to May to commemorate the day Aborigines were given equal citizenship rights.

He said it was wrong to celebrate the day of the European invasion of Australia when "we took" this land from Aborigines.

Barrassi - a hero who rushed to save mother-of-three Tess Green, who was being bashed in St Kilda on New Year's Eve - said he was willing to take on this new fight even if people disagreed with him.

The 10-time premiership player and coach said Australia Day should be May 27 - the day in 1967 that clauses in the Constitution that discriminated against indigenous people were removed.

In the 1967 Referendum, 90.77 per cent of Australians - the biggest majority in a national referendum - voted to enable Aboriginal people to be counted in the Census and to be subject to Commonwealth laws, rather than just state laws.

Barassi said recognising the May 27 date would be the next step on the path to reconciliation.

He said it would be a natural progression after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said "sorry" to the indigenous population last year.

"Australia Day is the day put aside to focus attention on just what a great country this is. But I reckon we're celebrating the wrong day," he said.

"I think we should change the date of Australia Day. We were invaders and conquerors in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived and we took this land from the Aborigines.

"January 26 just doesn't sit right with me and I'd prefer it were changed."

Barassi, 72, said Australia's other cultural landmark, Anzac Day, would be an inappropriate swap.

"The national day couldn't be Anzac Day, because we were fighting a stupid war and we lost."

Barassi said the changing the day we celebrated our nationhood would be an important symbol to the indigenous population.

"I think the day we should dedicate as Australia Day is May 27, the day Aborigines were given citizenship rights," he said.

"I think it was the day that the native people of this land were treated as equals in our democratic country.

"It is a genuinely significant day in our history, one which we should celebrate, but which currently is totally overlooked."

Barassi admitted he expected criticism for his stand.