Australia Day is a national holiday at the height of the Australian summer that feels, to many, like a celebration of colonization.

Every Jan. 26, Australians gather for barbecues and beach parties — or for citizenship ceremonies and fireworks — to mark the anniversary of the day in 1788 when the island was claimed by the First Fleet of British ships.

And since at least 1938, Aboriginal groups have publicly protested it.

Each year, their call for Australia Day to be moved to another date, or for the day to be recast as one of mourning, grows louder. But with a few exceptions at the local level, Australia’s political class has refused to budge.

The result: a visible standoff, played out regularly in the local news media, between Australia’s conservative white officials and the leaders of various Aboriginal groups.