In Australia we don't celebrate thanksgiving, and until the US exported it we didn't have Black Friday sales either.
Here, when you see Black Friday you think of a catastrophic fire event.
"The Black Friday bushfires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia"
Black as in black smoke in think plumes choking out the sky.
Black as in entire forests, towns, and farms turned to charcoal.
Like Black Saturday, or the Black Summer of 2019-20.
A fire season so intense the soot stained glaciers in Argentina.
Covered our towns and cities in smoke so bad you needed a mask to go outside. A fire season that started months earlier than normal, and lasted almost into the middle of winter 2020. Made worse by our governments unwillingness to take climate science seriously. Made worse by the NSW premier cutting funding to the Bushfire Service, a vital organisation that is still staffed mostly by volunteers.
When I hear Black Friday, Black any day. I think of fire. Apocalyptic fire.
Not the fire that is a part of this continents precolonial history.
A horrible, wretched, inferno. A land trying to claw itself back into equilibrium.
What does Black Friday mean to you?
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