Abbie Chatfield Had The Perfect Response To The Influencers Celebrating Invasion Day
Abbie Chatfield isn’t having a bar of anyone’s bullshit.
The Aussie reality TV icon has taken to Instagram over the past 24 hours to call out performative activism amongst other celebrities in regards to celebrating Invasion Day.
Specifically, the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star called out the influencers who had shared infographics/showed support for First Nations people prior to Invasion Day, but then proceeded to have Australia Day parties.
For context, here’s a brief summary of some celebrities engaging in performative activism.
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Abbie Chatfield Makes A Statement
In a lengthy statement shared to her Instagram Stories, Abbie Chatfield said, “You aren’t being the change if you’re participating in harmful traditions like, idk, celebrating genocide on stolen land. This is the EASIEST fucking decision. To just NOT.”
The Bachelor-star spoke about how these influencers could have simply partied on other days in January, especially with the movement of triple j’s Hottest 100. “Hottest 100 is now on the Saturday, you can celebrate the long weekend with your friends then. I did! Without an Australian flag in sight!!!! ‘But it’s a public holiday and it’s hot!!!! Let them have a pool party!!’ Simply, no. It’s a public holiday so use that time off work to do something to broaden your understanding of the harm colonisation has caused. It’s hot every day in summer. We live in fucking Australia and climate change is happening. We have a lot of hot days to choose from??? Lmao,” she said.
She also called out the people who attended the rallies but didn’t listen to the messages that were being spoken. “If you were *actually* listening to speakers at these rallies you wouldn’t be able to have fun in the afternoon. You’d want to dig deeper, feel a responsibility to be uncomfortable to hopefully learn something. The level of cognitive dissonance in believing that you can ACTUALLY attend a rally and then just pop on over to your pool party is something else.”
She then ended her statement by alluding to a podcast episode dedicated to Invasion Day, saying: “Anyway, my followers all know this. Will chat about it next week on the pod.”
Check out Abbie’s full statement here.
Was the statement aimed at anyone in particular?
People have speculated that Abbie’s statement was actually aimed at fellow Bachelor alum Jess Brody and Elly Miles, among others. Both of these reality stars fulfilled the criteria of showing support to Indigenous Australians before proceeding to party anyway, which can be seen above in the Instagram embedded above.
Elly Miles has since put out a statement apologising for her actions. She said: “To answer people’s comments from yesterday, there is nothing else I can say in this situation other than, “I am sorry.” I had a complete lapse of judgement and have a lot of regret for my actions. I sincerely apologise for upsetting anyone.”
She continued, “I stand by my attendance at the Change the Date protest and feel that it is an incredibly important issue. I truly wasn’t being insincere with my attendance. I know how it looks, we all make mistakes – I made one yesterday and all I can say once again, from the bottom of my heart is that I am truly sorry.” Check out the full statement here.
In addition to these Bachy alumni, Abbie Chatfield also called out influencer and co-founder of P.E. Nation, Pip Edwards, for posting contradictory messages and flying the Aboriginal flag upside-down. She said, “Why have you posted a story explicitly outlining why today is not the date to celebrate and then posted this, precisely the opposite? You are clearly aware of the reasoning behind the protests, the outcry, the mourning… but post this. Confusing, tone-deaf behaviour…” Check out her full comment here:
Pip Edwards has since responded to the backlash (and presumably Abbie) in a new Instagram post. She said: “I want to express my sincere apologies to those that I have offended. My intentions were always from a good place, in support of all people, wanting unity and community in this country and globally.” Read the full statement here:
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