It’s that time of year when we celebrate a shipload of blokes in cravats lobbing up here from the UK a couple of hundred years ago.

While we may question whether that’s a good reason to throw a party, we should never deny that the benefits of living here are worth celebrating.

When I moved to Oz 26 years ago, I was attracted by the promise of a country that was inclusive – a place where equality was valued above all else. So I’d suggest that any Australia Day – whatever date you prefer – should be an opportunity to celebrate what we have here and the things that bring us together as a motley collection of people from all over.

It should be a day to break bread with those we love and to think of the sacrifices so many have made over the years and the sacrifices so many still make whether through personal choice or the lottery of circumstance.

We like to think of Australia as the lucky country, but looking around we can see that here, as everywhere, some are far more ‘lucky’ than others. So any Australia Day should be, to borrow from JFK, a matter of asking not what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country.

We should be hungry not just for a pavlova loaded with the green of kiwifruit and gold of passionfruit (or sweet-tart fresh pineapple), but also hungry to make things better for all Australians.

We have to be sensitive to the feelings of all. Consideration of, and empathy with, others is one of the greatest traits of Australians and it should remain so. We must work to eradicate the divisive rhetoric and to substitute outrage and rants with dialogue and consensus.

Central to this has to be a quest to build a nation based on morality rather than one that rewards those who avoid their obligations by hiding behind a thicket of legalities.

Whether you’re a sole trader or a multinational you need to pay a share of what you earn here to go towards roads, hospitals, emergency services and education to the benefit all Australians. Avoiding responsibilities to your employees, your employer or your fellow Australians, represented by the government, is frankly un-Australian.

As for the date on which we celebrate, perhaps every day should be Australia Day, whether your family has been here one year, 200 years or 40,000.

So, what to put on the table for this celebration? In Mexico’s early colonial days, when the nuns of Santa Rosa in Puebla wanted to honour their visiting archbishop they created a dish with what they had, blending this new Spain’s indigenous and European heritages: turkey with a chocolate- laced mole sauce, now a national dish.

We can do our own mestizaje menu (as the nuns called this fusion of Amerindian and Hispanic ideas).

Much of our indigenous produce comes from the sea, so maybe start with a platter of prawns served with a salsa that reflects the flavours of your cultural heritage – Thai nam jim, Greek tzatziki or a mayo loaded with XO sauce, chopped fresh tarragon or horseradish if you are of, respectively, Chinese, French, British or Polish descent.

For the main course, nothing could be more Aussie than eating the coat of arms, but knocking up a whole roast emu is a bit of a stretch. Instead, let’s have tender barbecued kangaroo fillets – cooking outdoors is as old as our oldest hills and common to many of our diverse culinary heritages. Lamb is almost as appropriate. Either way, throw on some halved broccolini stalks (tossed in local olive oil) for those who like their greens.

To serve alongside the meat, let’s cook up a jam of golden mango, chilli, caramelised onion and coriander seeds. Use sugar from Queensland sugar cane and vinegar made from wine grown in one of our wonderful wine regions. Both kangaroo and lamb love a bit of sweetness.

And to serve over the broccolini? A dollop of macadamia cream made by soaking macadamias overnight, then blitzing them with the sweet roasted flesh of red capsicums, fresh dates, chickpeas and a spoonful of hard-to-find – and therefore all the more valuable – Tasmanian miso.

To finish? Well, obviously it has to be pavlova – if only to give our neighbours over the Tasman the irits. Your call on the topping, but if you’re seeking inspiration you’ll find dozens of brilliant pav recipes on the delicious. website. Maybe our Turkish delight pavlova with pistachios or Elena Duggan’s lemon myrtle one will take your fancy.

To drink, pick a nice rum punch (there’s no more Australian spirit), locally brewed beer or a nice bottle of Barossa or Heathcote shiraz. Or maybe just a jug of cool, clear water, a reminder that this is one of the most precious resources when you live on the world’s driest continent.

If you’re feeling inspired, find the recipe for our heat-beating rum punch, or some show-stopping pavlovas.