Australian Identity

Australian Symbols

Cultural Cringe

Language and Identity

Australian Stereotypes

Devaluing Australian Values

Racism and Egalitarianism

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There are many Australians who say that Australia has no national identity, and does not need one. In fact, in the 1970s Whitlam Minister Al Grassy declared that even something as simple as identifying one's ancestors as Australian on a census form was a sign of racial supremacist attitudes. According to Grassy:

"It would mean there was a secret master race that considered themselves pure Australians...It would be worse than the Third Reich." (1)

Ironically, to say that Australia has no national identity is a uniquely Australian thing to say. In no other country would there be a large number of citizens saying that their homeland has no culture, and it would be worse than killing six million Jews if it got one. Quite to the contrary, in most countries around the world, individuals are prepared to die to preserve their culture. Many will bear arms to protect their culture, vote against integration with other nations or impose sanctions on countries that threaten their ideology. They might ban immigration, led rebellions against foreign influences or outlaw foreign ideas.

Australia's lack of a strong culture does have some benefits. Arguably, Australians are the most free people on earth. While the rest of the world wallows in fear of cultural loss as a result of globalisation, Australians are assimilating foreign ideas and becoming stronger in the process. Such behaviour makes it easy to be optimistic about Australia's future. As Charles Darwin once noted:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but those most adaptive to change."

Aside from being free to able to adapt to new ideas, Australians are free to criticise their government without being accused of shitting on the flag. Likewise, they are free to wave the flag however they want. Not only does this mean they can let the flag's corners touch the ground, the entire flag may even be used as a blanket to sit on at the cricket.

Australians can relax. "No worries" is Australia's mantra because on the whole, Australia's lack of culture, and the conformity pressures associated with culture, frees it of the worries of other nations.

But Australia's freedom does come at an economic and spiritual cost. Economically, a country's culture is the brand that it trades on and this affects consumer demand for its good and services. For example, Australian fashion brands like Billabong succeed because they trade on Australia's image as a relaxed nation. On the other hand, stylish fashion labels fail because there is no sense that Australians are refined in any shape or form.

A national identity also affects whether Australians will support the dreams and ambitions of their compatriots. For example, most sports loving Australians have a strong desire to see their compatriots achieve. Consequently, they support their tax dollars being spent to fund training programs. Furthermore, they pay money to enter stadiums where they can cheer encouragement.

While a supportive culture is found in sports, it is not found in the arts. In fact, in the arts there is a culture that sees an Australian label as a liability instead of an asset. Such a culture makes it difficult for aspiring painters, musicians, directors, actors and playwrights to ever achieve their potential in Australia. It is simply too difficult to find compatriots who will lend a helping hand. For example, when explaining why self-critical Australian movies keep flopping at the box-office, director George Miller said:

"We really don't have significant stories to tell, perhaps apart from the indigenous story...Australia at its heart is so racist that I don't think we can stomach it."(3)

In many respects, people in the arts only have themselves to blame for limiting their own opportunities in life. Most of them share sentiments similar to those of Al Grassby and George Miller. Despite working in the cultural industries, they don't believe Australia has a culture worth preserving, or that Australia has stories worth telling. Furthermore, if they can't be positive to the success stories such as AC/DC, Paul Hogan, Oliver Newton-John and Rolf Harris, then they can't expect others to be positive towards them. Somewhat paradoxically, they become upset when sportsmen rather than artists are named Australian of the Year. It is a strange contradiction for them to say that Australians should not support Australians, then become upset when other Australians don't support them.

In the intellectual world, there is outright hostility to an Australian identity. In the tradition of Al Grassby, there is a constant linkage between Australian culture and Nazis. For example, intellectuals such as Robert Manne have accused past Australian governments of "genocide." He has also accused the Australian governments of "stifling debate." Manne's fantasy world is so disconnected from the laid back reality of Australia that he has made himself the target of ridicule. This ridicule was seen in a newspaper editorial in The Australian, which publicaly mocked his ideas:

"There is no better way to start the day than with a good chuckle. Happily, there was Robert Manne in the letters pages of The Australian yesterday to give us one...Manne says debate is "presently under threat", which would be why people were too terrified to march in their hundreds of thousands against the war in Iraq. You hardly ever hear a word against the Government's Work Choices legislation either, do you? David Marr can never get a word in...Pity we won't be able to hear through the mouth gag he is forced to wear, both hands tied behind his back to prevent him from writing books, essays, columns and, now, letters to The Australian." (2)

Manne's fantasy world indicates that, in the absence of an Australian identity, intellectuals will create an identity that is not necessarily in Australia's interests. For intellectuals a social identity is a necessity. Their world is one where a theory only gains validity when their peers have accepted it, and alternative theories have been discredited. Once accepted by fellow intellectuals, their theories need to be accepted by the wider community. Consequently, intellectuals need to anchor their theories in some kind of national direction. They need to use to words like "we" and "moral responsibility.." to rally people behind them. They need to evoke some kind of shared values in order to persuade the public to embrace some necessary changes. Most importantly, they need some kind of community spirit to justify the government giving them money when they don't produce anything tangible in return.

In the intellectual's fantasy identity, Australia is a Nazi state, and the intellectuals are the last hope for all freedom loving Australians. It is a fantasy that justifies their existence, rallies others around their cause, vilifies disagreement, gives followers a sense of moralistic belonging, and gives their theories a national direction to be anchored in.

Unfortunately, the Nazi identity that the intellectuals have created is not a believable one. Australia is a country where most people can't even remember the words to the national anthem, where alternative flags are often waved in preference to the official flag, and where a yes vote couldn't even get up for a republic referendum - despite 90 per cent of Australians supporting it. If ever there was a country where it would be difficult to imagine another Adolph Hitler coming to power, it would be Australia.

Aside from the fact that the Nazi identity is completely unbelievable, it is neither in the intellectual's interests nor Australia's interests as a whole. Australia needs its intellectuals feeling as if they are part of the group, not disconnected from it. Likewise, Australia needs intellectuals that are respected, not intellectuals who open themselves to being lampooned by the country's newspapers.

An editorial in The Australian summed up the inevitable consequence of the direction that intellectuals, and artists, wish to take Australia down:

"We will never get a great culture in Australia until there are more artists prepared to understand, rather than demonise, this pragmatic turn of mind. If Williamson's ship was a metaphor for contemporary Australia, it was in how it revealed a dangerous schism between the arts and the public. Until the writers and filmmakers are prepared to shake themselves free of moral vanity, passengers on the good ship Australia will be increasingly disposed to hand them a paddle and pitch them overboard."

1)Stephen Gibbs, Wannabes and ethnicity, Sydney Morning Herald April 26, 2005

2) Editorial: Speak up, Robert!We can't hear you through the mouth gag June 13, 200 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21894980-7583,00.html

3)http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/printpage/0,5481,7974207,00.html

Timeline of the Australian identity

Prehistory

Aboriginal tribes

Aboriginal tribal identities were based around an animal or plant totem. Each Aboriginal person believed they had three forms which gave them a continuous life form. The totem was the form after human and then to spirit. As the cycle continued, so did the Aboriginal cultures.

There was no concept of an Aboriginal identity or Australia as one land. Each tribe was very much its own unit and reserved hostility to other tribes. This hostility to an outgroup helped maintain a strong ingroup identity.

Because Aboriginal identities were not defined along racial lines, there was more hostility between different Aboriginal tribes that there was towards the colonists that arrived in 1788. Furthermore, the prestige of the tribe was not defined according to land ownership, but according to the number of people in a tribe. For this reason, the tribe was both open to new inductees, but also intent on destroying all rivals.

"Whenever he recounted his battles, "poised his lance, and showed how fields were won", the most violent exclamations of rage and vengeance against his competitors in arms, those of the tribe called Cameeragal in particular, would burst from him. And he never failed at such times to solicit the governor to accompany him, with a body of soldiers, in order that he might exterminate this hated name. " From Watkin Tench – 1791

Expression -Paintings, customs, songs, myths, stories , war

Colonial era

Convicts, Legitimates and Emancipists

After gaining their ticket of leave, Convicts started referring to themselves as Legitimates. Their thinking was that since they had been chosen by the finest judges in England, they were of the few Europeans with a legitimate reason to be in Australia. Later they referred to themselves as Emancipists because it implied they had attained liberty and strove for the liberty of others. The Legitimate/Emancipist identity was maintained with hostility to the Exclusives.

Expression - Songs, flash language, tattoos, convict women mooning wowsers or 'exposing her person.'

"From distant climes, o'er wide-spread seas we come, 
Though not with much eclat, or beat of drum,
True patriots all, for it be understood, 
We left our country for our country's good:
No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
What urged our travels was our country's weal:
And none will doubt that our emigration
Had prov'd most useful to the British Nation."

George Barrington

W.B Gould
The Landlord

The Landlord, by Convict artist W.B Gould, shows an early expression of Australian egalitarianism. It depicts a suited man with a toothless grin. Strict convention amongst noble man of the time was a deadpan expression; especially if one's teeth were missing. Without doubt, Gould had painted an ex-convict whose desire to conform to social prestige had been surpassed by a self-effacing personality.

Note - Identity not defined along racial lines. As a consequence, hostility to Exclusives was far greater than any hostility to Aboriginal tribes.

The Exclusives

The Exclusives were free British settlers, or military officers who had left the service. The Exclusives advocated confining all offices and civic honours to Emigrants with the total exclusion of Emancipists and their offspring.

The Exclusives were extremely pro-British and maintained their identity with a strong hostility to the Legitimates/Emancipists.

Unique class system keeps the colony divided against itself.

Jan 31 Deep divisions exist within New South Wales, greatly adding to the burden of being a people isolated at the bottom of the world, and therefore needing more than ever to live together in harmony.

Historically, the greatest rift has been between the "exclusives" and the "emancipists". The first group believe that anyone who has come to the colony in penal servitude is never capable of complete redemption. These people, who tend to be among the wealthy landowners, thus see themselves as a superior class. For their part, the emancipists, who are all ex-convicts, are concerned with equality of human rights. 
Governor Macquarie, much to his peril, supported the emancipist cause, despite opposition from the forces which believed it would end respect for the law by allowing ex-convicts the normal rights of British citizens.

Since the Bigge inquiry, though, the colony has been re-established much more firmly as a prison rather than for reform, which has only worsened the tension. As well, the emancipists are divided, between those who committed crimes at home, and in Australia. This reflects a third division, being "Sterling", a name for the British-born, and the "Currency", the home-grown population. – Colonial newspaper report

Expression - English flag, English clothes, formal English speech

Note - The Exclusives saw the Aborigines as 'noble savages.' Their thinking was that Aborigines were without sin as they have never learnt it. For this reason, they wanted to prevent Aborigines mixing with Convicts.

1800 – 1850 – Convicts have children

The Native Born - Currency lads and lasses

The first native born in Australia were taunted as the 'wretched' and the lowest class because their parents had been Convicts. This discrimination was institutionalised when it came to the distribution of land grants. Whereas free immigrants were frequently given grants running in thousands of acres, the native born of Convict stock were only allowed sixty acres. 

The bush pioneer became the icon for the native born. Out in the bush, no laws ran and people were free to sing folk songs or live in equality. There was no room for elitism because people on the land needed to rely upon one another in the tough conditions. The identity was maintained with hostility to English immigrants and authority figures.

Expression - Bushranger songs, bush poetry

"Come all you young Australians and everyone besides
I'll sing to you a ditty that will fill you with surprise
Concerning of a ranger bold whose name it was Ben Hall
But cruelly murdered was this day which proved his downfall"

Ballad of Ben Hall

Aboriginal identities

As the colony expanded out from Sydney, the Europeans came into conflict with Aborigines over land. Although tribal identities remained, the Europeans started to take the place of rival tribes as the principle enemy.

Although there was hostility, there was also friendship. Some Aborigines left their tribes and formed good relations with the native born. They worked as droving hands and sang songs with the other drovers. Aside from being admired for their lyrical ability, they were admired for their bush skills. In a sense, their knowledge of the land had them admired as the protypical bushman. Reflecting the admiration for the Aborigines is the use of Aboriginal place names for rural Australia.

1850 - 1900 The gold rush years

The Digger (Miner)

In 1853, the discovery of gold sparked massive waves of immigration. Miners from all over the world descended upon Australia and brought with them ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Although they valued self-reliance, independence and resourcefulness, they were also fiercely loyal to their mates.

Egalitarian sentiments were solidified with a dislike of the ruling colonial authorities that were deemed to be corrupt and elitist. This gave rise to a union movement. As the authorities tried to break unions via the importation of Chinese labour, the Chinese became another enemy to solidify the Digger's identity.

"The maiden appearance of our standard, in the midst of armed men, sturdy, self-overworking diggers of all languages and colours, was a fascinating object to behold." Raffaelo Carboni writing about the raising of the Eureka Stocake flag in 1854

' Australia began her political history as a crouching serf kept in subjection by the whip of a ruffian gaoler, and her progress, so far, consists merely in a change of masters. Instead of a foreign slave-driver, she has a foreign admiral; the loud-mouthed tyrant has given place to the suave hireling in uniform; but when the day comes to claim their independence the new ruler will probably prove more dangerous and more formidable that the old.' Rather than 'the day we were lagged', said the Bulletin, Australia's national day should be December 3, the anniversary of the Eureka rebellion, 'the day that Australia set her teeth in the face of the British Lion'. Bulletin, 21 Jan 1888

Expression - Eureka Stockade Flag. No songs were written to glorify the Eureka Stockade. 

The Chinese

At the height of the gold rush, there were up to 100,000 Chinese people in Australia. Chinese newspapers of the time depicted the Chinese as hardworking and the other miners as lazy. Although such stories may have indeed been a reflection upon how the Chinese saw themselves, they may have also been a form of propaganda designed to persuade the Chinese not to complain about being exploited by mining companies.

When the Chinese weren't working for a company, they worked together in teams. It was said that they were very efficient at extracting gold and often went to the mine sites deserted by other Diggers, and found gold that had been missed. This was said to have infuriated the other miners.

Although most of the Chinese returned to China, some stayed and established businesses. Unlike most expat Chinese populations around the world, these Chinese seem to have integrated into the other emerging Australian identities.

Expression - Newspaper articles calling other miners lazy.

The Wowser (activist)

By the turn of the century, the anti-transportation activists of the 1850s had evolved into anti-Chinese activists. The wowsers were very loyal to the English empire and saw themselves as British rather than Australians.

'Right, my boy, your worthy of your sire. In the old days I stopped the convicts in the bay. And now you must bar out the yellow plague with your arm'. - A Federation poster appearing in Punch contained an old man advising a youngster.

Expression - Protest marches and posters likening the 'yellow peril' with Convicts. 

Capitalist and outcasts

Words of racial superiority probably did not wash with any Australian of mixed blood or those descedended from convicts. To the contrary, the stigmisation of the Chinese probably fostered a sense of empathy. The Kelly Gang seemed to be one such group that had time for the Chinese. They were rumoured to have been helped by Chinese (although this might have been propaganda to win the public relations war against the gang.) One member of the gang, Joe Byrne, definately was on good terms because he could speak fluent Cantonese.

Some sections of the business community could also see the positive side of the Chinese. Perhaps due to the language barrier, they were less likely to join the union movement, and so allowed businesses to pay low wages.

"No one who has paid any attention to the question of the coloured races will attempt for one moment to despise either the Japanese or the Chinese. " William Higgs, Labour party

"I look upon the whole of the inhabitants of Asia as my friends. I am perfectly willing that they should be called my friends, and I hope so long as God gives me breath that I shall have the courage to stand up for what I consider to be right for them." Edward Pulsford, Free Trade party

Federated nation – 1900- 1950

The Pioneer

The pioneer continued on the bush tradition laid by the previous generations. 

Expression - Paintings by the likes of Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. Poetry by Banjo Pattern and Henry Lawson.

"But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, `That horse will never do
For a long and tiring gallop lad, you'd better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you.'
So he waited sad and wistful only Clancy stood his friend
`I think we ought to let him come,' he said;
`I warrant he'll be with us when he's wanted at the end," Man from Snowy River

Digger (soldier)

The Digger had his baptism of fire in the Gallipoli campaign. Rather than hate the enemy, the Diggers seemed to hate the English. The Poms were seen as filthy cowards whose incompetence had resulted in the loss of life of countless Australians.

Perhaps the dislike of Poms made the Diggers better soldiers. It seems as if they felt that they had to prove their superiority over the English on the battlefield.

'Italians with whom I talked found it hard to believe that the Australians were volunteers. They understood their own position. They had been sent to Libya to win glory for Mussolini. They presumed that the Tommies were there merely to defend British Imperial interests. But why were the Australian volunteers there?

The ordinary Digger would have found it difficult to tell you. If you ever persuaded him to talk he would not have spoken of defending freedom, or removing injustice, or of saving the Empire. He might have said, "Oh, I wanted a bit of fun;" or else, "I dunno, I was fed up with my job;" or perhaps, "well, all my cobbers were joining up and so I went along too." Not much more than that. These would not be the real answers. Men may join up for fun or for a change, but if these are the only reasons, they would not go into action and fight through with bayonet and grenade when machine gun bullets kick the dust around their feet and they see the man next to them go down. If you could get the ordinary Australian to say what he really feels, it might be something like this:

"Well, I came away because I believe in a fair go and I wanted to be with my mates; because I like being able to say to a copper, 'That's all right, copper, you got nothin' on me;' because I want to say what I like when we're having a beer at the pub; because I want to do what I like with the few quid I've got in the bank; and because women and kids are being bombed in London and shot in Prague, and someday this might happen at home if we don't do something about it."

It was because they felt the battle was being fought for things like these, which mattered directly to them, that the Mallee farmer and the Kalgoorlie miner, the Bendigo bank clerk and the Sydney solicitor made the soldiers of Tobruk just as they made those at Gallipoli.' Chester Wilmont

Expression - War poetry, Anzac Day, courage on the battlefield

The Wowser (Englishman)

Once the threat of Convicts and Chinese had ended, the Wowsers found themselves somewhat aimless. Some directed their attention to campaigning against frivolous pastimes like gambling and drinking. Others found it immoral for people to jump into the ocean wearing small bathing suits.

With a dislike of these great Australian pastimes, the Wowsers remained obsessive in their support for English values, and moral empowerment.

'Wowsers and gloom-merchants are always saying that we spend too much of our time in sport.' Aussie: the cheerful monthly (Sydney, 1922)

"Yet even today, the act of jumping into the Pacific with as little as possible on the body is regarded with gloomy suspicion by the wowsers." Surf: All about It (1930)

'But members of this odd body of wowsers want the right to force their opinions on to others'. Bulletin (Sydney, 1975)

1950 - 2000- The confusing years

The Aboriginal Victim

By the end of World War II, Aboriginal tribal identities had eroded to the extent that white people stopped seeing differences between Aboriginal tribes and instead began viewing them as a homogenous out-group. Names for individual tribes faded away and instead Aborigines, the generic word for an indigenous population, came into use by default.

Aborigines also stopped thinking in cultural terms and instead began to think of themselves in racial terms. Blacks were part of their in-group while all whites were the out-group invaders. Asians were in an undefined category.

Aborigines developed a strong identification with black power movements from America. They assimilated rap music, and the baggy style of clothes. Oddly, many Aborigines became Rastarian; except they dropped the green from the colour coding. (Rastafarism is a pseudo-Christian based religion developed by the descendents of slaves wanting to show pride in their African heritage. Its name comes from Prince Rastafari of Ethiopia.)

Perhaps assessments of Aborigines also went downhill in mainstream society. When the bush was held up as the "true Australia" the Aborigines were celebrated as the prototypical bushmen. As the bush lost its iconic status, so too did the Aborigines that lived in it.

Expression - Aboriginal flag, protest marches, music, Aboriginal tent embassy, defiance of white authority

"Our world was shattered by the violence of the Invasion which began when the First Fleet of British Boat people arrived in 1788. Our people were decimated, as the invaders stole our country, imposed their own laws and systems of government on our peoples, forcing our people into concentration camps called "missions". " Aboriginal activist

The Larrikin

Although Larrikins have always been popular in Australia, it wasn't until after World War II that larrikins also became national heroes. The likes of Dawn Fraser and John Newcombe commanded respect across the classes, which made their rule indiscretions difficult to criticise. The result was a change in the meaning of the world larrikin. Instead of conjuring images of street criminals, it conjured images of good-hearted risk takers.

The larrikin identity was maintained by mocking the wowser and subsequently taking delight in their displeasure. 

"Well, I'm [ever | rather] upper class high society
God's gift to ballroom notoriety
I always fill my ballroom
The event is never small
The social pages say I've got
The biggest balls of all" - AC/DC Big Balls

Expression: Praise for icons such as Dawn Fraser, Ned Kelly, John Newcombe. The music of AC/DC and Skyhooks.

Wowser

After the English identity collapsed, many Wowsers were left without a social conception of themselves. Not wanting to identify with Australia, they instead became multiculturalists. This identity maintained a dislike of everything and anything Australian. It justified its identity on the grounds that identifying with Australia was an act of racism. Colonisation symbolised racism towards Aborigines. The Eureka rebellion and Ned Kelly symbolised racism towards Chinese. Federation symbolised racism to all non-whites. Gallipoli symbolised sexism and racism on the grounds most of the soldiers were white men and therefore excluded minority groups. Whitlam Minister Al Grassby even said that people who identified themselves as Australians, rather than ethnic, were worse than Hitler's Third Reich.

According to the multiculturalists, Australia only became an open-minded country after World War II when it became multicultural for the "first" time.

Ironically, multiculturalists ideas have tended to originate from left-wing university departments. These departments are the last bastion of the White Australia Policy. No institution in Australia has a higher concentration of white people. Furthermore, no other institution has such little contact with the outside world. The focus on racial history, combined with their own whiteness, seems to indicate that identifying with the white race is still an integral part of the multiculturalist's identity.

Expression - Support for an apology, on behalf of the white race, for injustices inflicted upon Aborigines. Support for a republic on the grounds British heritage is irrelevant to non-white migrants. Support for refugees on the grounds that Australians are racist for supporting mandatory detention of illegal immigrants.

"The 26th of January is an inappropriate date for Australia Day as it merely represents the anniversary of the arrival of the British to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. It does not represent of birth of a nation and disengages the aboriginal and non-British communities from their sense of involvement in nationhood. It also sends the wrong message to our Asian neighbors, reminding them of our European roots." Daniel Bryant

"Australia Day should be changed to a more suitable date, rather than the one that not only insults the rightful owners of this land, our indigenous peoples, but conveniently disregards the non-White migrants." Australia Day = Shame Day

Expatriate/ global swagman

While the multiculturalists tended to avoid new experiences, the expatriate went searching for them. Some went as backpackers to pull beers in a London pub. Others went as actors to America to make their fortune. Some went to Japan to establish television shows.

The global swagman's desire for new experiences gave rise to the expression that "there is nothing more Australian than spending time in someone elses' country."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
Men at Work

I've been to cities that never close down,
from New York to Rio and old London town,
but no matter how far or how wide I roam,
I still call Australia home.
Peter Allen

Expression - Songs such as Downunder, movies like Crocadile Dundee and iconic expatriates like Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Kylie Minogue, taking a jar of vegemite overseas, Qantas theme: "I Still Call Australia Home."