TOWARDS AN IDENTITY

As we again commence a new year here in Oz and worship all things ‘Australian’ on January 26, the obvious question remains……….. What are we celebrating? Intertwined with this question is another……….. What is Australia’s identity?

Alistair Thomson, Professor of History at Monash University, flags an immediate problem with mounting the ‘Identity’ steed. ‘As soon as you start talking about a distinctive national identity or character, you begin to exclude and you define those who are IN and those who are OUT.’ (2019)

A reactionary offering for what describes Australia’s physique normally includes reference to the lucky country, a ‘fair go’ focus, mateship in abundance, battlers ahoy, an egalitarian understorey with a ‘you can succeed if you really want to’ neoliberal canopy and, of course, hordes of hilarious larrikins.

It’s easy to see the problems with such an assessment as it ignores vital components of our history. And this is a common theme when pegging an Australian identity. The profiling changes depending on who the storyteller is. A First Nations’ punter from western Sydney might relate a very different story to a Somalian refugee in Victoria and both would be light years away from the featured description above.

Australia’s position in Asia is another complexity. We have never fully engaged with our near neighbours since colonial settlement. In fact, ‘neighbours’ is too strong a word for many citizens. We’re more comfortable viewing ourselves as an antipodean outpost or agency than as a partner with Asian countries and affairs. Our destiny may lie in Asia but we insist on genuflecting before a monarch who kicks up dust twenty thousand kilometres away. The absurdity of this welding cannot be overstated.

Our obvious multicultural credentials, likewise, haven’t helped to develop a modern image of the country. While waves of migration from European, Asian and African countries/ regions have occurred since the early twentieth century, we still lather up about whether to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and gag if forced to eat a halal-certified Kit Kat. God can’t intervene in any of this because, as of the 2016 Census wash-up, Australia is no longer a Christian-majority society. Whoops. Pauline Hanson might have something to say about that but she’s about as relevant as the boomers who still harbour her ideas.  

However, our greatest challenge when grappling with identity is in recognising Australia’s original inhabitants. It’s estimated that at the time of the ‘first settlement’, there were roughly 200 nations already within Oz and the 1788 metric lay somewhere between 750 000 and 1 000 000 punters living on the land. Incredibly, this occupation of Australia can be traced back to antiquity with 50 000 years being a conservative starting point.

Yet black history barely rates a footnote in our national education curriculums and indigenous representation in local, state, and federal governments is virtually non-existent. First Nations’ punters are depicted as miscreants, drunks, and life-long welfare recipients. They’re either in need of patronising ‘care’ or governmental intervention and we accept these images as accurate, fair, and damning.

The fact that we celebrate the national day on the date of indigenous dispossession only adds to the malaise. Entitlement, invasion, and mourning are the real hashtags to Australia Day but why should we be deflected from throwing around a few thongs, enduring yet another Jimmy Barnes’ shout fest or witnessing a couple of million dollars go up in smoke.

Unlike Professor Thomson, I believe that an Australian identity can be gainfully constructed. 2023 presents an opportunity for our First Nations’ and colonial histories to appear on the same stage. The Voice offers a chance for recognition of indigenous citizens in our federal government structures. Whether we have the ticker to vote YES in the upcoming referendum will be a measure of our maturity and perhaps demonstrate an end to the cargo cult mentality that has infected Australia since 1788.