It’s ‘Straya Day’ tomorrow. The day commemorates the British setting foot on Australian soil. The ‘discovery‘ was a few days earlier, the settlement a few years later.
It is a weird date to celebrate a nation to begin with. ANZAC Day would be not much better. Perhaps Melbourne Cup Day would be the best date, but I can’t see Melbournians losing a public holiday, nor Sydney-siders celebrating a Melbourne holiday!
But we have the date set. Whilst we celebrate our nation on ANZAC Day, Australia Day, Grand Final Day and numerous other sporting event days, apparently we need another day to take pride in our country.
But what is pride? Really it is deep pleasure or satisfaction. And yes, as an Aussie I have this. I am proud to be Australian. I love living here and I am glad of the opportunities I have. I enjoy my sport. I like seeing Australians do well on the international sporting arena.
I love the way Australia is a multicultural nation. In this town I can eat Indian cuisine prepared by Indian immigrants, Sushi prepared by Japanese immigrants, Yum Cha by Cantonese immigrants and pizza made by 15 year old school kids earning $8 per hour Italians (if you know where to go!). There are Asian grocers who offer advice about cooking different varieties of rice and suggest different spices for a curry mix.
If I happen to end up at the local hospital I will be treated by medical professionals who have trained all over the world and now call Australia home. And I know from MIML™ the rigorous testing they have been through to gain registration in Australia!
In my work I visit workplaces that embrace and celebrate Indigenous culture and history and share it with locals and visitors alike. As a tourist destination we welcome people from all over the world and show them what our corner of Australia has to offer. It takes pride to do this- imagine trying to show visitors something if you thought it was crapola!
But when does pride turn to conceit? Conceit is excessive pride. A self-obsession. I have tried to have this talk with Miss almost 12 today. She wanted to buy an ‘outfit’ to wear to an Australia Day Braai we are going to, yes a barbecue with other South African immigrants. I tried to argue she has plenty of clothes. She believes that they are not Australian. Apparently Australian clothes are either green and gold or emblazoned with Australian Flags or the Southern Cross. When I pointed out that most of these clothes were made offshore, she again debated that Australia Day was about being Australian.
Her arguments amaze me. I think her final point that she “had studied Australian History at least 10 terms” (that she could remember) and therefore knew so much more than I possibly could worried me the most. I know the curriculum she has studied. I have seen her work. I have spoken with her teachers. The SOSE syllabus is heavily weighted on citizenship and civics and what living in a multicultural society means, and yet these kids (her friends share similar ideas) have been on holiday for almost 2 months and the marketing dollar has won them over.
Because really, that is what it is. The Christmas decorations come down and whilst the Easter Eggs are rolled out other space is filled with Australia Day merchandise before the Valentines Day stuff appears. I think that is what I find most baffling and veers Australia Day from a day of pride to a day of conceit is the merchandise marketing. Wear the flag. Paint it on your body. Fly the flag from your car. Rave about what a brilliant place Australia is to live in. Celebrate. Party. Drink. Make it an extra long weekend and be an Aussie.
Not sure what people do the other 364 days of the year. Perhaps they are the days they think about improving the situation of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, they think of ways of making Indian students feel welcome, they think of buying local products to help provide Australian jobs, they think of the things needed to be done to help make sure global warming is slowed to protect our ‘place.’ That must be it.
January 25th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Great post Fiona. It seems to me like the flag has been appropriated by the Marketing machine and the xenophobic thugs who use it to add cache to their pseudo-patriotic ramblings. I hate feeling like every time I see the Southern Cross, I’m looking at thrift-store hate speech. And I mean, honestly, would it be so hard to move Aus Day to a date that didn’t mark the invasion of a land owned by our Indigenous peoples?
Thanks for the read.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Captain Cook had already set foot on the country and he did it in 1770 – not ‘a few days earlier’- he had to set foot on Australia to claim it – he also named New South Wales. Australia day commemorates an event 18 yrs later, when the First Fleet moved their initial settlement to Port Jackson.
As someone from WA, to me it’s a NSW holiday that was imposed on the rest of Aust with scant recognition of anyone except NSW. Sydneycentric, much?
We could recognise Federation Day as Australia Day instead, but that wouldn’t give the bogans (the racist ignorant bigots who our politicians spend all their time sucking up to now) another public holiday. (It being January 1, already a public holiday).
As an Australian who’s proud of my foreign ancestry and my Aussie forebears (back to the first fleet), i no longer enjoy what used to be a family holiday and a time for quiet pride in our country – one we could see had lots of flaws, including our treatment of Aboriginal peoples (they’re not all Kooris, that’s another east coast myth).
It’s been taken over by commercialism and people with Southern Cross tattoos who have no idea what the Southern Cross symbolises. And as you point out, all the ugly Aussie paraphernalia is made in China.
Still, this is what the pollies wanted when they made sure our public schools were dumbed down, when they took tertiary education away from the people and made sure only the rich could afford it. Ahem, i’ll get off my soapbox now
Nice post – you certainly made me think
Sheila (@stinginthetail)´s last blog ..You want me to stick rhinestones where?
January 25th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Thanks Sheila- see even I get confused about what actually happened on 26th January and which invasion we talk about!
January 25th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
My Australia day outfit consists of Australian-made clothes, just like most of my everyday clothes.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Proud enough to cheer for Roger over Lleyton tonight
May 1st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
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