We are AUSTRALIAN

Australia’s population was formally founded of its original inhabitants, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are the custodians of this great land and are the ‘world’s oldest continuing cultural tradition’ (The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2012).  Australia has embraced the social and cultural influences of the millions of migrants who have settled here to make a better life for themselves. So how are we able to clearly state who and who isn't an Australian? Identifying a ‘true’ Australian within today's  society is a pretty controversial matter as Australia is made up of all different nationalities.  Australian’s within the 21^st century are multicultural due to diaspora and its continuation of evolvement to create within this mixed nation. The majority of people within our country find it hard to live up to these characteristics that the world labels us as, but in true Aussie realism our culture can’t just be characterised into on stereotype.  

“We are one but we are many and from all the lands on earth we come,”

 ‘We are Australian’ – Bruce Woodley

According to Srivastava (2008) ‘national identity is perhaps one of the most ‘naturalised’ of all types of identities. It is assumed to be obvious, apparent and historically authentic’. Australia is made up of immigrants and people from overseas due to a diaspora effect, so what makes us, real AUSTRALIANS have authenticity? Maybe it’s our way of speech and distinctive accent, our “G’day mate” or maybe it’s our references to our “Bogan” way of life, so how can we call ourselves an ‘Aussie Battler’ if we have trouble trying to identify who we are as a nation. Our identity isn’t kept hidden rather it is exposed in every single aspects of our lives. Through our cloths, our hair styles, our physical appearances all contribute to what our identity is.  The Australian Identity Convict Creations (1995) has stated that there are two plausible reasons as to why an identity for Australian’s proves to be so hard; ‘is that an influx of migrants has caused citizens to question the appropriateness of asserting a national character.’ Meaning that due to the diaspora effect of immigrants an identity can’t be categorised into one stereotype due to a significant amount of different cultures in which Australia is made up of. Sun (2002) further amplifies the course of a hidden identity due ‘an ironic increasingly fragmented reality that creates the discourse of our nation, in other words falling into the crevices between commonly evoked markers of identity as exile, diaspora and migrant’. A single Aussie identity, to categories or distinguish Australians can’t be done due to the repeatedly evolvement of diaspora.

The meaning and purpose of diaspora has revolutionised as the world as one has come to a more contemporary concept. Formally, diaspora had a negative approach signifying “a collective trauma, and banishment, where one dreamed of home, but lived in exile” (Cohan, 1997). This can be clearly identified within a modern society where anyone is different is considered non Australian. Further explained and acknowledged is through the ongoing racism that our country continuously faces. When Italians and Greeks began to migrate from Europe, Australians were quick to come up with an Australian word to demoralise these people known as “wogs”. When these “wogs” came into Australia was the first indication of a diaspora effect, then it was people of Asian countries and now its Muslims and Sudanese’s, but who are we to criticize or be judgmental of anyone who enters our country when we are immigrants ourselves from our ancestors or parents, regardless how long ago.  Cohan (1997) continues that “people aboard (Australia) who have also maintained strong collective identities have, in recent years, defined themselves as Diasporas, though they were neither active agents of colonization nor passive victims of persecution”. Again this can be clear through the way in which people within todays society embrace their ethnic heritage as before it wasn’t encouraged to be proud of who you were and where you came from unless you were a “True Australian”. Diaspora has created an effect that is forever evolving due to a spectrum of rapidly increasing the number of people within our beloved land. It has been disclosed by Cohen’s (1997) that typology classifies diasporas as ‘victim’, ‘labour’, ‘trade’, ‘imperial’ and ‘cultural’ diasporas.  (link)

Aussie culture is seen to be expressed as a carefree lifestyle, drinking beers, watching our footy and living out in the outback wearing blue t-shirts, this is how we are seen by the majority of people in overseas countries but is our Aussie way of life that blithe? The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades (2012) claim that “Australia’s diverse culture and lifestyle reflect its liberal democratic traditions and values”, (link) but what are these values that we Australians are meant to hold? Our youth seem to get the blame for the majority of insensitivity within our nation; they blame us for the wrong doing and disgracing of our Aussie heritage. A clear example of how our Aussie youth perceived in a negative light can be clearly depicted within the Full Moon Parties held in Thailand. Our youth is to be expressed all around the world as uncontrollable, irresponsible and plain right ‘acting as Aussies do”.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaYT1c0Qsi8

The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2012) claim that “the defining feature of today’s Australia is not only the cultural diversity of its people, but the extent to which they are united by an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia. Within the framework of Australia’s laws, all Australians have the right to express their culture and beliefs and to participate freely in Australia’s national life.” So if this is a shared value in which us as a nation are meant to keep why are we so quick to reject the unfamiliar? Our true Aussie culture isn’t that of sports and BBQ’s on a Sunday arvo but of all different nationalities and religions. After the second World War people where encouraged to migrate to Australia to embrace a new life style, due to the sudden eruption of  multiculturalism arriving to ‘start a new life  our big cities have a Chinatown, a Little Italy, communities of Greeks and Vietnamese. In Spanish Australian restaurants you’re served by Spaniards, in Indian restaurants by Indians and in South African restaurants by South Africans. Top it off with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and you get a colourful mix where everyone feels at home’ (link).  Australian culture can’t be identified into one unique tradition as we are all customising ourselves with all the different cultures around us.

As Australians we find is hard to not only identity who we are as an Aussie and how we represent that image, but also how do we fit in within all other nationalities throughout the world. Australia is a continent made up of all different cultures due to a dramatic evolution of diaspora. These various races make up what we call home, the food, the languages; our entire appearance towards the rest of the word comes from our multicultural land.  Our identity, our cultural is made up from different countries and religions and us Australians have fed off those characteristics and made adjustments to make our country unique and specify who we are as Aussies. 

“I am, you are, we are Australians.”

We Are Australian- Bruce Woodley.

References:

-     -      The Australian Government Department of Affairs and Trades, ‘About Australia’, last updated 2012, retrieved 03/10/2012,  http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/people_culture.html

-        -  Convict Creations, 1995, ‘ Australian Identity’, last updated 2011, retrieved 03/10/2012, http://www.convictcreations.com/research/identity.htm

-       -   Australian Culture, retrireved 03/10/2012, last updated 2012, http://www.gondwananet.com/australia-facts-australian-culture.html

-       -   Cohen, R 1997, ‘Global Diaspora – An Introduction’, Taylor & Francis e-Library 2011, British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

-        -  Sun, W 2002, ‘Fantasizing the homeland: the internet, memory, and exilic longings’, Leaving China: media, migration, and transnational imagination 2002, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, pp. 113-136

-          -Srivastava, S 2001, ‘ Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age’, Allen & Unwin, Sydney

-         - Lyrics: We are Australian, by Bruce Woodley 1987, http://alldownunder.com/australian-music-songs/i-am-australian.htm