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July 05, 2005
Who is Australian?
Last Sunday was (according to the local parish priest) Aboriginal Sunday. Among other inane observations he included references to the "real land owners", "innocent spirituality" and "depth of religious understanding". Now I am not an anthropologist but I somehow suspect that a lot of that is wrong. Firstly, the people who were present when the British first settled this continent did not "own land" - personal ownership did not exist - that does not excuse the British colonisation - it just makes a mockery of this "real land owners" claim. Secondly, this "innocent" culture was extremely sexist and violent (check out Coonardoo). Mind you, I am not really complaining about the aboriginal culture, nor am I complaining about the revisionist attempts to sugar-coat the bl**dy realities of a primitive nomadic life in the Australian bush. What I am complaining about is the over emphasis of a minority group and the cost of the majority. If we have an "Aboriginal Sunday", why don't we have a "descendants of convicts" Sunday? How about a "British migrant" Sunday? A "displaced persons from WWII" Sunday?
The question really becomes one about the definition of who is an Australian? Who is an Australian?
The answer is easy. It was penned by The Seekers in the 1960s and it would make a decent anthem....
I Am Australian
I came from the dream-time,
From the dusty red-soil plains.
I am the ancient heart,
The keeper of the flame.
I stood upon the rocky shores,
I watched the tall ships come,
For forty thousand years I've been
The first Australian.
I came upon the prison ship,
Bowed down by iron chains,
I fought the land, endured the lash,
And waited for the rains.
I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife
On a dry and barren run,
A convict, then a free man,
I became Australian.
I'm the daughter of a digger
Who sought the mother lode.
The girl became a woman
On the long and dusty road.
I'm a child of the Depression,
I saw the good times come,
I'm a bushie, I'm a battler,
I am Australian.
We are one, but we are many,
And from all the lands on earth we come.
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice,
"I am, you are, we are Australian"
I'm a teller of stories,
I'm a singer of songs,
I am Albert Namatjira
And I paint the ghostly gums.
I'm Clancy on his horse,
I'm Ned Kelly on the run,
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda,
I am Australian.
I'm the hot wind from the desert,
I'm the black soil of the plains,
I'm the mountains and the valleys,
I'm the drought and flooding rains.
I am the rock, I am the sky,
The rivers when they run,
The spirit of this great land,
I am Australian.
We are one, but we are many,
And from all the lands on earth we come.
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice,
"I am, you are, we are Australian."
"I am, you are, we are Australian."
Why not drop the continual and nauseating rewrite of history. What was done by the British to the Aboriginals may have been wrong but it was not done by current Australians (of non-aboriginal descent) to current Australians (of aboriginal descent). Harping on a past and trying to promote guilt is not going to make things better in the future... What matters is what we do to each other now.
Posted by Ozguru at July 5, 2005 12:00 PM
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