Australia is a growing society. It’s multi-cultural. It has thrown away the shackles of an isolated country in Asia, having confidence to stand on its own two feet.
But with maturity comes growing pains. Racism and immigration continues to be a debate that rages. The media play a big role in stoking its fire.
On a recent popular TV program called The Project, a segment aired called ‘Multicultural country with a pinch of racism’. It discussed the ‘phenomenon’ of immigrants living in distinct geographic areas, not assimilating and ‘sticking to their own’. How un-Australian. The pervading view was that anyone who comes to Australia should adopt the cultural values of the society it decides to reside, whatever that means.
This got me thinking. I love Australia. I am here to stay. The good, the bad, the rough and the smooth. I would never go back to England (never say never I hear you say). I am an Australian in the eyes of the law. But could I lose my cultural values? My identity? Is that possible?
After growing up with the hope that one day England might be good at sport and all the emotional torment that goes with it, should I suddenly start supporting Australia? Should I embrace the ‘fair go for all’ mentality (and the tall poppy syndrome that goes with it)? Should I forget my yearning for English crisps and sweets and warm beer? Should I eradicate those glass half empty greetings such as ‘mustn’t grumble’? Should I only have Australian friends?
My cultural values are made up of my childhood in a small English town, school memories, university, a fight with cancer, 8 years being in the ethnic minority in Hong Kong, food memories and travels that span half the world and, yes, cultural values built after another 8 years in Australia. I am a pot pourri of memories, feelings and experiences that aren’t necessarily defined by geography or language. I am simply me. I’m not a bad person.
I love this country and everything good and bad that goes with it. But only last week I had cravings for all things English, so I visited an English sweet shop and bought a tonne of crisps and sweets (see featured photo). I still speak with a strong English accent and I still find English humour very funny (especially my own jokes). I enjoy the banter with English people. So am I Australian?
What do you think? Is there such a thing as a true Australian? Or American? Or a Briton for that matter? If such an ideal exists, what are they like?
Our societies are changing so dramatically, can we hold on to an ideal that isn’t realistic anymore?
I’m keen to hear your thoughts…
(Clockwise from the top): Pickled onion Monster Munch (tangy and tasty, there’s nothing like them); Foxes Glacier Fruits (fruit hardboiled sweets); Fruit pastels (beats Australian Lifesavers hands down); Revels (you don’t know what you are going to get with these little surprises); Refreshers (chewy lemon filled with sherbet); Cadbury’s chocolcate fingers (sorry, the chocolate tastes so much better from England); Fizzy Cola Bottles (makes you look like you’ve swallowed a wasp); twiglets (Bovril – not vegemite – flavoured sticks); Cheese and Onion French Fries (taste senstation in a small stick).
July 11, 2012 at 8:58 am
so well written Andy and so perfectly true.
Tim Soutphommasane spoke about a similar topic recently at TEDx Sydney. He made the point that just because you eat Asian food and visit Chinatown doesn’t make you multicultural
I married a card-carrying member of the Barmy Army 12 years ago. My family have only just started to process that referring to him as ‘The Pom’ could be taken as ever so slightly insulting!
Our children grow up with a steady diet of Only Fools and Horses and zinc cream on their nose. They live between here and England so that they know ALL of the story of what makes them, them.
July 11, 2012 at 9:12 am
Thank you! And great comments. Agree with your comment re Pom. So much is got away with in Australia on the basis it’s tongue and cheek.
And get yourself down the English sweet shop and buy your man cheese and onion walkers crisps. He’ll love you even more.
Ps do you have the christmas special of only fools and horses?
July 12, 2012 at 9:24 pm
do you want it on video or DVD???
July 12, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Betamax if you’ve got it. I’ve got a top loader.
PS ate the salt and vinegar hula hoops.
July 12, 2012 at 9:40 pm
well then that’s it…I’m not lending you my teapot :P
July 12, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Right, that’s it. I’m getting the barmy army on to you.
‘Come and ‘av a go if you think you’re hard enough’.
July 12, 2012 at 9:50 pm
‘ard as old ‘Arry me!
By the way….how DO you spell Arrods? (funniest. Ever!)
July 12, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Classic. They don’t make them like they used to.
July 11, 2012 at 10:10 am
I think as we live in different places all those experiences become part of our lives and a part of our new culture and identity. We do a bit of transformation in each new setting. Take care, BAM
July 11, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Agree, you can’t define or restrict cultural identity. It’s impossible. Franco had a go, but didn’t do any good.
July 11, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Be your own person. Patriotism and religion seem to create misguided emotions in us humans and I do my best not to be touched by either of them.
July 11, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Hi Roger, yes, I agree. A lot of the world’s problems can be attributed to either. I just think it’s impossible to define and restrict it to certain values, because even a lot Australians born in Australia don’t necessarily demonstrate these values.
Hope all is well in France.
July 11, 2012 at 4:27 pm
You will always be English, same as my dad will always be Scottish. I suppose your kids (if you have some born over there) will be Australian.
Twiglets should be blown up, but I think I would definitely miss the rest.
July 11, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Hmmm, I consider myself Australian now, but I don’t necessarily demonstrate or follow the cultural values that are supposedly Aussie. But does that make me less of an Aussie.
I don’t think a lot of Aussies do either, let alone immigrants.
As for Twiglets, you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. There’s no in between!
Thanks for your comments Mondrak. It’s an interesting subject.
July 11, 2012 at 5:32 pm
andy used another pic! Follow crimepush and carinesbrial on twitter and like both facebook pages. A world of good!
July 11, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Cool!
July 11, 2012 at 5:46 pm
The thing is, it isn’t just up to you who you think you are. Siblings of my family’s acquaintance moved abroad for work, one to England and the other to the USA. Their children were foreign born and bred (to us, anyway). The rare occasion when both families visited the old homelands together was enormous fun (again, for us). These were first cousins, sharing considerable family resemblence, and all they had to do was open their mouths at the same time and us ‘normal’ Indian kids would grin, or chuckle, or laugh our heads off outright.
In retrospect, that must have been quite disorienting for the children, because it was clear from the way we behaved that we didn’t consider them Indian at all, and yet back ‘home’, their neighbours considered them nothing but.
It’s lovely that you’ve had such a varied life and are so clearly comfortable with the composite person you’ve gradually become, but I think a large part of your Australian idenity would depend on what your neighbours and local pals think of you as. I have a feeling they’ll think of you as English for a while yet :-)
July 11, 2012 at 8:17 pm
It’s a complex thing. I guess my point was that I don’t think it’s up to governments to try and define what the cultural values of a country are. It’s a bit dangerous in my view. You start to pigeon hole people.
My kids have Aussie accents. I’m sure when they visit England their accent will be a source of amusement, much like mine is here.
Thanks for the insightful comments.
Andy
July 11, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Hi Andy,
Thanks for visiting our blog and liking my posts. I’m glad it brought me here so I could read some of your thoughts.
Aaron and I are both New Zealanders, currently living in Australia, and my mum is originally English but moved to Australia when she was 14 and then to New Zealand when she met my dad at 30-something. Even though she has now spent more of her life in NZ than anywhere else, and has a fairly NZ accent (I think anyway), she is still English at heart. We are at the stage of thinking about having kids in the next couple of years, and there are things about being a Kiwi that our kids wouldn’t necessarily understand if we had them here (like supporting the All Blacks for a start!).
It’s an interesting thing to consider.
July 11, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Crikey, the Aussie vs all blacks thing will be a bit complicated later! My mate is a new zealander with English wife and Aussie son. Who do you support?
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. It’s an interesting conundrum. I’m a follower of your blog now. Looking forward to hearing more of your travels
July 11, 2012 at 11:09 pm
That is a tough situation your mate is in. It’s always going to be the ABs for me though :)
I have added your blog to my bookmarks feed, so will be following along with your posts as well.
July 12, 2012 at 3:50 am
Reblogged this on The Socialist News and commented:
Love it! I find this piece to entertaining as well as making a serious social statement about racial and cultural diversity. Great Piece in my opinion. CM
July 12, 2012 at 8:31 am
Thank you. Much appreciated.
July 12, 2012 at 10:42 am
Your Welcome
July 12, 2012 at 7:22 pm
I have a predicament all my own. I feel I belong to nowhere. Born in the USA, raised in the Bahamas, from Colombian/Italian mother and Syrian/Egyptian Jewish Father. And now I live in Spain. To my Colombian family, I am not Colombian. To my Italian family, I am not Italian although I have an Italian passport as well. I am not Bahamian, although I was raised there and know their national anthem and not the American one. I certainly am not Arabic, but I cook their food better than most of my family. I am certainly not Jewish, because my mother is Catholic, but I attended Synagogue many a time with my father. I don’t feel American because I never lived there so I don’t share their moral views and patriotism. Obviously not Spanish, nor dare I say Catalan, but my daughter has been raised here. So where the hell am I from? I find it very difficult to answer that question when someone asks me. I guess I prefer citizen of the world, since I have been lucky to be bathed in so many cultures. Shame that we have to categorize ourselves as from somewhere, instead of from “planet earth” dare I say?
July 12, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Bloomin’ ‘ell, you’ve been around the block. I had to read this twice so I could follow it.
I think it’s very dangerous if we get categorised. I think that’s where problems arise.
I think you’re a global citizen. And a bloody good cook.
July 12, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Thanks hun! Yeah, imagine when I actually TELL people not write it, they look at me like I’m from freakin mars! But, I am thankful for my confusing past….it has brought me to greater understanding of many cultures, and acceptance of them all, which to me is very important! Btw, bought some tofu to make your recipe next week! Will give you a shout out and let you know how the fam liked it! have a great weekend!
July 13, 2012 at 9:41 am
Brill. Look forward to hearing how it goes. Have a great weekend too.
July 13, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Love this discussion. And Hola Hoops.
My issue is that Aussie culture wants to be the best…weather, beaches, sport, economy. There is no such thing. It’s an arrogance that undermines the great things about Oz.
I assimilate wholeheartedly. Because I choose to. I came here by choice, not out of desperation to escape a regime.
However one major reason I came here is the metropolitan multiculture. It is really awesome. But is the minority. And u see that in the food. In the cities the food is abundant, fresh, diverse. Beyond the city it becomes less varied, old fashioned and straight. Like the community.
Despite living in the UK for over 30 years I can’t describe the culture there. I can here. Say what u will, the culture is bound, as Andy says, by his experiences. Mine have been an Australian banquet.
July 13, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Thanks Paulo. Great comments. I am wholeheartedly Aussie too. I just don’t like the government trying to define what Aussie values are. I think that’s rubbish.
But I love clams and mussels and lobster and marron and yabbies and bugs and everything else that we are so lucky to have in this country. A banquet? Absolutely.
July 14, 2012 at 9:04 pm
you got it right about the media stirring, you got a lot right “We are one but we are many.” and did you know my partner is from Hull? Her blog is http://pommepal.wordpress.com I was borne in Sydney but Iam white, not a fair dinkum Aussie they are black.
July 14, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Hi Jack, love that phrase – we are one but we are many. I read your post about the pom from NZ who had lived there for years. Is that the one from Hull? Still got the Hull accent?