One People, One Destiny: A Commitment to Australia
Advance Roaming Writers, January 2010
“We seem to struggle to define what it means to be an Australian but have no trouble in labelling someone, or some act, as un-Australian. I was never comfortable with the theory and practise of multiculturalism. It had a narrow focus on diversity and on the other. And sadly its meaning was never elucidated beyond tasting a different cuisine each night. Rather I believe in unity in diversity, with an emphasis on the unity. As the German philosopher Goethe said, ‘rather than divide and rule, it is better to unite and lead.’ Is it not better to focus on integration and engagement rather than segregation?”
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Very good article, well done, I couldn’t agree more.
I have been saying for several years now that multiculturalism promotes tribalism.
This is the result of promoting the fact where you come from, rather than the destination
I consider it a insult to me and Australia when you have overseas born Australians who have been here 30 +or- years and can’t hold a conversation with me.
This happens quite often in my line of work.
Hi Prashanth, I agree with much of what you have to say. However, you start to come unstuck in your paragraph that begins “So what makes an Australian?” This is the major difficulty that one faces in trying to maintain a national identity with high immigration levels. The definition of that national identity becomes rather empty. I cannot see anything in your paragraph that answers the question at all.
Let me answer the question “So what makes an Australian?” An Australian is someone who has no other national identity apart from Australian. This takes about 3 generations (at least). I have absolutely no interest or emotional attachment to Ireland or Scotland or Wales or England. In fact, I am rather hostile to England. To the extent that my identity is not derived at all from any other land than Australia – I AM AN INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN, no different from an aborigine in this respect.
I claim to be an Australian but there is nothing so great about it. It is just what I am. If someone can achieve this sense of identity in less then three generations, good luck to them. But I doubt it. And why are some people so intent on claiming Australian identity anyway? My Italian father-in-law is fine with calling himself an Italian. So am I. I do not want to kid anyone that he is an Australian because that would somehow make him better. His kids think of themselves as mostly Australian. This grandkids (including my kids) have only the faintest echo of an interest in Italy, because their grandparents tell them stories.
So, gestating Australians takes TIME, in fact several generations. And so long as we have 50% of people whose parents were born overseas, we will never be a nation with a clear identity. This probably doesn’t matter so much. But let’s not kid ourselves that there is much that Australians have in common apart form living in Australia.
Just to make the point clear – I lived in Hong Kong for four years. At no point did I ever consider myself Chinese. Had I stayed there, at no point would my children have considered themselves, or been accepted as, Chinese. Even 10 generations would not get you a Chinese guernsey – just ask the Indians who have lived there for 100 years. For myself, I am quite prepared to consider someone who is racially Asian as an Australian. Race is not the major thing for me. It is the shared history and lack of attachment to any place else that sways me. And it jsut takes time.
Thanks Chris for the comment. I think I do answer the question when I write: “What makes a person an Australian is quite simply a clear commitment to Australia, which overrides every other consideration.”
You say, ‘An Australian is someone who has no other national identity apart from Australian. This takes about 3 generations (at least).’ Well I consider myself an Aussie, full stop. And it has not even taken me one generation. Just ask anyone who knows me, I am as native as you can get when it comes to being an Australian.