Today was a public holiday for Australia Day and, like many others, I spent the afternoon at an Australia Day BBQ. That got me thinking about this relatively recent phenomenon of actually celebrating Australia Day.
Haven't we changed from the old days of begrudgingly standing up at the movies before the start of the film when the national anthem ("God Save Our Gracious Queen") came onto the screen, complete with (black and white) film of our mounted (on her horse!) queen inspecting her guards? That was that as far as our celebrating any kind of feelings of pride in being Australian went.
Those were the days before the wearing of the presumably nationalistic green and yellow by sportspeople; before the referendum promoted "Advance Australia Fair" to replace "God Save the Queen" as the countrys anthem; when Empire Day was celebrated (exactly what was the deal with being issued with boiled lollies at school every Empire Day?); when we all had a much more pronounced "pommy" accent and had our speech and grammar corrected as we spoke.
We would no sooner have thought of celebrating being Australian than of flying to the moon! Both totally unthinkable and unbelievable. Why would you celebrate being Australian? If you ARE Australian why would you need to celebrate it? You just are! End of story.
Obviously all that has changed now, and most of us seem to enjoy having the day to mark in our own ways. My opinion of the White Australia Policy was the same 40 years ago as it is now, so I for one am pleased to be able to share with everyone else this more open society we now have.
Oh yeah - it was great having the day off work too!
Friday, 26 January 2007
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2 comments:
I just read Half Hearted Hack's Australia Day comments, which were similar to mine. I promise my thoughts were entirely my own, and not a result of the the powers of suggestion from halfheartedhack, although obviously I endorse everything she says in her comments.
As a younger generationer (invented word I think!) I think it's due to Austrlia becoming more Americanised and following on from the way they celebrate Independance Day on the 4th of July! Also it's a good reason to get pissed! I do celebrate Australia Day, but as an Aboriginal I celebrate my friends and family and the freedom I have to express myself, not the INVASION of our country by the British! I am seen as a fence sitter by my community, but in my heart I know who I am so I don't care!
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