About Australians

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Australians in my past few months of residency here, it is that they are proud of their country. But while they are proud of their accomplishments, they are also aware of their faults, including the mistreatment of Aborigines from the earliest British settlements up until the 1970’s. Aboriginal studies have played a large part in my college curriculum here at Monash, and I find it to be a noble feature of Australian society that they not only no longer attempt to hide the injustices done to their indigenous peoples, but they in fact bring the subject to light. This is the sign of a country trying to come to grips with their mistakes in an effort to reconcile and move forward.

At first, I had thought that the Aboriginal segment of Australian history was unique and enthralling, but then it struck me that my own country also had a history of mistreating its indigenous population. What saddens me is the fact that I have learned much more about the Australian Aborigines in the past four months than I have about the Native Americans in all my years of American schooling. Perhaps this suggests the difference between where these issues lie in the respective countries’ contemporary societal issues.

Another issue that Aussies see as important is making clear exactly who they are. Upon our first few days in Australia, they made sure we were aware that they were not all like Steve Irwin, Crocodile Dundee or Barry McKenzie. They were not Britain’s little sister or the delinquent descendants of prisoners. They don’t all know how to throw a boomerang, and not every Australian citizen has held a koala. Australia is in fact one of the world’s most urbanized countries, and most Australians are no different than the average American (apart from the difference in accent). This struggle to convey an accurate national image is one that this country faces, but I hope that through my blog I may make it known to more than a few people.