Identifying Australia

If there should be mentioned one thing that identifies Australia I would believe many people would have mentioned the vast life scarce stretches of the Australian outback which makes up most of the interior of Australia. Even though the dessert like nature of the Australian outback can be found other places in the world the outback is viewed as a characteristic trait of Australia.

This might be because these stretches is a big part of the Australian nature and is often depicted in international advertising and TV-shows like Skippy the bush Kangaroo, which I myself remember very well from my childhood although this series already had its prime long before my time, and is a contrast to the big cities and everlasting beaches found at the coastline.

The Australian outback also known as the Bush is a setting used for countless tales of heroic explorers, pioneers and bushmen and makes it an important part of European settler mythology in Australia. The European immigrants who entered the Australian outback found the surroundings harsh and unforgiving and thus were depictured as predominantly man dominated and a focus on the struggle for survival. Many Australian myths and legends in such as the rebellious Ned Kelly originated from the bush and is one of Australia’s greatest folk heroes and is a significant figure in Australian history.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th century the bush was revered as a source of national ideals and become a symbol for national life. Even though the Australian outback might be less prominent in the Australian identity today elements of bush culture can be found in music, clothing and arts today.

First steps

It has been a little over two months since i came to Australia for the first time. I was excited to move to a different country with a very different history of emergence than from my home country of Norway.

To be honest I did not really know that much of Australian history before my first lectures in "Introduction in Australian Society". Of course I knew about the Aboriginals and the colonization of Australia by the British Empire, but not much of the details of the on-going discrimination of the indigenous population centuries of after the first fleet of European pioneers set foot on Australian soil. Neither have I heard much of the Australian multiculturalism nor how it emerged as immigrants from all over the world settled down in this strange country.

This week we were at the Melbourne museum to learn more about the indigenous population of Australia and what happened after the European colonization. I had some idea of the quarrels between the immigrants and the Aboriginals, but not to which extent and which could be described as a struggle for survival.

I don’t really know if the Australian multiculturalism is something substantial different from other countries with a similar course of history, as for example the US.

The colonization by the Brits, and other European countries, have been going on throughout centuries and in that sense I would not say that the initial colonization of Australia was that unique. The colonization and discrimination of an indigenous population is something Australian history shares with several others. What might differentiate the multiculturalism in Australia from other countries, such as the US, is that it might be more prominent than in other countries and constitutes the identity of Australian nation to a greater extent.