Horse Trailer Day

[dreamer_easy]

I hate the fact that the flag has been stolen from us. When someone wears the Australian flag as a bikini, or paints it on their face, or hangs it from their window, I can't be sure what they mean any more. Are they cheering our sportspeople? Are they proud of our history, and if so, are they unquestioningly proud? Are they defying the Big Day Out's request to leave the flag at home, and if so, does that mean they support the racist thugs who wore it last year? Was there ever a time when the flag had just one meaning and everyone understood it? At least the anti-democracy types flogging "Australia: love it or leave it" tees at Bondi last weekend had cooked up their own design with a kangaroo, instead of continuing to dirty the flag.

While other Australians are draping themselves in the Union Jack and the Southern Cross, I have mixed feelings about Australia Day. There is an enormous amount to be proud about in this little country - a long and peaceful history; a pretty good track record in social justice; a sense of humour that stops us taking ourselves too seriously (I always joke that the US has the Lincoln Memorial and we have the Dog on the Tuckerbox). We don't have the death penalty and we do have safe, legal abortion. On the other hand, this is our Columbus Day: the day the invaders arrived. We still imprison innocent people indefinitely, without charge or trial, on the grounds that they arrived without the right paperwork. We sent token troops to Iraq, so now we face the threat of terrorism on our soil. We refuse to sign Kyoto and we've already screwed up the dry and fragile environment so badly I don't know if it can recover.

So I always have conflicted feelings about Australia Day. I can't just relax and wave a flag in the sunshine. What so many of us consider typically Australian is in the physical realm, something I've never felt a part of: the beach, the football and cricket field, the rugged outback. In fact, I felt completely apart from the whole business until this morning, when I heard some of the honours list on the radio - scientist Tim Flannery and "bomb throwing communist" (and TV gardener) Peter Cundall both speaking up for the environment. As I age, I become more and more a latte-sipping chardonnay-swilling leftie intellectual ABC Radio listener - only at home with the thinkers (and eternally gripped by envy of their degrees). I'll never be the sort of Australian who punches their way to freedom after a shark has swallowed their head.

Comments

[vetted.livejournal.com]

Hiya, I was bored and reading the Metaquotes friends page and read your post. It's really interesting as I come from New Zealand and our two countries really can be very similar.

I agree with the majority of the sentiments that you express in this post and I am impressed with your clarity of thought and expression. However, there is one eeeny weeny little thing in this that cries out at me to be questioned.

There is an enormous amount to be proud about in this little country - a long and peaceful history; a pretty good track record in social justice; a sense of humour that stops us taking ourselves too seriously

How can you say the part in bold when your government still refuses to apologise to the aboriginals and won't even acknowledge the huge amount of damage that has been done to them in the name of the law?

I am not trying to flame you. Seriously. I'm just interested in what kind of view you have. I know very little about this but am curious to know more.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

An Australian TV satire, The Games, had actor John Howard - whose name is coincidentally the same as that of the PM - deliver a beautifully written apology to Indigenous Australians. I can't imagine it being said better.

[vetted.livejournal.com]

That's fucking amazing. Wow...

[tavella.livejournal.com]

She didn't say perfect, just pretty good.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

agrees

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Peter Cundall's a communist too. He was on Andrew Denton and it was brought up.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

When I learned it, my respect for Mr Cundall shot about by about two hundred percent. :-)

[wantsacracker.livejournal.com]

You just never know until you meet your shark, Ms Orman.

[thedominie.livejournal.com]

Well, said, Kate. Well said. Agree with absolutely everything you've said in this post (even the whole "latte chardonnay left-wing ABC Radio listener", as I'm one of them myself). ;)

[sheramil.livejournal.com]

never believe the stereotypes. and for Arioch's sake never try to live up to them.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Well said, Kate. I agree with everything you say, and feel exactly the same. I'm afraid that we might lose the laid back sense of nationalism that says we've nothing to prove, and replace it with that horrid American jingo-ism that seems to always be 'in-your-face'.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

The US has so much to be proud of, and yet the mushrooming of flags since 9/11 always makes me taste fear instead of pride.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I was in America several years back, visiting a friend who lived in the LA Valley area. I remarked that all the flags (and the attendant "patriotism") made me feel on edge. My friend (who'd been in Australia for several Australia Days) remarked that what she liked about Australia was "that Australians are proud of their country, and don't need to show off". She liked the laid back way most Australians prefer to spend Australia Day. For most people it seems to be a time for family and firends before school goes back and life gets busy again.

Like you I'm conflicted about AD. It's a bad day for many of our population, who have put up with having the invasion of their country rubbed in their faces each year. And for two of our states (WA and SA), it isn't even the right founding day. The real Australia Day is 1 Jan, the day that Federation kicked in and we stopped being a collection of colonies and became a nation.