Indigenous Australian

Australian Culture – does it exist?

/ Rainee / 4 Comments
Australian Coat of Arms (adopted 1912)

Australian Coat of Arms (adopted 1912) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently subscribed to a fellow blogger, Cosette, as she sometimes blogs about Australia. I am Australian and have lived here all my life, so why would I want to read about my own culture? It is because I am really interested in how others see us :-).

My partner (and soon to be husband) is originally from London and so we have a cross-cultural ( 😉 relationship. Some words, although English, can have quite a different meaning in each country and that provides a good laugh at misunderstandings.

So what are the iconic things I see as Australian (from my point of view only)?

  • I love the Australian bush and the smell of Eucalyptus trees
  • The clear sky at night and the billions of stars visible to the naked eye
  • The goal to our own home and have a BBQ area out the back and have friends over for a barbie
  • Bush flies that always invade  picnics or BBQ s
  • The accent – obviously I don’t notice my own accent. When I was in London in 2008 I did a tour of the Tower of London. I spent the day there with a lady from Texas although we had great difficulty in understanding each other – it was fascinating
  • I think Aussies still have great compassion for the under-dog in society – we are a bit suspicious of really wealthy or successful people
  • A willingness to accept a multicultural society – we all came from somewhere else apart from our Indigenous Australians
  • A love of open spaces and absence of crowds (even though most people live in the capital cities)
  • Resilience  and the ability to bounce back after bush fires, floods or other natural disasters
  • Western Australians are quite suspicious of people from the Eastern States – they are often referred to (sarcastically) as the wise men from the East. I grew up in the East but I don’t advertise the fact 😉
  • Broadly speaking, a lack of class structure – any one can aspire to be whoever they want to be
  • Australian Rules Football and an obsession with cricket and sport in general.

I would love to hear what you think is truly Australian.

Cheers

Lorraine

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