Australian National Identity

'National identity is something both attained and constantly renegotiated, something derived from the past yet still to be discovered'.

Graeme Davison opening paragraph in the Oxford Companion to Australian History states that,

National Identity is the most recent and popular of the concepts by which Australians have defined their selfhood as a people..........Now deeply imbedded in political and cultural discourse: national identity is something both attained and constantly renegotiated, something derived from the past yet still to be discovered.

Throughout various topic readings, concepts will be used to discuss, support and extend on Davison's opening statement. Readings in reference to the 'Settling and unsettling: land and Australian Identity', 'A foundation legend: The Bushman' and 'Generational Change: Commemorating Anzac day'. All reflecting how the image of our land, characters and heroes in the past and present have helped to shape the always changing idea of national identity and how the notion of national identity will continue to be renegotiated and change in the future.

In Davison's 'National Identity' he states that "Colonial Australia defined themselves primarily in relationship to Britain, the land from which they or their parents came..." In comparison author J. M Arthur's, 'The double Vision: Discovering the Default, in Default Country; A Lexical Cartography of Twentieth Century Australia' describes colonists, as people who have relationships to another country, cultural as well as genetic, for Australian colonist this included the English language. Questioning the very British naming of some of Australia's water ways, Arthur states, 'Colonial Australia always had a problem with water; there was no inland sea, rivers turned into marshes and salt lakes as opposed to the clear blue lakes of England'. Thus, is the beginning of an identity of a national land that is harsh, dry and barren, an unseen entity to be fought against and over come. This image has been portrayed in ballads, poems and media, most Australians can quote the line of Dorothea Mckella's 'My Country', "I love a Sunburnt Country, a land of sweeping Plains..." and often these are the very words that come to mind when we think of our country's landscape.

The beaten image portrayed in Frederick McCubbin's 'Down on His Luck' is a very familiar one that comes to mind when we think of colonial Australia's national identity, This image of the bushman or swaggie in a land that is drying and uncivilised. He is among those who work on it that have a hard and lonely life. However, upon reading of Mark McKenna's 'Poetics of Place' it is quoted 'In the past since Europeans first arrived in Australia they have found it difficult in their new environment, as exiles, they often remembered an idealised vision of their homeland...' along with this an impression is given of an identity of Australia as a land that has evolved into our very being, our sense of self as a nation, the beauty of our land is in the fight to work with and against it and it is what contributes to us being such a unique nation. All the contributions in this text refer to the Australian landscape as being connected somehow to our strength as a nation. No longer is the land depicted as a dry harsh godforsaken place, an emotive response by entrants in a competition to come up with a new preamble for our constitution describe Australia as a nation of beauty and wide open spaces, a land of opportunity. This complies with Davison's concept of our national identity being renegotiated, ever changing.

The use of the bushman, a foundation Legend in shaping our National identity evolved into the beginning of larrikinism. This helps us to understand more readily Davison's opening statement of our image being attained from the past, ever changing, waiting to be discovered.

Russell Ward is a key figure referred to when speaking of the Australian national history In 'The Legend and the Task' Ward refers to national identity as Australian character and spirit, intimately connected to the bush and explains the development of this "National Mystique"

He argues that the national identity of an Australian character is not something inherited; nor is it imagined by publicists, its people's idea of oneself, although at times romanticised and exaggerated it is always connected to reality. Once again the meaning of Davison's statement becomes clearer upon reading in conjunction with Ward's text. In the past Australian Identity has often been depicted to the rest of the world as a nation of mateship, battlers and underdogs, and the general population understands and identifies themselves by this image. However, Australian national identity at the time of this article had emerged from pastoralists in early Australia through to the introduction of the larrikin, and an informal mateship society that gives everyone a fair go.

John Hirst in 'An Oddity from the Start: Convicts and National Character' identifies national identity and refers to it as national character, he asks the question of what effect our convict past had on our national identity, the consensus is "they made us an anti-authoritarian people" according to Hirst it is believed our convict past shaped our anti-authoritarian view, he asks then why is it that in Tasmania where convict population was high isn't anti-authoritarianism more prevalent? It was however, the most conservative, compliant and traditional of the colonies. Tasmania is thought to have a un- Australian outlook, it is thought to be submissive, unprotesting and apolitical, and therefore, convicts cannot be responsible Australia's anti- authoritarianism identity. Australia has not always accepted our convict history, as Davison's speaks of a renegotiation of our identity; this is evident in the