'Writ Large': a blog about the big stuff

Aaaah, Australia Day … a great excuse for another holiday just days after most of us came back to work, and supposedly a celebration (or lamentation?) of the day a boatload of British sailors and convicts set foot upon the shores of this wide, brown land.

As on every other Australia Day in my recent memory, the print, broadcast and online media have been hard at work analysing why we have a national day of celebration and what it means to be ‘Australian’. And, being a dinky-di, ridgey-didge, patriotic Aussie—whatever that means!—I figured I’d add my 10 cents’ worth to the debate.

Most of the media coverage I’ve seen seems to revolve around two symbols of our nationhood: the flag, and the national anthem. I’m quite fond of our flag, but as someone who thinks Australia has long outgrown the need for a monarch (one who lives on the other side of the world, no less) I hope to see a new flag sometime in the next decade. Maybe one that retains the Southern Cross but replaces the Union Jack with a simple, nationally recognised symbol. A  gum leaf, perhaps? (Hmm, don’t know about the design aesthetics but I’ll leave that to others to sort out.)

Despite hoping for a different flag, I’m old-fashioned enough to think that our national anthem should stay exactly as it is. I tear up when I hear ‘Advance Australia Fair’ played at Olympic ceremonies & major national days. I like the stirring tune and the daggy, old-fashioned lines like ‘girt by sea’. I can’t give much credence to the arguments of people who say we should ditch AAF because the language is a bit outdated. Are we really so lazy or dull-witted that we can’t figure out a few old-fashioned phrases?

A lot of people reckon ‘Waltzing Matilda’ should become our national anthem, but I think it’d be a poor substitute. Do we want our nation’s hopes and ambitions to be summed up by a ditty about a sheep stealer who takes his own life? Surely we can do better than that?! Of the other oft-quoted alternatives, I have a soft spot for ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ and ‘I am Australian’ but I think they lack the slightly grandiose, anthemic quality that a fully fledged national song should possess. (Personally, I’d favour Gangajang’s ‘This is Australia’ because it’s so evocative of our long, sticky summers—but I can’t really imagine our athletes singing it on the Olympic dais, can you?!)

In saying all this, there’s not much point in talking about Australia Day without a bit of navel-gazing about whether we should be celebrating what it means to be ‘Australian’. For me, it goes beyond the well-worn clichés of BBQs, prawns and sunburned noses.

For me, it’s about living in a land where most of us are lucky enough to have food in our bellies and a roof over our heads, income to meet our needs (if not our wants) and friends & family who care about us. It’s about helping other Aussies who aren’t as lucky, and welcoming people from around the world who want to work hard and share in our good fortune too. It’s about being able to speak openly and fearlessly about contentious topics like politics, religion and whether Brangelina really have split up … sorry, wandered off-topic for a minute there … without acting as though we’re the only country in the world that enjoys these freedoms.

Well-travelled Aussies generally come back and say that we really are one of the best places on earth to live. I’m inclined to believe them

P.S. I know I haven’t covered the issue of whether we should even be celebrating our nationhood on the anniversary of white settlement … but that’s another blog entirely!