Advance Australia Fair… What Does it Mean to be Aussie?

January. This month has got to be the most Aussie of months. Not only is the tennis Australian Open on (the one annual sporting event I actually care about/watch), but it’s also Australia Day on the 26th (tomorrow). Robert and I are planning on firing up the BBQ and eating sausages.

But what is Australia Day supposed to mean? Aside from eating lamb, what are we really celebrating? What does it really mean to be “Australian”? For some, this probably isn’t a very difficult thing to answer. For people like my husband, whose parents come from convicts and settlers, well… it’s a bit of a no-brainer. And granted, Australia doesn’t get a lot of attention in this blog, and when it does, well… it’s not the most positive stuff one’s read.

My family has often celebrated Australia Day. When I was growing up, I remember my Mum telling me and my sister that we live in the “lucky country” – many other countries in the world don’t have the type of lifestyles available to us here. Which is probably very true. So whenever Australia Day came around, deep down, I think I’d be celebrating the life I have here, ignoring the life I could have had elsewhere, and the fact that I wasn’t born Australian.

I found myself wondering the other day, though, what Australia Day really is. What are we celebrating? Are we celebrating the way Australia is now? Is it about white colonisation, and if so, where does that leave Aboriginal people? Prior to these thoughts, a friend on Facebook joined a group called: “Not Being a Drunken, Racist Yobbo on Australia Day”. The group info went on to say:

I’m sick to death of all this crap about being ‘un-Australian’. From what I can see, being ‘Australian’ is being a drunken, racist, carnivore who does nothing but be a menace to society for one day, by abusing non-white people, bashing people up and disrupting a perfectly good celebration.

This, in some ways, goes back to the whole white colonisation thing. If people are celebrating Australia in this way, then where does that leave the rest of us in this country? What is it to be “Australian”? (I’m sure this applies to other western countries, too, such as the US, UK etc.)

Being unemployed really gives you the chance to re-evaluate your life. It also finds yourself asking questions like: “what the hell’s the point of my life? What am I doing????” I’ve wondered this a lot, these past few weeks, while I try to get myself into a career and support my husband and his booming career (he’s a computing consultant at 30 – someone who makes software and fixes the software issues of big companies. You’d have to know a lot to do his job). Recently, I began wondering: ‘is it possible for me “just” to be happy living my Australian life? I’m 26 years old. That’s not particularly young. Do I really want to spend my entire life being emo about things I can’t control? What am I missing out on while I sit around and mope about not knowing those I have biological links to?’. I mean… I have a good life here, right?

But then days like Australia Day come along – annual reminders of the fact that although I do like and appreciate Australia, I’m also not wholly Australian, and there are people out there who recognise this very quickly. Obviously, I am a “non-white person”. So does that make me less Australian than my very white husband?

Many people who know me know I live in an idealistic fantasy world: one that is fuelled by morals and ethics (very unlike the real world). So, to me, being Australian always meant that as long as you embraced the world of Australia, its culture and its ways, then that’s enough to make you Australian. But as soon as I step outside of my comfort zone, I’m inundated with reminders that that simply isn’t true. But it just leaves me in a bit of a black hole. It leaves me wondering: ‘well… what am I, then?’

I truly believe that part of developing a happy identity is finding your place and feeling a sense of belonging. And part of having that sense of belonging is knowing what nation/country you belong to. Sure, it’s easy to say that I belong with my family, my husband etc… but what about the country as a whole? If it didn’t matter so much, then why is there so much division, hatred and prejudice between nations and the people of them? If it didn’t matter so much, then why do so many people feel threatened by people of different nations? Why is it still so important to some people for their children to marry within their cultural group?

Where does that leave us adoptees? We’re sort of outside that sphere… it feels like we’re outside the masses – the group that has a sense of belonging with their cultures and backgrounds. I recently finished The Time Traveler’s Wife. The main character (guy who can travel through time due to some genetic… thing) is described as being a new type of human – his body is a new evolution – one that defies the norms of humans. I suppose I sort of feel like that – not like everyone else – a mutation on the outside of the masses – one that has something that isn’t understood by “normal” people, despite the fact that I’m trying to live as normal a life as possible. I sort of have a blank where most people have a nationality to fall back on.

This year, I’ll continue to celebrate Australia Day. I’ll be celebrating the life I have here, and have had here for as long as I can remember. But will I be celebrating it as an “Australian”? Well, that’s the question whose answer I still intend to pursue, even if that means watching parts of my life pass by in the meantime.

Related posts:

1. What Does it Take to BE a Member of a Nationality? Choosing to Adopt a Nationality VS Not Choosing
2. “Multiculturalism” or “Koreanism”? Or… Both?
3. Mother’s Day
4. Race Matters
5. More Answers to Adoptee Questions. ^_^