National Symbols of Australia

This was exemplified in Menzies speech on the declaration of war when he stated, “…. Great Britain has declared war on her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war…There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands, there stands the people of the entire British world.” (Mason 2014, pg.163) This explains that wherever Britain was, Australia would be by their side showing their mateship between the two countries. When Menzies states ‘There can be no doubt’, it portrayed a strong message to all Australian soldiers meaning that no matter what happened they were committed to their ‘Mother Country’. Additionally, Australia was very close to Britain, explaining that we fought together and protected one another until the very end. This was depicted in a primary source image of a kangaroo, representing Australia, and a vicious dog, representing Britain, taking down a soldier together. (Refer to Appendix 1) By showing Australia and Britain as a team, it shows how the war made them a team and the strength between them if they worked together. In the image, the kangaroo wears a cowboy hat, stating their national identity as a relaxed country lifestyle whereas, the vicious dog wears a steal war helmet stating its seriousness and confidence at war. (Japan & Australia in World War 2, N.D) Thus, the strong alliance with Britain undeniably resulted Australia to enter the

Furthermore, concerning the language and the Australian-specific expressions that I have identify in this song, I can distinguish as relevant ones “smoko”, “true blue”, “Vegemite”, “mate” or “fair dinkum”, because in my opinion they convey some main aspects of Australian daily life and

Australia Day which the Aborigines call ‘Invasion Day’, ‘Day of Mourning’ and ‘Survival Day’, marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney Cove.

On January 26, 1788 the first fleet arrived, marking the beginning of genocide of the Aboriginal People. By 1935 all states came to acknowledge the colonisation of Australia, and January 26 became known as “Australia Day”.

A very noteworthy quote in Grant’s speech is easily noticed. He constantly uses repetition to highlight the ideology of “The Australian Dream”, in fact Stan Grant repeats this phrase 11 times throughout his speech. Instead of stating it after speaking of freedom, youth, wealth and joy he instead constantly repeats this expression again and again after describing the oppression, fear of humiliation and hurt of dispossession, injustice suffering and survival. Grant utilises these keywords to draw focus on the lies told by Australians told to themselves everyday. Grant speaks of the Australian anthem and to draw attention on the mockery in many verses of it and appeal to the patriotism of Australian Citizens. He constantly quotes verses from our

The different ways Australia participated and engaged with Eurovision throughout the years further demonstrates the transnationalising of Australian audiences. In 1975, Australia first began to engage Eurovision by inviting Europeans onto an Australian stage. This took place when 1974 Eurovision champions, Swedish pop group ABBA’s music appeared on Countdown, an Australian music television show in 1975.

Australia... land of the sun, beaches and kangaroo’s, known for being a free and multicultural country accepting you, no matter whom you are... or so we thought. Kevin Gilbert’s insightful poem ‘The New True Anthem’ tries to uncover the faults hidden under Australia’s picturesque surface. It depicts an Aboriginals’ view of Australia, comparing images of Australia to the harsh reality that the author feels is happening in this country. The destruction of the environment and the poor treatment of Aboriginal people are common themes that can be seen throughout the poem which contrast ideas about Australia such as natural beauty and freedom.

We Australians must have been very well-behaved over the Australia Day celebrations this year. So much so, that media outlets had to dig deep into the archives to find a story to talk up that would fire up our Australian sense of nationalism.

Australia is a young, modern country made up of a diverse and multicultural population, therefore, it’s difficult to say that it has a single national identity. This essay will examine what Australia’s identity may look like, specifically, through art.

There are many diverse interpretations of the words “Australian Identity”. The national anthem, as evidenced in Stand Up, is a primarily white interpretation of Australia and the Australian identity, with many of the lines ignoring the Indigenous people of Australia (Perkins et al, 2012). Another form of the “Australian Identity” was one presented by Prime Minister Paul Keating in his Redfern Address in 1992. He proclaimed that “Australia is a first-rate social democracy…truly the land of the fair go and the better chance”. This idea presented represents an egalitarian society, where every single human has an equal opportunity at life. Yet another, shown in the songs Paul Kelly sang, but especially in “this land is mine” is the difference between the identity of Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians (Kelly et al, 2001). Each of these texts addressed a major issue. Stand Up compared the relative value of tradition and the right to freedom of expression. Keating’s speech expressed the need for justice and recognition of both the stolen generation and the injustices done to the Indigenous people as a whole. Kelly’s songs represent the importance of the land to Indigenous people and why the “returning of the land” is so important. Although they each mentioned a major issue, the texts all gave solutions to these issues, from reiterating the importance of the basic human right of freedom of speech in Stand Up, to explaining the role and qualities of the Aboriginal

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am here to bring forth some poems that represent our beautiful country for the Australian day anthology. Australians identity is a wonderful thing with our mate ship and way of life respected throughout the world. Our acknowledgement of our past makes us the country we are and creates the country we have, with the pride shared between all who happily call Australia there home. These poems explore our country’s pride through times of hardship, this being the Vietnam war. And how our strong mate ship and pride helped us prevail through this time. These are very clear throughout the poems becoming clear staple pieces for this era.

In 1984, Peter McCormick’s “Advance Australia Fair” officially became Australia’s national anthem. A song we proudly sing both on Anzac Day and Australia Day, with our hand’s on our heart. Should we be proud to sing a song about absolute lies? “Australians all let us rejoice, For we are young and free”, it took aboriginals over 60 years to be recognized as human beings, let alone Australians, they were anything but free. “For those who’ve come across the seas, we’ve boundless plains to share”, that whole sentence is a lie, we have stopped the boats, we don't want to share our boundless plains. We lock up our immigrants in Detention Centers, replicating that of cages. All of us here are living a free life and a safe life and for the majority of us, it is our reality and has been since the day we were born. I’m

The Australian flag whilst not having any direct symbols of the original indiginous owners, The Australian flag depicts a multi cultural country. However changing the flag would lose recognition of many other races for years to come which we cant afford as a country. There has been tremendus support fot the current flag which is used on a wide variety of public uses such as hand wavers on anzac day and lapel pins.

The Australian national identity was affected by the foreign policy and changing of alliances in World War Two, which is seen by, Australia’s alliance with America and their detachment from the mother country, their increase in victories on the battlefield as well as their economic progress post-war, which made Australia more independent and therefore shaped how it was viewed as a country. Throughout the war Australia was left vulnerable by Britain so America was called upon to help in defense. Australia fought many crucial battles with America and their victories paved the way for national success. After the war Australia had many great achievements economically which created their national identity.

Mackellar and AD Hope use literary devices like imagery, personification and tone to convey their perspective of Australia. The Poem Australia by AD Hope describes his negative opinion of Australia as he looks down on Australians way of life. Contrastingly, the poem My Country was written by Dorothea Mackellar at age 19 in 1904. She wrote while she was homesick in England and she expresses her deep passion and love for Australia as she compares the natural beauty of Australia to the landscape of Britain.