Enhancing Australia (2 of 4)

Nick O’Neill, your BootsnAll host, wisely put it this way upon arrival in this country in ‘92: Australia is British in design and American in desire. One sees England in the architecture and design of the cities. The British influence is inherent in the Westminster legal system, the pub culture, the passion for cricket and the horse races, and many other ways. Yet how many Australians have I spoken with who loved and identified with the movie “American Beauty”? American sitcoms and game shows are aglow in Australian living rooms like an epidemic. Often the Australians will study a successful American television personality and get an Aussie to imitate his every move. They copy the format of the show to the tee and deliver the highly unoriginal goods to the unknowing Australian public without any acknowledgement of the American source.

I remember a frightening example of this in 1992 in The Steve Vizard Show. Steve must have spent hours perfecting his David Letterman moves, including tossing the joke cues over his shoulder to the crash of broken glass. Though I have managed to avoid almost all contact with television for years, I remember watching sorry Australian versions of Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud. One encounters this same phenomenon on the inconvenient store magazine racks. American corporations like McDonald’s, KFC, and Blockbuster Video have run rampant here. I have met many less-educated Australians who assume these are Australian companies.

Eventually, one comes to the question: What and where is the real Australian culture?? As a charming Sydney man once put it to my sister and I, “Australia is B.Y.O.C.” (Bring your own culture) Recognizing the wonderful multi-cultural potential of this nation, I have come to see the wisdom of this remark. As the dominant white Australian culture is still at an early phase of development, there is still a refreshing sense of open possibility here: Australia is what we make of it.

And what of the real Australians? The black Aboriginals. Read up on your history if you don’t know the tragic story. But once you are here in Australia, I encourage you to seek the company of the black folks, as they are often referred to here, and refer to themselves. Certainly those remaining face more than their share of challenges. These proud people have been decimated, first by the gun, then by alcohol and alienation from the new dominant culture. Just remember this: there are good and bad black folks just like the rest, but don’t believe everything bad the local yokels may spread about the blacks in Australia. When you get out in the bush here you may encounter some incredibly backwards attitudes.

I am here to tell you the original Australians (for 100,000 years or so!), are of a special essence, and will teach you something about spirit if you are lucky to get close enough to an individual or a group. Aborigines are not to be “noble savaged”, like in the disastrous “Mutant Message”. They are ordinary people, just like you and I. But they are still special, if you catch my drift. All that Dreamtime and their sustainable lifestyle through the ages has served their spirits well.

Coming back to the multi-cultural angle, the various suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne will convince you that Vietnamese, Greek, Lebanese, and many other cultures are alive and well in Australia. In all honesty, good people, it is white Australian culture that lacks colour, but change is a comin’…

Two wonderful ways to access the real culture of a country are to work when you are abroad or to hitch-hike around the place. As it is not much fun diving right into work upon arrival in a new land of adventure, I recommend you abandon your fears and hit the open Australian highway. I realize hitching isn’t for everyone, and I certainly don’t condone a woman hitching on her own, but if it is, indeed, cultural adventure you are after, here’s quick access, friends.

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