Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Ray Martin is not right

By Brian Holden - posted Friday, 5 February 2010


“I think we have to grow up and move to the next stage” says Ray Martin about our flag.

We do need to grow up - but I take a more serious position on the subject than Ray Martin because I am aware that the DNA of every human on Earth can be traced back to the one woman. We call her Mitochondrial Eve and she lived in Africa about 150,000 years ago. She’s my mum, Ray’s mum, Albert Namatjira’s mum and Osama bin Laden’s mum.

So, one day we might finally grow up and realise that there is only one homo sapiens and there will be no saluting of flags and the world’s resources will be divided fairly. A pipe dream? Not really - because if we don’t, then what remains of our species after massive violence will be living a very basic and altruistic life in order to survive.

Advertisement

Anyway, getting away from the bigger picture, at present we are stuck with having a flag and an anthem and we chase for Olympic glory and other such patriotic things. Greg Barns has contributed an article “Ray Martin is right” to On Line Opinion with which I have a few problems.

He tells us that the premier of Victoria wants to keep the flag that our soldiers died under. While not a compelling point, I differ from Barns in that I believe it to be a reasonable one as we have such little recorded history in this country. Without Gallipoli and Kokoda to get emotional over, we are pretty-well without a national focus. (We have of course a marvellous biological and geological identity - but only a minority of the population seem to be emotionally affected by that fact.)

The boxing kangaroo flag was good in its day. Soon after the America’s Cup series of races had been run my son, while hiking in the US, would hold up the boxing kangaroo flag. He claimed that the first or second car would always stop for him.

So, flags are currently essential for a nation’s identity, and what we have on our flag requires serious thought. When I see kangaroos which have been shot hanging off a fence, I feel it would be hypocritical having a phoney reverence for something we kill for money on our flag. Without the roo, however, our flag designers are somewhat limited.

Any place for indigenous graphics?

When the British arrived, the original inhabitants had no flag as there was no nation. There is no historical Aboriginal flag. While the black, red and yellow flag we see now is highly effective as a symbolic focal point, it is not a traditional indigenous graphic. It is a post-1967 activists’ flag - just as the Eureka flag of 1854 is now the unionists’ banner waved at their demonstrations. Adding the black, red and yellow flag to a new national flag has to be ruled out as we cannot have narrow political viewpoints represented on our flag.

Advertisement

It would also be hypocritical on a flag to have any symbol (such as the boomerang) of a human race we drove away from their food and water and wiped out over half of their population with smallpox. I have it on good authority that the Aborigines are totally fed-up with feel-good symbolic gestures that their financially comfortable non-Aboriginal supporters use to hold their guilt at bay.

(I have my own Aboriginal symbolism. It is a spectacular rock face near where I live. I sometimes imagine Aborigines living close by - a long, long time ago. They saw the spirits of the ancestors in that rock. It is in that timeless rock that I see a memorial to that lost way of life. In this context, coloured bunting on a stick has no relevance.)

Does the Union Jack mean anything now?

The contentious point about our present flag is the Union Jack in the corner. But what does the Union Jack tell the world? It tells a world rent with intrigue and spies that there is a country that gets on so well with another that it voluntarily includes its flag on its own. The members of the new global community that diplomatically smile at each other while stock-piling weaponry would see that as rather unnerving. It just ain’t normal.

The Canadians and South Africans got rid of the Union Jack - but that is not an argument the reformers can use. In Canada there was considerable internal pressure for change coming from the French component of the population. Any obstinate resistance by the government to change would have generated a more vigorous call for secession by the Quebecois. In South Africa the Afrikaans component actually went to war against Britain in 1899. Besides, the end of apartheid and the emancipation of the majority of the population called for a new flag for a dramatically new future.

Flags are all about symbols. If the Union Jack is removed, what do we loose symbolically? Britain has given us its legal system, its system of government, its sports and, most of all, its language.

What a blessing that language has been! We have access to the best literature ever written, to the greater majority of the best songs ever composed and the best cinema ever filmed. About 80 per cent of the material on the internet is in English and all of the science performed in the world has been originally written or translated into English. At the end of this century English will be the world language.

No nation could have had as much influence on another's development as what Britain has had on Australia. As for the Union Jack compromising our independence: we showed how independent we were when Britain advised us not to get involved in Vietnam, but the snap of fingers from Washington had us in there. Also, we jumped into World War l because we wanted to be noticed on the world stage - and we can’t blame the Brits for that.

The real question is: what is it that is unique to Australia that could ever go in place of the Union Jack, that means as much as it does and about how we feel about ourselves now - and at the same time we are not hell-bent on degrading or driving to extinction? The awful truth is that we have a struggle to think of anything.

The best evidence for change seems to be the high proportion of Australians with non-British backgrounds, and who, it must be expected, would have no emotional connection to the Union Jack. (Even if they are now benefiting from the fact that the Portuguese, Spaniards, French or Dutch did not take over the place first.)

Once again there is the same problem with Australians with non-British backgrounds - what do they think should go in place of the Union Jack? From what I can gather, they don’t think about it at all. The heat seems to be coming from the Anglo-Celtics.

Then there is the option of nothing going its place. But, of what significance would the remaining stars have for the world (or even for over 90 per cent of this country’s citizens)?

The current flag serves its purpose - which is to have something to fly as all other countries have.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

15 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Brian Holden has been retired since 1988. He advises that if you can keep physically and mentally active, retirement can be the best time of your life.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Brian Holden

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Brian Holden
Article Tools
Comment 15 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy