Australia and the USA: two brash countries and their national days

Incidentally, there is continuing debate about what terms to use for people who are not white. I read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn this week and was struck by the depth and intensity of racial issues. Huck's black friend Jim is a prominent character and he and others are described using a term that starts with N- . National days sometimes turn up long-buried issues like this. Who makes up our nation? What colour are they? And what religion, if any? Who should we acclaim? And why is it important to involve as many people as we can? The short answer is that Australia is still a young nation and we must keep working to cement our diverse people together with shared values. The USA has been working on this matter a lot longer than we Australians have.

But let's turn our attention to Australia's national day.

Australia Day is celebrated on 26^th January. On this day in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney Cove and proclaimed what was called "New South Wales" as part of the British Empire. This week I took part in Australia Day celebrations at Circular Quay in Sydney. (There were many celebrations right across Australia). It is a moving experience to stand among a crowd which is extremely diverse, with the chattering of people in many languages and with a huge variety of cultures and races. All joined in celebrating the day. There were Australian flags, many Australian tattoos on cheeks, and many excited shouts. There was a parade of sail, a Tall Ships race and a ferry race. The tenor was democratic, brash, and full of ordinary popular pride. Australian Aborigines were present and made their voices heard in many ways, though some have said it should be a day of mourning for the people who were dispossessed.

One puzzling thing happened this Australia Day. Our Prime Minister nominated Prince Philip, the husband of our reigning Queen Elizabeth, as a Knight. The act annoyed many and perplexed others. Some turned to ridicule and hailed the return of the Middle Ages. Almost nobody bar a few monarchists applauded this action. Even the Murdoch Press (normally a keen admirer of the current government) criticized Mr Abbott. In the UK itself, it was greeted with incredulity and ridicule.

Unlike the USA, Australia retains strong links with Britain. Some of them make sense, such as celebrating a common language (admittedly, some of the Scots, Northern Irish and English are hard for us to follow). Others do not, and vestiges of a colonial cringe remains. Our Australian Broadcasting Commission serves up most nights tedious summaries of the day's not-very-exciting game of cricket, boring most of us to death. It shows endless Midsomer Murders, and endless repeats of Stephen Fry shows, so old that the clothes look like period dress at a party. It looks like the ABC is saving money. Is it laziness? Or a cultural cringe?

The cultural cringe was described by Arthur Angell Phillips in an argument which said that Australia should not defer to Britain. He said that we have our own land and our own literature and we need not bow reverently to any other culture, Britain included.

Australia Day ought to be in the words of Joseph Furphy, cited in the article above, marked with a 'temper, democratic; bias, offensively Australian'. We could learn a lot from the Americans in standing on our own two feet and being more self-sufficient.

2015 is the 100- year anniversary of the landing of British colonial troops at Gallipoli in Turkey. We will hear endlessly about how Australia came of age and how we became a nation. But Prime Minister Abbott's deference to a member of the British Royal Family shows just how meaningless those comments are. This year Australia Day shows us the bitter truth. Unlike the USA, Australia still has to throw off its Mother's apron strings and become a nation in its own right.