Australia Day

People (and things) were being really Australian today.

Everyone was out paatyin, crackin some coldies and cookin snags on the baabie. Here in Sydney, we had speeches, music, dancing, fireworks, and general merriment. We even had a flyover by some fighter jets.

Interestingly, Australia Day does not celebrate Australia's day of independence, which was either on 1 January 1901, when the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed and its Constitution came into effect, or on 11 December 1931, when the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, granting legislative authority to Australia, ... or on 3 March 1986 when the Australia Act eliminated all authority for the British Parliament to enact legislation affecting Australia, ... or maybe it hasn't happened yet, since the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is also the Queen of Australia and retains authority to appoint a Governor General of Australia, who retains some interesting executive powers, such as authority to dissolve the government.

So yeah, it's complicated. What Australia Day does celebrate is the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, also known as the day the white people turned up and never left. It was very cool to be able to go and stand on the very spot where, on this day in January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed on what he referred to as "without exception the finest harbour in the world" with 11 ships, 778 convicts, and 221 free men, to establish Sydney and indeed the modern nation of Australia. I tend to agree on the harbour thing.

Australian flags were everywhere today. I saw a several people wearing them as capes, as though they had just won an olympic medal. There were even flags in places you wouldn't expect to see flags, like attached to flying airplanes:

And stuck behind horses' ears:

Yes, that horse is pissing, which just makes it that much more Australian. In his defense, he was probably pretty drunk by that time in the day (3pm).

I think Lonely Planet's Sydney Guide was "bang on" (as they say) when it described the Day as "much nationalistic flag waving, drunkenness, and chest beating. In less mood to celebrate is the Aboriginal community, which refers to it as Invasion Day or Survival Day."

And indeed the fun was marred by an "incident" in Canberra, where the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were confronted by several protestors from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. This "embassy" really is a set of tents, which have sat for 40 years on the lawn of the Old Parliament House in Canberra. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is controversial, and the Australian Government doesn't regard it as a "real" embassy, and it is basically a protest, but many Aboriginal folks state that it represents their desire to be taken seriously as sovereign people.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, apparently said they should shut it down. As you can imagine, that wasn't very popular with some folks, so they went to tell the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister what they thought of that. They started banging on the glass windows of the venue where the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were speaking, and they were shouting cries of "shame" and "racist." The Australian Federal Police seem to have overracted a bit, dragging away the Prime Minister to a waiting car after she "was trapped by protestors." Poor dear lost a shoe in the process.

Today's events are taking place in the context of a charming and heart-warming national debate on whether Australia is a racist country. I use those adjectives sincerely and with not a single iota of condescension or irony. This is exactly the sort of national conversation we need in America. We thought we were going to have it when we elected President Obama, but it hasn't really happened. No, it's clear that even after that historic event we still lack the capacity for rational self-reflection that is required for such a debate.

The Australian debate was begun by a prominent Australian physician of Chinese descent who noted that while growing up in Australia he was frequently subjected to racist language and behavior from white Australians. But he also said that having racists doesn't make Australia unique and it does seem to be getting better. There has been a fair amount of defensiveness in response, perhaps understandably, but the discussion has been remarkably civil and frank.

I find this discussion very endearing. It makes me like Australia and Australians. And it leaves me wondering if America will ever achieve this level of collective maturity.

And I will save you any suspense on the great, Is Australia racist? debate. The answer is, Yes.

OK, I'm being a little flippant. But my experience here is that it's fairly similar to the US in that regard. There is a pretty small but hard-core minority of nationalistic types who make no apology about favoring whites over "others." To wit:

In case you can't read it, the shirt says, "This is Australia. We eat meat. We drink beer. And we speak fucking English." In the greatest irony ever, you buy this shirt at Paddys Market from a little Chinese lady who literally does not speak English. Pretty hilarious. I'm certain I will buy one if I do not end up settling in Australia, (because I want no chance of being taken seriously wearing it).

Other than my brief visit to The Rocks, I mostly left the Australia Day fun to the Australians. But I did have a remarkably Australian day. I went for a long bike ride out to Manly Beach. On the way back, I got passed by some racer-roadies going up one particularly lung-busting hill. The lead rider looked over as he passed and said, "G'day." I reflexively responded in kind, just like a real Australian. So I guess they're starting to rub off a bit.