Who stole the Australia Day long weekend? Once upon a time, not very long ago, it was the ultimate take time out, end of summer holidays three days! The image of Australia Day was beaches and barbies maybe (but not with a national prescribed meat, sponsored by advertisers), symbolising shrugging off summer sloth! And it was taken lightly, with some mixture of pleasure and piss taking about the occasion. A radio broadcast last week of some past material included satiric games with language and concept of what being an Aussie was about. There were a few public functions, maybe some citizenship ceremonies but mostly it was a holiday long weekend.
All that seems to have been lost! We now have a plethora of official functions and an implicit pressure that being a good citizen should include attending at least some local function. There has been at least a week of politicians making Australian day related speeches, a Royal visit and a wind up through state heats to the selection of Australian of the Year. Dick Smith said in 1986, when he won, he was just rung up and told about it, when the selection was over. Now it’s a big public event in multiple stages. There are also Australia Day local Ambassadors in their myriads, appointed to go to local celebrations to deliver an appropriate speech to locals, mayors and dignitaries.
I must confess that I was nearly one of these ambassadors this year. I was approached a couple of years ago and then the following year. I agreed to do it this time, with a sense that maybe I should be prepared to thank Australia for taking me in 1948 as a refugee from Hitler and Europe. However, my wish to give back was truncated by the formal expectations and commercial sponsorship.
I resigned when I realised that I was assigned to talk to people in a very upmarket locality under conditions I found problematic. My main problem was the paragraph headed ‘Recognition of Woolworths’ which suggested we should appreciate their ‘generous support’ without which there would not be ‘the benefit and opportunity’ of the ambassador program. I decided that I couldn’t give such official acknowledgements to a company that did this for its commercial benefits. And I was concerned that we were asked to not make comments that were political or biased, whatever that means.
So I resigned which surprised of the local organisers who saw nothing odd in the local Woollies manager joining the Ambassador on the platform. Why do we need commercial sponsorship for our national day? Local donations of snags for barbies maybe, but national sponsorship of official functions by a major self interested corporate seems to me to be too symbolic of what the day has become! While there are lots of mentions of Indigenous acknowledgement and recognising diversity, in the official guff, the catalogues of our major supermarkets flog T shits with dodgy use of national symbols and lots and lots of booze.
It is this misuse of symbols, mixed with excessive patriotism that is making me anxious about what this holiday has become. It seems to have started shortly after the Bicentennial but has escalated into an ever more problematic symbol of the splintering of identities. How did we manage to change this holiday into a celebration of something that we used to think was a bit naff?
Five years ago that Cronulla riots became a new benchmarks of a particular type of nationalistic thuggery. The flag is everywhere! This is not local developed change but imitates the USA, which is always flying flags and has a flag day! I object to flags on cars, on faces, on T shirts on towels and probably on condoms! The Cronulla pictures should warn us that such misuse of symbols is both tasteless and dangerous as it allows for the type of mindless mob rule that feeds into totalitarianism.
Nationalism and patriotism have their place in our histories and present but should not ever be used as rallying points for including and excluding groups on the basis of tacky assumptions of loyalty and commonalities. I can appreciate living in Australia without a need to indulge in hyperbole. Concepts like ‘Australian’ values are hard to define, as most seem to be what we would expect in any reasonably civilised community.
The one area that once seemed to be typically Australian, our inclination to not to take ourselves too seriously, is not often seen. This type of ‘deadly’ humour I think owes some of its uniqueness to what we learned from Aboriginal humour, but we often ignore that possibility. However the piss taking, self deprecation seems to be losing out to much more pompous nationalism, and fulminating against critical views. Like our egalitarian dream, it seems to be becoming more mythical as materialism and individualism rules.
Maybe the politicians have unleashed a streak of mindlessness by reiterating scare tactics about boat people and others. Maybe they have convinced many that it is both OK and easier to go with the mob than think from ourselves. But that is a scary possibility, and I don’t like it. So I think withdrawing as ambassador was the right thing to do because it would feel wrong. I don’t think what I am saying here would have gone down well with the burghers of Mosman and the Woollies version of Australia that promotes grog and flags to its cash registers’ content. We need to reclaim the weekend from both nasty nationalism and commercialisation.
13 Comments
maybe exporting you to Mosman was someone in Woolies’ own act of anarchy?
Since getting the squirts three times in one year from the fresh food people I no longer participate in funding their organisation. Fingers down the thrown patriotism seems appropriate when your perched upon the porcelain with bucket in yah frontness..
Well about time!! Yesterday did not make me proud,-it made me uneasy. Australia Day now reeks of xenophobia, why in the hell do we have to broadcast so loudly a simple state of being? Because it is now being pushed out almost as a warning that this is what one must be to be ‘one of us’;-or else.
Commercialism is also like a pervasive cancer upon community events. I (thankfully!), was no longer a member of the CWA when it agreed to endorse Woolworth’s-for a price! Had I still been a member, that would have been the last straw – I would have walked!
If these corporates gave one genuine damn for such events, they could/should back them without insisting on such a high profile involvement. But of course they are not doing so for the primary benefit of the organisation/event;-they are looking after their own profile, and sanitizing it with the myth of doing ‘good works’….; and of course they get away with it, because these events/organisations, are only too willing to let them!
Needing the corporate dollar is one thing, but allowing it to dictate the terms of such sponsorship is absurd and damaging, and should never have been allowed from the very first venture!!
You have principles, Ms Cox;-what an outdated old-fashioned notion!
Eva
I think you have marked a very clear line in the sand of our over-stated beach and desert cultures. We need to ask ourselves which side of the line did we find ourselves when we were TOLD on national television and media to get involved in Australia day. I found myself repulsed and your piece here tells me you are on that side of the line too. Brand Australia is looking decidedly “No Frills”. What a middle class fantasy that being Australian is a better and a uniquely different beingness, that bbq’ed sausages and beer in foam insulator are really a stunning Australian invention.
Ominous and depressing.
Great post Eva – agree with everything you’ve said.
Hi Eva,
I was on the Choice board for 20 years. They took no commercial sponsorship of any sort, because their brand was independence. I was on the board of the Cancer Council NSW for 10, and they actively sought corporate sponsorship, with some obvious exceptions (tobacco companies, tanning studios etc). Had they not, a huge slice would have been cut from their budget with all the good that flows from that. We were unanimous that we welcomed industry support.
I was brought up to donate anonymously and still do. Self-aggrandisement via public largesse is of course tacky. But the obverse of that argument is that without it, many corporations can’t see a gain for themselves. Bandwaggoning effects are also very real. So the tradeoff for charities is tack intolerance vs moolah. It’s a no brainer really, unless there are major competing interests like an alcohol company sponsoring a public awareness campaign on binge drinking. The alternative is a kind of East German puritanism, where every worthy event and cause is sponsored entirely by government. Those days are long gone, although nostalgia lives on.
But a supermarket? Nationalist t-shirts and booze? I’m sure there are lots of other goods they sell that you and I might disdain as well. I don’t know where you buy your drink or groceries but it’s quite hard now to avoid sending your dollars to a supermarket. So why is it OK to spend there but not OK for them to support public events, beyond the tack issue? Would there be any commercial sponsor you’d have shared a platform with?
Yes, Eva Cox I was pleased as always to read your comments. My heart sinks when I see the flagflying irruption. Surely this is un-Australian? Do we really need to shelter behind the flag?
I spent yesterday at a very remote,exquisite part of the Australian coast. And yes, there were the flags flapping away. Made in Australia? I dont think so.
Barb
Eva,
As a transplanted Melbournian now living in the US it is with increasing despair that I watch the Americanisation of Australia.
But yet, it’s all a little more subtle than that. The Americans love a parade. Even if they are shite at it, they’ll still do it. Australians? It’s all so… manufactured. It’s all so patriotism-by-numbers. Regardless of it’s being artificial and crass, Aussies have decided to consume patriotic fervour at bargain-basement prices. And I don’t think they are better off for it.
I’ve been here ten years now, and for much of that time all I could think of was how great it would be to return to a simple country that I loved. Surprisingly, and depressingly, those thoughts are no more. The land is still there, the birds and the sweet clean air, but I no longer recognise the people.
All this is underpinned by the concept of Aussies-and-the-Booze.
Booze, booze, booze.
Booze on Christmas, booze on New Year’s Eve, booze in the schoolies’ holidays, booze at 4pm on a Friday, booze on Melbourne Cup, and, yes, booze just for the heck of it.
A drink is nice with a bit of perspective.
But a drink in the context of just boozing? It’s got low class and low self esteem written all over it.
Perhaps all this boozing is an already outdated form of self-expression in the throes of its death pangs — just one more rush of yeah baby! before it succumbs to the kind of stigmatisation that smoking suffers from today. Then again we may not be that lucky as a society.
Of course Woollies bought Australia Day, Eva -but they passed the cost on to the consumer.
How many of us I wonder can no longer enjoy watching the V8 s’car series or other media corp sporting events for all the ad speak dribblings entwined in every second sentence? As with much of our media, it feels like verbal water boarding to me so I’ve switched off where I can. When the online ad blockers begin to fail I’ll likely leave that world also and go back to ham radio maybe.
‘Don Watson on the Absurdity of Corporate Speak’ at abcFora hints at what we’re dealing with in abuse of the language borders on fraud. We’re watching Tony Blair do it regarding ‘I’m not responsible’ so no surprise the more obvious corporate sector is doing it.
We can deal with markets we’re not happy with by with holding onto our hard earned quids or buying else where. How though do we get some answer ability into a system over seen by the out of reach powerful has me completely miffed.
A warning to people who blog on Bolt’s or Akerman’s web sites, comments which do not suit either blogger barons selective requirements, may have your home or email address posted on their site, as has happened to myself. Imagine myself posting Bolt’s or Akerman’s address on the internet—-they would scream blue-murder.
I saw cars driving around with little flags stuck on each corner…there goes the president of Australia! You must be very proud. Along I went to a BBQ where the host whined about Arabic Vegemite labelling. Dear me, a US food giant wants to broaden it’s consumer base to increase its profits! The USA is really very un-australian! I tried to discuss the significance of the day – landing / conquer / occupation / invasion – whatever is preferred. Nobody agreed it probably isn’t the proudest day to celebrate…maybe New Years Day would be better – but that didn’t ring a bell (and we’d all be far too hung over for that)…So Australia Day is to the Government as Christmas is to retail – or as Eva nicely pointed out – is to retail as well. Maybe they could invest more of their gambling community support fund on little flags for us all to wave.