Pig dogging.

Tried to post an image but it didn't work......

Laugh till you cry wrote on Jul 11^th, 2024 at 2:14pm:


That sounds racist

We don't really have a culture of our own.

Some would say the larrikin, have-a-go mentality and mateship were the exemplars of our culture, but COVID shows that were all utter bullshit.

The moment the going gets tough it's "bugger you, I've got mine" and "Don't tell me what to do" and even mask wearing was treated as the biggest injustice in the history of the world, akin to communism horrors and this simple act of personal responsibility too much to ask for to help your fellow Aussie when it was thought it could help reduce the spread of respiratory droplets and transmission.

No, we don't really have any culture of our own.

We've been heavily influenced by British colonisation. Many of our institutions, legal systems, and cultural practices derive from British traditions.

Our population is highly multicultural, with significant influences from various immigrant communities. This diversity is sometimes seen as overshadowing a distinct, unified Australian culture.

Much of our entertainment and popular culture, including movies, music, and fashion, is heavily influenced by American and British trends.

Some argue that mainstream Australia has not sufficiently integrated or acknowledged Indigenous Australian cultures, which have a rich and ancient heritage.  Any attempt to do so with things like welcome to country and other ceremonial duties triggers the usual suspects.

We simply lack a unique cultural identity.

Unless you consider the alcohol-fuelled, gambling-addicted and wife-beating elements our culture, which I hope not.

Frank wrote on Jul 11^th, 2024 at 5:53pm:


That is the closet pom culture?

I totally understand where sad kangaroo is coming from!

I don't see much culture in Australia apart from yougurt!?!

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 12:01am:


Grappler's nonsensical word-salad rants don't elaborate on the invisible Australian culture.

Perhaps the answer is that one attribute of Australian culture is flying under the radar avoiding being noticed or nominated for anything. Sitting quietly at the back of the room and never raising your hand.

The people are what make culture.

Those more regional and rural people are a more genuine and better representation of what it means to be Australian for sure.

My in-laws lived in a regional mid-north Queensland town in the early 90s, they're immigrants from SE Asia.

They were the target of many racist jokes and behaviour, but not out of malice, just ignorance, though at the time they didn't realise it.

It wasn't until the area was hit by floods that they realised that the people around them gave them those ribbings not because they were different, not out of hate or misunderstanding, but because they were one of them, one of the community.  That's how they treated each other.

But when the going got tough, they'd give the shirt from their back to help them. 

During the floods, the way the community banded together, to help everyone, including and almost especially my in-laws was eye-opening for them.

Everyone worked together and helped each other out.

They didn't realise though that their little general store was the heart of the town.  Everyone was helping because they and their store was an essential part of the community.

They saw everyone there, nearly every day, would talk and chat to them, they didn't realise how important they were and not just for the store.  And people would almost fight to get an invite to their dinner parties. 

Of course, the Pub was the real heart of the town, but isn't that always the case?

That sort of "Mateship", not John Howard's jingoism or bullshit for the cameras, if I had to pick anything I'd want to be our culture, it's that.

But in many ways, it's a thing of the past.

There are too many external influences that are taking that away from us, and not just in the big cities either.

These smaller regional communities are being devastated by big corporate interests and it's turning the people against each other.

But that's a topic for another thread.

There's no doubt that Australianism will remain essentially a Western-focussed culture - held in place by its hyperfocus on Americanism - having replaced the British with the Americans due to our cultural need for an overlord.

The sheer volume of threads here and elsewhere on American politics and culture demonstrates this obsession with all things American and the compulsion to emulate it whenever we can - except maybe for the Irish obsession with glorious failure and defeat!

Laugh till you cry wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 9:37am:

Does fraternity?

'All men are created equal'?

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 10:22am:


i think the only thing i need to point out is that you are living in a bubble.

i suspect it's vacuum sealed.

paul hogan
kath and kim
'mad max
ned kelly
two up
anzac day
the melbourne cup
drought
the reef
utes
backyard bbq
russell coight
mowing your yard
ayers rock
slouch hat
kylie
steve irwin
jimmy barnes
john mcarthur
james cook
ludwig leichardt

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 10:49am:

Buddhism - the fastest-growing religion in Australia with traditional Western Christianity in terminal decline.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 10:53am:



It was Islam a few years ago? No longer?

either way, obviously driven by IMPORTS, not by locals.

probably chinese resturants in country towns frank.
and some towns have a distinct influence
boonah near me...very lutheran german (refuse to allow maccas or woolworths into town)
innisfail...very italian (cane farmers)

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 10:53am:



theres actually a bit of a ressurgence in cultural christians as well

Bias_2012 wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 1:54am:

tallowood wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 11:12am:

A celebration of Irish culture transplanted in Australia.

What about:

Deforestation?

Desertification?

Do those attributes qualify?

Laugh till you cry wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 11:23am:

Awww boo hoo.

Where in the world has there not been a conflict between civilisational development and ecology?

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 11:00am:

Yes, people go to the zoo, too.


Still, Australians do not think, see the world, adopt the values of Ramada, diwali, Chinese New year.

Australia resolutely and firmly remains an essentially Anglo culture with American influences (itself a largely British-European derived culture) with some significant but minor European influences.

mothra wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 11:13am:

WOMAD itself a very strong expression of the uniquely open, Anglo- European cultural outlook:

WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, with Thomas Brooman, Bob Hooton, Mark Kidel, Stephen Pritchard, Martin Elbourne and Jonathan Arthur. Original designers were Steve Byrne and Valerie Hawthorn.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 11:19am:


Like Dustyesky?

Its narrowing down to:

Football;

Meat pies;

Kangaroos;

Pubs;

Mateship;

Deforestation; and

Desertification.

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 12:18pm:



It's worse than that. Frank equates expression of culture from non-European stock as like a trip to the zoo.

Frank is having a really bad time acclimatising to modern day Australia. He's offended at every turn.

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 10:56am:

Of course it's driven by imports (immigrants). All non-Aboriginal cultures were/are driven by immigrants.

However, soon after, features of their imported influence readily infuse into Australian culture - particularly celebratory events and artistic/musical traditions - and occasionally (although rarely) religious traditions.

Buddhism is a good example of an imported religious tradition but it's not the Buddhism that Asian practitioners would fully comprehend. Buddhism has been Westernised and is largely an import from the US where traditional Asian Buddhism underwent a process of Westernisation.

The indisputable, definitive, conclusive answer.

.

The government has ordained it.

Australia has no distinctive culture.

mothra wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 12:26pm:


Ah - let's just make it personal again then.....

Laugh till you cry wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 1:34pm:

Australian mainstream culture is porous in a way that ancient, established cultures are not.

Cultural import/export

Australian version of "The Song Of The Volga Boatmen"


Russian Choir response with “Waltzing Matilda”

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 1:54pm:

Yes.

One of those 'I know what X is, but now that you ask me, I don't', moments!

Yes - we have no bananas!

No culture is universally applied across all individuals in it like a coat of paint slathered on.....  the Aborigines had it down pat... as long s they could keep it at 'small wandering groups' = Terra Nullius - each group could retain its own identity without identity politics entering into it - well - unless they got into a blue with some other group ...

Now there are too many of them and the groups begin to intermingle and trouble comes about, and they no longer simply have the room to wander in peace and close identity with their small group... then there are the Western ideas 'activists', who somehow think that happiness is not being able to freely wander about ..... Fraser Island, for example ..... in shared usage .... but can only be found in Supremacist Ownership of it all - and the group demanding this are most likely not even 'native' to the area.

Like the Middle East - these 'tribes' are pretty much the creation of the Outsiders with control.... and even within 'tribes' (let alone 'nations') each remnant of each small group still holds to its own as much as possible.

Maybe if their population was reduced and they were scattered again with each small group having the 'native title' rights to wander etc across what was their stamping ground (not 'owned land' any more than my trip to town, you catch kangaroo - me catch shopping list, gives me ownership of everything along the way), they might find some peace.

Sadly - The great Project of Abestine/Aborassic Park/Gondwamano Bay is unlikely to work for the same reasons... they just can't get along with one another as small groups....

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 2:32pm:




Banana benders keep out

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 2:56pm:

It's not possible to define Australian culture such that it is unique from generic neo-Anglo culture that can be found in Canada, the US or New Zealand; more broadly, it is not that distinguishable from generic modern culture found throughout the West, Eastern Europe and even in parts of Asia.

What we think of as uniquely Australian, such as mateship, is, of course, not unique at all. The French have their 'fraternité, the Americans have their 'crowning of god's good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea', the kiwis have it, even Russians use a form of it (if only to mask their imperialism towards neighbouring peoples). It's a theme in most modern nation-states.

What is uniquely Australian about Australia's mainstream culture? 'Laidbackness'? Egalitarianism? Nasal vowels?

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 3:37pm:


What is cultural uniqueness? Which modern country is 100% culturally unique?

tallowood wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 3:53pm:

What does it mean to quantify uniqueness? What does, say, 50% unique mean?

aquascoot wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 4:25pm:

Depends on who you ask.

The Indians, Bhutanese, Vietnamese and Filipinos may beg to differ.

Devious and criminal more than smart and law-abiding they might argue.

Also, Chinese organised crime in Australia is extremely dangerous with many Chinese serious crims protected by Chinese diplomats.

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 4:50pm:

Ethno-chauvinism in Australia is minimal compared to that expressed across Africa and Asia, including the subcontinent. where ethnic acceptance is usually refused generationally to non-local-ethnic immigrants.

Even Europeans, including the English, can be snooty towards neocultural Western immigrant peoples.

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 5:08pm:

Yes, ironically, not among Africans and Asians about each other who often don't miss the opportunity to denigrate each other along ethnic/cultural/religious/tribal lines.

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 11^th, 2024 at 3:04pm:


Always knew you were a self loathing, nation deprecating arsehole.

There's a myth that British and Irish peoples assimilate well into Australian culture.

However, when they're asked many consider themselves British / English / Welsh / Irish / Scottish first, Australian second. Many lampoon the Australian citizenship process as 'getting the lobotomy'.

Their cultural similarities are the perfect camouflage that makes it easy for them to appear superficially Australian.

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 6:35pm:

It's true.

The British love sarcastic humour.

Yes, it is unremarkable for anyone born anywhere not to consider themselves Australian first, hence the tendency to jealously preserve their home culture in their manner and in the raising of their children and grandchildren.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 9:28am:


What??? Peccars Trump obsession?

Treat it with the contempt it deserves.

He said he'd leave this forum if Trump won the election for POTUS back in 2016.

Yet he's till here.

I wonder whether he'll leave if Trump wins the next US election & becomes POTUS again in November 2024? 

You leave the Irish out of it ... I love Guinness & Traditional Irish music.

No one has tried to emulate that here.

Famous Irish(migrants)Trad musicians Paddy, Joe & John Fitzgerald have live in Australia for a long time.(60's)



Quote:



They often went back to Ireland for Trad festivals.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 7:05pm:



There was nothing unfortunate about it ... like many of his other characters it paid his bills & was popular.

That it was OTT satire is irrelevant .... it was all accepted as a part of the Australian larrikin culture and Aussie humour & self deprecation.

The ability to take the piss out of oneself & others.

Far too many narcissistic self inflated egos  around these days.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 7:05pm:

Well, there's an Australian characteristic people like you (where ARE you from? You are very coy about it) don't get - self- deprecating humour. Very British.
Peter Cook was Barry's patron saint. Cook was to Britain that Barry was to Australia AND Britain.

Frank wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 7:48pm:

Yes, I do get self-deprecating humour.

My reference to it being unfortunate for Humphries was that he expected Australians to be shocked by his holding up a mirror to Australians of the time - they weren't.

Humphries commented on the Australian contempt for the 'Pom' as an example of Australians projecting their sense of cultural inferiority which he added was understandable because, in his words, "we are".

'The Adventures of Barry McKenzie' was released in 1972, a year after 'Wake in Fright' was released - which did shock and disgust Australian audiences.

Wake in Fright's Canadian director, Ted Kotcheff, recognised in remote Australian culture the same themes he experienced in remote Canadian culture - "Canada is Australia on the rocks", he said.

Rolf Harris was once an Australian cultural leader.

He stitched all the jingo icons together and had Australians bursting with pride.

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 9:08pm:

So what ARE you celebrating?

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 9:10pm:



A wild guess - you are of Irish decent?

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 12^th, 2024 at 9:10pm:

America was a penal colony for much longer than Australia. Australia was a substituted when the Americans went independent in 1776.

SadKangaroo wrote on Jul 13^th, 2024 at 8:53am:

You brought up the penal colony aspect.

In any case, as Clive James pointed out, the problem with Australia might not be that some are descendants of convicts but that many are descendants of jailers. Certainly in spirit. You are one such.