Australian Identity Essay

Submitted By animelover97
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Australian Identity

How many of you can honestly say you have ever ridden a kangaroo to school, thrown a shrimp on the barbie or even use the word g'day? Not many! To you some of these concepts may seem pretty strange but to almost anyone else that doesn’t call themselves an Australian citizen this is how they view us. A bunch of beer loving, barbeque using bogans. This stereotypical illusion that many people believe us to be is the reason I have prepared this speech, to inform you of the true ways of us Aussies.
Firstly, there are three major points of history in our country that have had a significant impact on what constitutes our identity. The first was white settlement, which commenced in 1788 with the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip on the shores of Australia. The 26th of January (now Australia Day) was the date in which the first fleet arrived in Sydney Cove and the period of colonised history began. The second major point is 1901, with the passage of the constitution that brought Australia together as a federated country rather than separate states. The last is 1973, when we first heard of Australia being a multicultural country with the creation of the White Australia policy.
Some examples of our flawed image include this quote from a commentator saying "An Australian Flag in your front yard tells everyone you're only a couple of Bundy and Cokes away from lynching a wog, slope or Arab." This is highly untrue as many people don’t seem to understand that Australia is actually a very multicultural country. We have many different races and religions living all through our country including Chinese people in Chinatown and Hurstville or Korean people in Strathfield. Regardless, we do accept all people no matter what colour, race or gender into our society.
Australia is also very fortunate in having many great icons including the dirty coat hanger (a.k.a. Sydney Harbour Bridge), the opera house and of course the Sydney Tower. We have a very large range of flora and fauna unique to our country like kangaroos, koalas, platypus,
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