"people usually only have access to partial truths about their lives, because most of us aren’t taught to critically analyze our role in society, and which cultural norms have shaped us how". - Jeana from this blog
In my experience photos with flags in them tend only to have meaning for the photographer and anyone from the country, state or association that the flag represents. So I apologise for anyone I've alienated with today's image but it reflects the space I am in today.
Australia Day, a national day of celebration of… ?
According to Wikipedia "Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, NSW, in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia." The fact that I, as an Australian by birth, felt the need to look-up an online definition for our national day should give you some sort of indication as to where my head is at at this point in time.
Don't get me wrong, I love any excuse for a public holiday (I am Australian after all ;-)). I love a good old pool party and BBQ with my friends, whats not to love?! If only I could leave it at that.
Forgive me, I will probably ramble a bit in this description as I try to unravel the thoughts running through my head and sort them into some semblance of meaning. One of the side effects I have noticed starting this 365 is that it is causing me to think more critically about all sorts of things (which I am not entirely sure is a good thing as I am probably guilty of over thinking things in general anyway).
It all started a few weeks ago when I was walking to my car thinking I should plan a 'meaningful' shot for Australia day but the more I thought about what that would entail the more confused I became. What is it we are celebrating anyway? What is our national identity? Sure we like to think of ourselves as funny larakins who don't take life to seriously and enjoy a cold beer at the end of the day but honestly I think we have moved on from that, if it was ever true in the first place it is far too oversimplified for now…
Anwyay, with our boring you with all of the details I was already in a questioning frame of mind when I was invited by friends to go check out the Yabun festival/ Australia day/ Survival day celebrations in Victoria park, Glebe. This festival celebrates the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture, and according to the event description is "the largest single day Indigenous festival drawing an audience of between 10,000 and 15,000 and is one of the most important Indigenous music events in the country reflecting the huge wealth of Indigenous creative talent. Alongside all the wonderful music, you can soak up some culture and area information from some of the community's most influential leaders." Of course I didn't know this at the time, I just said yes and went in blind.
Oh god, how do I say this right without sounding like a total bimbo?
I hope this doesn't get me into trouble but when I got to Victoria park it was kind of as I expected, 2 stages with live music, some stalls with food and others housing representatives from cultural organisations, aboriginal flags, people selling all sorts of paraphernalia with aboriginal flags on them or various other slogans and all sorts of people including large family groups and random others like myself just milling about. What I wasn't prepared for was the aggression and anger that seemed to underpin a large proportion of the festivities.
But of course, the other half of the festival name - survival day.
I'd love to say that I knew, because it seems so disgustingly ignorant now that I do, but I didn't know, it had never occurred to me that this would be the case. The cultural tension, it just feels to me like this sort of thing should belong to other peoples worlds, not to mine. It is terrible to admit but I am probably more aware of the overall cultural tensions in the USA than I am those in my own backyard. For many indigenous Australians, Australia day is an arrogant display of celebration of the "injustices by Government businesses and people including but not limited to the misappropriation by whatever means of land air water culture heritage and children and the attempted cultural genocide perpetrated by past and present Federal and State Governments" reference
It is difficult to feel like by default you are on the side of the wrong-doers when as an individual your only transgression was to be born and remain ignorant of anthers plight, and yet still, once a little less ignorant to remain in the dark as to what you as a single person can do to make amends. I think this is where discussions of a 'peoples' falls apart, because I fail to see how it is possible for one peoples to make amends for wrongdoings to anthers peoples with out some sort of compensation to the individual people that make up the wronged peoples but then how does one go about accurately defining the people effected and who (individually) should be held responsible for making amends when the wrongdoing was done so long ago thats the direct people involved no longer exist? and to what extent do you go, if the terms be financial compensation, to make amends? Do you go so far as to destabilise an entire country? But then what right does the country have to be stable? Or, philosophically, what right do any of us, anywhere have to 'own' any piece of earth to the exclusion of others anywhere on this planet we were born onto? To set laws that other people must abide by? Or is all of this questioning just some perverted way for me to attempt to abdicate my responsibilities?
Truth is that I may come from a "multicultural" area of Sydney and have many European and Asian friends but apart from watching Cathy Freeman win the women's 400m sprint at the 2000 Olympics my closest, most common interaction with anyone from "Australia's indigenous peoples" (in quotations only because the phrase makes me feel uncomfortable) are those who are homeless and/or loiter around the entrance to Redfern station and whom I tend to walk passed quickly, ignoring whatever is said to me. I don't say this because I am proud, I say it because its the truth and because it makes me uncomfortable.
And without trying to use it as an excuse and at the risk of repeating the most overused word this decade, in this sense I am one of the 'privileged' and is it not true that the privileged very rarely realise that they are so?
Anyway, I wonder if all of this made any sense at all. I find myself cringing when I read parts of it back which is maybe a good thing. I should probably re-write parts of it to make my points clearer but the process of writing it felt so exhausting that I am loath to go through and proof-read it all.
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The picture itself is a composite of 2 images: one taken at Victoria park as I was leaving the festival and another taken when I got home. To me it represents reflection and confusion and a tension between two different national identities, one which I belong to and one which I would like to understand better but feel as if my presence would be unwanted. Comments welcome :)
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