26th Jan 12

I felt so proud to be Australian watching Geoffrey Rush’s acceptance speech as Australian of the Year. What a great choice he is for this role, intelligent, creative, humorous and articulate. In just a few words he portrayed a delightful, inclusive picture of the way the arts reflect and express Australian identity:

“ I know that hardwired into every Australian from every background we love acting the goat, taking the mickey, cracking a joke, spinning a yarn and we live on an island that boasts the oldest nation on earth. There is an inspiration right there where performance rituals are at the heart of its being, our dreaming.”

Oh for a Head of State who could express our identity with the insight and passion which can only well up from within someone who is part of this great nation. Geoffrey Rush for President!

Why not? If the United States could choose Ronald Reagan….

…. but we won’t and we can’t. For despite all the enthusiastic, flag-draped expressions of our Australian identity that will be displayed today, deep down we exhibit deep attachments to both the ancient and modern forces which have acted to colonise us.

Last year many Australians avidly consumed the celebrity obsessed displays by our media over the marriage of William and Kate and their subsequent visit to Australia, followed by their obsequious coverage of the Queen’s visit. Much of the Australian psyche is still emotionally colonised by the English monarchy. We are colonised symbolically as demonstrated by the award of the ridiculously quaint and idiosyncratic British Crown’s Order of merit to former Prime Minister John Howard. On top of that comes the revelation that we, Australian taxpayers, pay for the gifts that Her Majesty presents to our own political and civic leaders!

If that were not sufficient, we are happily colonised culturally, politically and militarily by the USA, consuming and mimicking its entertainment products, following the progress of its domestic political campaigns and economic struggles as if they were our own and devotedly joining its every ill conceived military venture.

At least we are trying to break the economic colonisation of Wall Street and the city of London. We are working as hard as we can to be colonised economically by Beijing.

“Australians all let us rejoice”, and so we should. A nation that can produce people of the quality of Geoffrey Rush, Laurie Baymarrwangga and Marita Cheng has so much to celebrate.

“for we are young…” Yes, as a nation, Australia, while containing the oldest nation on earth, is still relatively young. At our best we exhibit the hope, creativity, aspiration and optimism of youth.

"...and free". No, sorry, we still have a way to go before we can truly stake this claim.

Brian L Smith

Executive Officer

The views expressed in Life with Brian are personal views and do not necessarily represent an official position of LCSA on the topic under discussion.