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Development of Australian Culture

A Luritja man demonstrating method of attack with boomerang under cover of shield (1920)

The oldest surviving cultural traditions in Australia—and some of the oldest surviving cultural traditions on earth—are those of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Their ancestors inhabited Australia between 40,000 and 60,000years ago, living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In 2006, the Indigenous population was estimated at 517,000 people, or 2.5 per cent of the total population. Most Aboriginal Australians have a belief system based on the Dreaming, or Dreamtime, which refers both to the time when ancestral spirits created land and culture, and to the knowledge and practices that define individual and community responsibilities and identity. Conflict and reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous Australians has been a source of much art and literature in Australia, and ancient Aboriginal artistic styles and iconic inventions such as the boomerang, the didgeridoo and Indigenous Australian music have become symbols of modern Australia.

 

Governor Arthur Phillip hoists the British flag over the new colony at Sydney in 1788

The arrival of the first British settlers at what is now Sydney in 1788 introduced Western civilization to the Australian continent. Although Sydney was initially used by the British as a place of banishment for prisoners, the arrival of the British laid the foundations for Australia's democratic institutions and rule of law, and introduced the long traditions of English literature, Western art and music, and Judeo-Christian ethics and religious outlook to a new continent.

The British Empire expanded across the whole continent and established six colonies. The colonies were originally penal colonies, with the exception of South Australia, which was established as a "free colony" with no convicts and a vision for a territory with political and religious freedoms, together with opportunities for wealth through business and pastoral investments.

Contact between the indigenous Australians and the new settlers ranged from cordiality to violent conflict, but the diseases brought by Europeans were devastating to Aboriginal population and culture. According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey, during the colonial period: "Smallpox, measles, influenza and other new diseases swept from one Aboriginal camp to another ... The main conqueror of Aborigines was to be disease and its ally, demoralization."

William Wentworth established Australia's first political party in 1835 to demand democratic government for New South Wales. From the 1850s, the colonies set about writing constitutions which produced democratically advanced parliaments as Constitutional Monarchies with Queen Victoria as the head of state.

South Australian suffragette Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910).

Women's suffrage in Australia was achieved in the 1890s. Women became eligible to vote in South Australia in 1895. This was the first legislation in the world permitting women to stand for political office and, in 1897, Catherine Helen Spence became the first female political candidate. Though constantly evolving, the key foundations for elected parliamentary government have maintained an historical continuity in Australia from the 1850s into the 21st century.



During the colonial era, distinctive forms of Australian art, music, language and literature developed through movements like the Heidelberg school of painters and the work of bush balladeers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, whose poetry and prose did much to promote an egalitarian Australian outlook which placed a high value on the concept of mateship. Games like cricket and rugby were imported from Britain at this time and with a local variant of football, Australian Rules Football, became treasured cultural traditions.

The Commonwealth of Australia was founded in 1901, after a series of referenda conducted in the British colonies of Australasia. The Australian Constitution established a federal democracy and enshrined human rights such as sections 41 (right to vote), 80 (right to trial by jury) and 116 (freedom of religion) as foundational principles of Australian law and included economic rights such as restricting the government to acquiring property only "on just terms". The Australian Labor Party was established in the 1890s and the Liberal Party of Australia in 1944, both rising to be the dominant political parties and rivals of Australian politics, though various other parties have been and remain influential. Voting is compulsory in Australia and government is essentially formed by a group commanding a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives selecting a leader who becomes Prime Minister. Australia remains a constitutional monarchy in which the largely ceremonial and procedural duties of the monarch are performed by a Governor General selected by the Australian government.

Australia fought at Britain's side from the outset of World War One and World War Two and came under attack from the Empire of Japan during the latter conflict. These wars profoundly affected Australia's sense of nationhood and a proud military legend developed around the spirit of Australia's ANZAC troops, who came to symbolize the virtues of mateship, courage and endurance for the nation.

The Australian colonies had a period of extensive multi-ethnic immigration during the Australian gold rushes of the latter half of the 19th century, but following Federation in 1901, the Parliament instigated the White Australia Policy that gave preference to British migrants and ensured that Australia remained a predominantly Anglo-Celtic society until well into the 20th Century. The post-World War II immigration program saw the policy dismantled by successive governments, permitting large numbers of Southern European, and later Asian and Middle Eastern migrants to arrive. The Menzies Government (1949-1966) and Holt Government dismantled the legal barriers to multi-ethnic immigration and by the 1970s, the Whitlam and Fraser Governments were promoting multiculturalism. Some States and Territories of Australia retained discriminatory laws relating to voting rights for the Aborigines into the 1960s, at which point full legal equality was established. A 1967 referendum to include all the Aborigines in the national electoral roll census was overwhelmingly approved by voters. In 1984, a group of the Pintupi people who were living a traditional hunter-gatherer desert-dwelling life were tracked down in the Gibson Desert and brought into a settlement. They are believed to have been the last uncontacted tribe.

While the British cultural influence remained strong in the 21st century, other influences became increasingly important. The Hawaiian sport of surfing was adopted in Australia where a beach culture and the locally developed surf lifesaving movement were already burgeoning in the early 20th century.

American pop culture and cinema were embraced in the 20th century, with country music and later rock and roll sweeping Australia, aided by the new technology of television and a host of American content. The 1956 Melbourne Olympics announced a confident, prosperous post-war nation, and new cultural icons like Australian country music star Slim Dusty and dadaist Barry Humphries expressed a unique Australian identity.

Australia's contemporary immigration program has two components: a program for skilled and family migrants and a humanitarian program for refugees and asylum seekers. By 2010, the post-war immigration program had received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent. The population tripled in the six decades to around 21 million in 2010, including people originating from 200 countries. More than 43 per cent of the Australians were either born overseas or have one parent who was born overseas. The population is highly urbanized, with more than 75% of Australians living in urban centres, largely along the coast. Contemporary Australia is a pluralistic society, rooted in liberal democratic traditions and espousing informality and egalitarianism as key societal values. While strongly influenced by Anglo-Celtic origins, the culture of Australia has also been shaped by multi-ethnic migration which has influenced all aspects of Australian life, including business, the arts, cuisine, sense of humour and sporting tastes.

 

Literature

Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) is the best-known Australian convict novel, and a seminal work in the Tasmanian Gothic genre. First published in serial form in 1882, Rolf Boldrewood's Robbery Under Arms is a classic of the bushranger genre.

Henry Lawson is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest writers of short stories, while Banjo Paterson's poems "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889) and "The Man From Snowy River" (1890) remain amongst the most popular Australian bush poems. At one point, Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to The Bulletin magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in the bush. Lawson said Paterson was a romantic and Paterson said Lawson was full of doom and gloom. C. J. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular with such works as The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, while Mackellar wrote the iconic patriotic poem "My Country" which rejected prevailing fondness for England's "green and shaded lanes" and declared: "I love a sunburnt country". Significant political poets of the 20th century included Dame Mary Gilmore and Judith Wright. Among the best known contemporary poets are Les Murray and Bruce Dawe.

The legacy of Miles Franklin, renowned for her 1901 novel My Brilliant Career, is the Miles Franklin Award, which is "presented each year to a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases".

Patrick White, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature

Patrick White won the inaugural award for Voss in 1957; he went on to win the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other acclaimed Australian authors include Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally, Colleen McCullough, Nevil Shute, Tim Winton, Ruth Park and Morris West. Notable expatriate authors include the feminist Germaine Greer and humorist Clive James.

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay is a classical Australian children's story. In terms of children's literature, Norman Lindsay (The Magic Pudding) and May Gibbs (Snugglepot and Cuddlepie) are among the Australian classics. The world's biggest prize in children's literature was received by Australian Shaun Tan, who won the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

David Unaipon is known as the first indigenous author. Oodgeroo Noonuccal was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse. A significant contemporary account of the experiences of Indigenous Australia can be found in Sally Morgan's My Place. Contemporary academics and activists including Marcia Langton and Noel Pearson are prominent essayists and authors on Aboriginal issues.

Charles Bean (The Story of Anzac: From the Outbreak of War to the End of the First Phase of the Gallipoli Campaign 4 May 1915, 1921) Geoffrey Blainey (The Tyranny of Distance, 1966), Robert Hughes (The Fatal Shore, 1987), Manning Clark (A History of Australia, 1962–87), and Marcia Langton (First Australians, 2008) are the authors of important Australian histories.

 

Folklore

A commemorative statue of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a famous stretcher bearer who was killed in the Gallipoli Campaign.

Australian stories and legends have a cultural significance independent of their empirical truth or falsehood. This can be seen in the national obsession with the almost mythological portrayal of bushranger Ned Kelly as a mixture of the underdog and Robin Hood.

Militarily, Australians have served in numerous overseas wars, ranging from World War I to recent regional security missions, such as East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. Australian war culture generally consists of sombre reflection and commemoration, focussing on noble sacrifice rather than glory. An annual national holiday, Anzac Day, exists for this purpose. The Australian experience of defeat in the Gallipoli Campaign, the first iconic moment in modern Australia's involvement in war, is viewed by the Australians with both pride for the fighting of the soldiers, and bitterness for the perceived negligence on the part of British commanders. The incidences of bravery and determination displayed during the campaign for Gallipoli, as well as the mutual respect for their Turkish adversaries led by Kemal Atatürk, are seen as part of the ANZAC spirit. During the First World War, Australian soldiers were considered to be remarkably determined, united and hard-working. Many Australians knew how to ride and shoot prior to enlistment, making them talented recruits, but they were also infamous for their lax attitude towards formal parade ground discipline, a notoriety that the Australian soldiers revelled in. From this the notion of the larrikin Digger emerged, an important part of contemporary Australian identity.

 

Music

Indigenous music

Didgeridoo performers

Music is an integral part of Aboriginal culture. The most famous feature of their music is the didgeridoo. This wooden instrument, used amongst the Aboriginal tribes of northern Australia, makes a distinctive droning sound and it has been adopted by a wide variety of non-Aboriginal performers.

Aboriginal musicians have turned their hand to Western popular musical forms, often to considerable commercial success. Pioneers include Lionel Rose and Jimmy Little, while notable contemporary examples include Archie Roach, Kev Carmody, the Warumpi Band, Troy Cassar-Daley and Yothu Yindi. Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (formerly of Yothu Yindi) attained international success singing contemporary music in English and in the language of the Yolngu. Christine Anu is a successful Torres Strait Islander singer. Amongst young Australian aborigines, African-American and Aboriginal hip hop music and clothing is popular.

The Deadly Awards are an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community.


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1045


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