In “Defining Australia” Walter firstly looks to what people say about Australian in times when they are forced to think explicitly about it, an example being Australia Day – what type of ceremony can represent all Australians, creating boundary distinctions of what is Australian and what is not Australian. He looks at the differences in Aboriginal, White and Multicultural senses of Australia – and the need for a unified meaning for Australia day being problematized by it meaning different things to different people.
He examines the historical context of the emergence of nations, and the relations that this has to the Australian sens of nation in terms of timing, before moving to look at Bennedict Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’, as a turning point defined by its ‘imagined’ status of other citizens. He looks at this in the context of the ‘Australian legend’, and what is considered an essentially Australian character –the nomadic bush man – accessible to people through newspapers and literature, as a distinctive ethos, one of their own, different to those of other nations, however not without its associated problems of exclusion of major sections of the population.
He then turns to Humphrey McQueen, who sees Australian culture as problematic in its passivity to British and American influences, due to its lack of divisions and boundaries – we speak the same language, therefore their cultue easily transcends our nation, preventing us from creating out own. He also sees Australian’s problems as being resolved in practice, and therefore no need for a theoretical enquiry into why - therefore our tendency for little-by-little social tinkering, rather than reforms. HE concludes with the notion of no ‘true’ or ‘right’ notion of what is Australian, and its changing notions as a result all commentators are a product and participant of their own time and culture, and therefore unable to separate themselves from it.
Keywords: defining australia, jen-bibliography, McQueen, national identity, passivity, Waler
