Batty, P. "Saluting the dot-spangled banner: Aboriginal Culture, National Identity and the Australian Republic." Artlink Vol 17. No 3. 1997.
In this article, Batty looks at the TV spot of the closing ceremony of the Atlanta games, and how the Australian nation was represented, seeing the section of the ceremony as an odd mixture of a progressive modern state, as well as elements trying to look post modern. in choosing to represent Australia with Aboriginal culture associates Australia with signs of the premordial and natural.
He looks at national identity and culture as being produced in relation to its 'others', and looks back to white Australia constructing itself in terms of its 'others' Aborigines, being one of these, and looks to Freud's works of Totem and Taboo and his speculations about the primitive 'backward' Australian aborigines. He wonders how Australian culture has become so transformed for Aboriginal culture to now be representing on a global stage what is essentially Australian, and notes recent uses by QANTAS and Australia Post of Aboriginal Art as uniquely Australian iconography. He states that "the issue here is that Australia's desire to know itself through Aboriginal culture produces...a whole range of othe socio-cultural, political and economic articulations." He sees through events such as the Mabo decision, Australia seeking a sense of identity through reinventing Aboriginal culture, as a site of national redemption. He sees these complex intersections and worries of white Australia as becoming increasingly evident in moves toward a republic, and cutting ties to the mother country.
Keywords: aboriginal art, aboriginal culture, atlanta 1996 olympics, Freud, jen-bibliography, national identity, sydney 2000
