Australian has an interesting and tumultuous history. Almost from the beginning of settlement and colonialization, there have been conflicts and issues between classes and immigrant groups. These issues, along with the ongoing control and influence from Great Britain, have resulted in a confused identity for Australians.
In his documentary, The Great Australian Race Riot, Peter Fitzsimons describes some of the earlier riots and conflicts of Australian history (2015). What is really surprising is that the first race riots involved Protestants from Britain against Catholics from Ireland. While most of the world would consider these two groups one race, they, at least at the time, did not. They each considered that their “race” was superior to the other, based on their histories and their religions. The biggest dispute at the time seemed to be over who had the right to rule over the land.
The next big riots covered by Fitzsimons did concern race. These riots pitted the white Australian miners against the Chinese miners who were flooding the country in search of gold. While the government welcomed the Chinese as part of the multi-cultural nature of the nation, the Australian miners saw them as a threat to their livelihood and took their frustrations out with weapons. This eventually led to limits on Chinese immigrants and put the concept of a multi-cultural identity to question.
Australians struggled to find a national identity and continued to embrace the white-on-white bigotry well into the middle of the twentieth century . Considering the fact that the Australian citizenship did not exist until 1948, it is no wonder that the nation has had an identity crisis. At this point, they were still struggling with trying to separate themselves from the British identity.
If we consider the responses to immigration and refugees during this century, it is clear that the Australian identity and community is not multi-cultural. The main identity of Australians clearly seems to be as a white superior community.
References
Convict Creations, 2016. Convictcreations.com. [Online] Available at: http://www.convictcreations.com/research/identity.htm[Accessed 19 March 2016].
The Great Australian Race Riot: New Mob on the Block, Episode 1. 2015. [Film] Directed by Sally Aitken. Australia: s.n.
