1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL 1993 Contemporary Art and Cultural Identity, Session 2 Australia: Timothy Morrell The society we call Australia is a small colonial culture. When 1 use the name Australia I mean the European invention, not the various nations which were in existence here previously. The British settlement which dominates the country was added a little over two centuries ago to a complex group of indigenous societies which had developed over thousands of years. Although Australia is one of the most racially and culturally diverse nations on earth, to most"visitors' it"seems very English, or very Californian. But in'fact", as’well as*the indigenous peoples, "there are large'communities of people whose" origins"are’in’southern Europe (particularly Greece and Italy)j "from"Asia (particularly China and Indo­ china), Africa and South America, plus nearby countries in the Pacific. Our language and government, however, and most of our institutions still make us look like a British colony^ " ' r~“ * ' r... For most of Australia’s history’there has been" a’degree of embarrassment at being a colony, yet despite gradual political change we remain a" colony in terms of our culture - a British colony up until World War II and after that something more like an American colony. Ironically even'the terms' on’which* colonialism has been’protested have often been > the. borrowed from elsewhere. In 1960s when American influence was at its height and the Australian prime minister was urging us to go all the way with LBJ (this was~particulariy interesting advice if you consider what "going all the’way" meant to young couples at the time) those who didn't want to go all the way protested using chants, forms of political demonstration and even a code of dress which came from the same source as the imperialist domination they were protesting against - the U.S. (More recently we* have argued for cultural independence using terminology borrowed from French cultural theory.) The only conclusion I can reach is that deep down, we like being a colony.