I had a response to my Australia Day is Coming post by someone calling themselves “Proper Aussie”.

Now I respect everyone’s opinion (as long as it agrees with mine…no, not really, just kiddin’) and to my credit, I only used the word “fuck” once in MY response to THEIR response, but what they had to say didn’t bother me as much as what they had called themselves in the “name” field.

Proper. Aussie.

Is there really people out there who still see themselves as “real” Australians, as opposed to anyone that came before or after them? I’m guessing these people weren’t indigenous Australians (and a pretty good guess I am betting, from their comment), so what constitutes a “proper Aussie”?

I don’t want to go down the track of saying that only our indigenous community can call themselves “real” Aussies, as I believe that anyone who chooses our country as their home and embraces Australian Citizenship in all of its glory counts as a “real” Australian, but what drives this person’s thought that they are a “proper” aussie?

I mean, EVERYONE apart from our indigenous population “migrated” to this country somewhere down the track, and I don’t believe “X” number of generations makes any difference thereafter. NONE of these people can rightfully assert that they are “proper” Australians above anyone else.

Hell, don’t you LOVE that there’s so many cultures in our country? Just imagine where you’d be going out for dinner if we were only stuck with ex-patriot Poms to drive our dining experience! Spotted dick anyone?

To balance the view about “embracing” citizenship, we have also to remember that some people are here not by their own choice, having been robbed of their home country for whatever reason and having to leave it and go elsewhere as refugees.

Could you imagine having to do that? Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is something I try to do when trying to understand why people behave the way they do. Maybe some of these people don’t want to identify as Australian, as they are still holding on to the hope that they could return “home”, and therefore fight our culture and practices.

So people, I know you’re out there. I see the hit counter! Tell me, what are your thoughts on who a “proper Aussie” is!

No Tags