This year for Australia day I had a long hard think about what we are as Australians and the ways we celebrate it, I love Australia, I'm a Australian Dual-Citizen, On my Mother's side I'm a 7th Generation Aussie, on my Fathers side I'm part Canadian, but in this blog I'd like to raise a few questions? Is wearing a flag like a cape "patriotic"? Does our flag really reflect our history? This is going to be a controversial blog.
I was indeed glad to hear that the crowds around the nation were mostly well behaved but there are still some things that I couldn't forget about it.
The Flag-Cape
I will not lie, I despise anyone that wears the Australian flag like a cape for many reasons,
- Those Cronulla Rioter dickheads whom pretty much symbolized the cape as a bogan racist, I can't help but think of them whenever I see someone with a cape-flag
- It's against the flag code of conduct for the flag to be worn as a piece of clothing (however I have no problem with clothes that have the Aussie flag printed on them)
- It's rather degrading to the flag to get it covered in sweat, body odder, and whatever types of beer you might accidentally spill on it
- The only time a flag is to cover a human being is at their funeral, mostly for those who have served this country, be it on a coffin or an open casket.
If these people really wanted to respect the Australian flag, they would fly it high and upright either on a pole or framed on a wall, and not as a piece of cloth claiming its "Patriotic" because a patriotic Australian would know the code of conduct for the Australian flag and how to respect it.
So imagine my shock today when my little sister came home from the beach wearing the flag as a cape, she claimed it was Patriotic and that everyone was doing it. It also turns out that they were even selling flags and cape ties at the beach in stalls today. Apparently some people think that because some people are doing it everyone should have to do it to show how "patriotic" they are.
Our National Colours
We as Australians seem to have an identity crisis when it comes to our national colours, we carry a flag that is Red, Blue and White, yet we dress up in Green and Gold. The Green and Gold were proclaimed as our national colours in 1984 and started to see heavy adoption to mark things as Australian following the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Now this is strange, the colours we mark ourselves with are all 4 traditional colours (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow [In this case Gold]) yet we only use 2 colours to make ourselves Australian. It's our Flag's colours VS our National Colours, don't you think they should be the same? I do.
The Flag Itself, and "history"
"History is written by the victor, history is filled with liars" - My favourite quote from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Those of us who follow the news may be no stranger to the recent calls by Ray Martin to have the flag changed, and when news broke out I took a look at most of the comments of why people didn't want the flag changed because of it's historical value. But then I actually thought about it, is it THE history that happened OR the history we WANT to see it as?
Lets look at the facts, first the obvious. British rule started in Australia some 200 years ago, but Aboriginal history has lasted well beyond the days of A.D. and yet Aboriginal history is pretty much omitted from our flag, in favour of at that time values of the British Empire.
What you see above is the Union flag that was planted in Australian soil that marked it as part of the British Empire. Obviously it's different to the Union Jack that is on our flag today because it lacks the St. Patrick's Cross which symbolized Ireland's joining into the United Kingdom in 1801, however most of Ireland is now its own free state with only Northern Ireland part of the U.K. and furthermore Ireland has nothing to do with Australia's heritage.
The point I'm trying to make here is that many people think the current Union Jack just represents Great Britain (Which is England and Scotland) and yet they fail to realize that it actually represents 4 countries, (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) Which make up the United Kingdom. And yet were colonized by Great Britain, so why do we have the United Kingdom Union Jack? Is it because it’s the up to date version? And that we also had to include a nation that has nothing to do with us?
The Australian Flag we know today was designed in 1901 as part of a competition to be Australia's Flag, one of the main criteria points for the judging panel was that the flag must contain the Union Jack as we were still seen as part of the British Empire. Though it was chosen and adopted in 1901 it would not be officially recognized as Australia's official flag for another 53 years. In fact during that time it was required that the British Flag be flown along side the Australian Flag,
The Diggers respect claim
Ok now we're getting somewhere with this, One of the main claims as to why we should keep the flag is that our veterans in both World Wars fought and died for the flag, It should be worth noting that these people need to go back and learn their history.
As the flag was still not officially recognized as officially Australia's national flag the diggers of World War 1 and World War 2 fought under the British Union Jack, not our current flag, that flag would not be officially recognized until 1954, 9 years after WWII ended.
Regardless our soldiers didn't fight to protect our flag, mainly because it wasn't official yet and they didn't fight for the flag, they fought to protect our country, our values, our democracy, our rights, our land, and most importantly our people. Many nations have changed their flags,
Canada is a prime example of a country with a changed flag, before 1964 they flew this flag.
And yet now today they fly this flag and have never looked back ever since.
Finally speaking WWII was the last great conflict that determined the fate of Australia, all other conflicts later following that troops were sent to like the Vietnam War was a war we should never have gotten involved with in the first place, and the same goes with both Iraq wars.
The campaign to change
There is one thing our flag doesn't represent: Multiculturalism, this may have to do with the fact that the flag was selected and made official during the time of the Controversial and racist 'White Australia Policy'. A policy that restricted immigration to Australia to only whites, mainly from Europe.
But according to the 2001 Census only 37% of Australians listed their heritage as English. And 2.2% listed themselves as Aboriginal and since this census is 9 years old its more than likely that this percentage would have dropped considering the rise in Immigration. Thus only 39% of the country was of Australian decent, less than half of the population. Which means we have a flag that shows history in which the Majority of Australian citizens do not reflect on, or have nothing to do with the British, therefore our flag should reflect on our true history, not the history of the group which have the most numbers.
So what should the flag be changed to? Well that's the million dollar question isn't it, there have been thousands of designs that have been presented and rejected, In fact Ausflag, a foundation supporting a flag change has held 2 competitions one in 1991 and another in 1998 and their hasn't been one ever since, and this is a problem because there hasn't been a campaign since the 2000 Olympics when popularity with Green and Gold started to skyrocket. So we can't really vote on a flag that won a competition in 1998, mainly because it doesn't show G&G or Aboriginal history.
And this push was made tougher when in 1998 Prime Minister John Howard signed an act stating that the only way the Australian flag could be changed was in a referendum, and the closest we had to a referendum was the 1999 Republic referendum in which a President would replace the Queen and Governor-General. Which would have seen a complete change with the Australian constitution including a need to change the flag.
It failed to pass
Personally I think the main reason it failed was because the People would have lost the ability to vote for their leader. The President would have been chosen by the Commonwealth Parliament instead, had they gone to a public vote for a president instead I'm more than sure the referendum would have passed. After all it was a 9% difference.
As far as an ideal choice I don't know about a final choice but in terms of a direction in design I rather like this design
Is striking it's beautiful, it keeps the southern cross, and has the Green and Gold, I especially love how the Federation star has been made in an Aboriginal Art style to reflect history.
But it can't be the flag? Yet.
Why? Because the Kangaroo that’s currently being used is the same Kangaroo from the QANTAS pre-2007 logo
Ok so the Kangaroo needs to be changed, but I do think its a step in the right direction, And I would like to see a Kangaroo in the flag since it is internationally recognized as the most popular Australian Animal. It was designed by a user on Youtube named DGaiden.
However should the flag ever be changed one thing needs to happen first: AusFlag needs to host a new competition for the Australian flag, where people can make a vote online to the one they like. A lot has happened since 1998, and the only way a referendum is going to happen is if there is a new flag(s) to choose from that many people like.
I for one would like to hear what you have to say, especially by those who don't want to change the flag, before you comment I'd like to ask you this? Were you aware of the flag's history before you read this?
2 comments:
I agree that the current flag is not inclusive of all Australians, it only has reference to a minority group, and that is those with a British background. I would be careful of saying that Ireland has nothing to do with the formation of Australia. Most of the Convicts were from Ireland, and the pivotal reason for dumping convicts was 2 pronged: get rid of "undesirables" and get rid of Irish rebels. The ring leaders were hanged in the battle for independence, but the followers were transported to get them out of the way. The charges were either trumped up, or bogus. In my case, the charge of my convict ancestor was bogas as the alleged stolen watch was found under the "Lord's" chair after he was transported, so it was too late to set him free. He was innocent. British justice was known to be barbaric and an oxymoron. It wasn't justice it was political strategy and Empire building. My descended, William, was an English German Quaker. The convict side finds the Empire significance offensive. Aboriginal people find it offensive. So we don't have an inclusive flag that represents the holistic story of Australia. People are accustomed to the current one. The last soldier of Galipolli is dead. The diggers hang to the flag and I understand that.
With the flag you present, I'm not sure about the separate colour under the Kangaroo's bum, and that thing that looks like an arsehole under its bum. People will pick up on that, we don't want a hot arsed kangaroo up there. But that's just a matter of tweaking. The top left of the flag is the ensign, which indicates sovereignty. We are sovereign to ourselves since the Australia act of 1986 so there goes the spider. Some like the Federation star, but that leaves out the possibility of abolishing the States. Many don't want states as they are inefficient. I posit to leave that out... Anyway, I generally like your choice of flag, I was just saying what people might notice. Good call. People really need to get thinking of helping this country be more inclusive and less racist, including the flag, and the use of "Australia Day". The ghost of the White Australia Policy is heard far too loudly, we have to move on to bigger and better things. Then there is our racist national anthem. Fair means colour of our skin. The Aboriginals are offended by the current national anthem. There is also a move to bring back Waltzing Matilda as our real national anthem. The Aboriginal people tend to like that better, or so I've heard anyway...
Blessing FLETCHER
check out flagoz.com for the most popular new flag design in australia.
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