[Reader-list] Time to Excoriate the Lucky Country Myth: An Ode to a Lost Bosom

[gowhar fazli]

My school friend is milling these out and i m excited!
he will be joining sarai readerlist soon.

Time to Excoriate the Lucky Country Myth: An Ode to a
Lost Bosom
 
The public commentary on Australia's explicit apology
to its Aborigines-an interesting admixture of
exuberance , mania and dollops of sobriety-perhaps
warrants a revisit of the lucky country myth:one that
has offered a beguilingly facile interprtetation of
Australia's evolution into a self assured
nationhood.These reactions - perhaps natural and
inevitable for nations which reach plenitude-have
brought into focus the varying perspecives that the
denizens of contemporary Australia hold of their
collective self.All in all a salutary and sanguine
condition which nonetheless carries some cautionary
overtones too.Cautionary because of the redactive
nature of the commentary that plays down some very
signifiant aspects of Australian history and ,of
course ,in the process playing up of the miseries that
visited Australias wounded civilization, its
Aborigines.The media commentary in some senses is
ahistorical and redective though.And the sociological
and anthropological insights it offers into the nature
of the Aboriginal condition do not appear to be very
germane.One can excuse the reductivesness on account
of being written as columns.The larger point(s),
however, that this enthusing commentary and reaction
raises go right to heart of contemprorary Australia: a
nation that has attained plenitude and is on the cusp
of a higher destiny and pedestal.One which defies the
crude caricature and stereotype of it being a 'lucky
country' and one which offers a testimony to the
genius of its people(s).Now these sets of assertions
need to be put into a perspective by setting forth a
very brief overview of Australian history.This detour
may enable us to gain a better handle on the true
nature of Australian historys' victims ,survivors and
pioneers and in the process, hopefully , chart or
point to the future that awaits it.
 
First ,a a note on the nature of the self exculpatory
apology or the intense emphasis on it.A word of
caution is called for here:exuberant or manic urges
towards , for want of a better word, self loathing and
holding the collective unconscious of a generation
culpable in 'crimes' committed by either default or
design by preceding generation is a tad rich.That is
to say, it is unhealthy.Simply.The self acclaimed
diagnosticians of the Australian condition should deem
not it to be the balm that creates healthy amnesia.I
have in mind here the stigma and embarassment that
many Australians carry as part of their unfortunate
legacy.It, counterintuitively may create self loathing
individual or personalities.It may not be as crude as
the Ned Kelly or the Bush Ranger iconography but
nonetheless is not a healthy antidote.Now let us
return to the overview of Australia's history and the
apology.The rubric under which it(apology) has been
offered is too broad and reductive:it implicates , I
repeat generations of , for wanr of a better word
settlers who , partly on account of the wretched and
abominable conditions, they found themselves in and
partly out of fear of the unknown and the 'strange'
may have rendered the existence of a peoples difficult
and untenable.Lest I be misunderstood here, this
assertion is by no means intended to exonerate.Neither
is it not meant to demean or discount the sufferings
of a culture or peoples who continue to bear the brunt
of the past or history.The larger point is to accord
credit where it is due and apportion blame where
needed or required in due measure
 
Australia's history and success in forging a polity
that could be righlty called the envy of the world
testifies to its hard and well earned nationhood. Its
existence as nation and state or state nation is , as
perhaps we all know is owed to the very harsh
dialectic that defined the conditions of its
'transported' peoples-the , if one may borrow an
expression and invert it , the Wretched of the
Earth.That is, peoples who , initially ,on account of
their social and economic position in a class riven
society, and, later 'political crimes' were pushed
onto a territory that could best be described ,
crudely, as a 'hell hole'.Dante's inferno , in fact
,may be more apposite and germane here.The journey to
this inferno was no by no means a first class one.One
need not go into vivid detail here.Now rendering a
penal colony , though a painful and involuted process,
into an entity that could be called a nation at a
later point in time can be nothing but a tribute to
these experimented upon 'refuse' of class riven and
snotty pre colonial Britain.The aim here is not to
whitewash crimes or attrocities but to put, briefly
,the historical journey or trajectory of Australia
into a sober perspective. These entrepreneurs -doughty
and fiesty- forged a country out of nothing amid the
most difficult circumstances and conditions , to
repeat myself here.So much so that one is strained to
find parallels(if any) in the modern epoch of such an
exercize in nation building.Australia, for instance,
does not appear to have had either the advantage of a
sophisticated elite that could will a nation into
being or 'imagine ' it.Or enjoy a geopolitical vantage
point or interest ,which played such a crucial role in
the forging of most other nations .Neither was it the
crucible or arena where overhwhelming religious energy
(and zeal)of warring Christian sects or denominations
denoued or panned out and by default led to an entity
that could claim nationhood.It(Australia) thus is what
it is : a nation forged out of a penal colony through
a dialectic and painful process of trial and error.The
brief nature of this essay does not lend itself to
laying out examples or instances of these processes.
 
One may in the interests of brevity posit that the
theme that emerges out of this Australian odyssey is
that of forging a habitable milieu over a period of
time, which in turn morphed into into a nation or
state or state and nation depending on ones point of
view of the penal colony.And that serendipity had no
room in project Australia.An ancillary but more
remaarkable theme that may be called Australianness
that emerges from Australia's history is an innate
ability-with spasms of periodic angst and vituperation
against the'outsider and the strange and the exotic
'-to constanty redefine and reinvent itself: a gift
that very few nations or societies are blessed with.
This process, to say the least, has been
painful.Innumerable victims were exacted in or through
this painful transition into a normal society and
polity.The tolls were both psychological and
physical-the ones who survived were a scarred people
who could not escape easily the traumas that
transportaion and the subsequent travails entailed.And
what jarred with for the fruits of the penal colony
were the strigmas and taboos associated in their
Australianness-a stigmatizing terms pregnant with
taboo' s.The doughty Australians nonetheless
excoriated ,to an extent, these stigmas and went about
forging a polity and nation that accorded them a
history that, howsoever, scarred , and a destiny, they
could call their own.The continuation of this
remarkable and unusual journey towards self
determination and self discovery continues and is the
real genius of Australia and its peoples.The apology
to aboriginals is but a continuation on this theme at
one level and a panning out or the birth pangs of
Australias new collective self.
 
Now let us turn to the apology.Or more accurately the
commentary on the apology or the recieved
opinion.First, the sociological and anthropological
insights that this commentary offers into the nature
of the Aboriginal condition does not appear to be very
germane..The aboriginals have been referred to as
either custodians of the land that the 'settlers'
found or inhabtitants of the land and the transported
peoples as colonizers and settlers.The truth may lie
somewhat in the middle.That is to say, that this
rubric or umbrella of clubbing together aboriginals,
'settler's and or 'colonials' and the dichotomizing
them neatly may not hold.The blighted 'scum' and their
tormentors- the soldiers or and the sailors were never
a monolithic group.(Eminent and distinguished
historians hold that even the benighted conditions of
the place where they landed did not suffice to hold
them together as a group).Hence is rendered the
colonial theory or calculated or pre meditated
genocide theory rather spurious). Now let us examine
the claims put forth on behalf of the aborigines.The
claim that Aboriginals did refer to or deem themselves
as custodians of the land dos not lent itlsef to sober
examination.They are -with due respect to their
cultural legacy and rights-inherent wanderers.A
settled life is inimical to them-the unsalubrious
effects of exposure to western diet, for instance, may
be a good example of this.Their tribal mores and ways
of life render them if they can be classified as
tribes more or less a sub culture that may be happy or
content within a space accorded to them by the broader
society.Ths does not imply marginalization or
exclusion but rather an acceptance of a different way
or life.Call it cultural relativism if you.In fact,
this mey be better for thier wounded pride that the
alternative:tokenism and symbolism.Historically their
encounter with the 'white race' has been rife with
conflict and an inability to understand the premises
that undergird the broader host society rendering them
in the process ope to abuse and exploitation.Now this
condition may be obviated, if I venture into the
domain of offering suggestions and pointers by
offering these people a space-cultural and political-
of thier own-under the umbrella or rubric of the
broader polity and society.Then , of course, the onus
also or may largely fall on them to prove themselves a
rightful and prideful and dignified members of the
Australian firmament.The alternatives -paternalism and
symbolism -may render the apology either infructous(by
default) or in a trenchant counterdenouing pathos , a
parody.
 
Now this potential that I have identified may or may
not come to pass.It is contingent.It however carries
larger lessons or implications for Australia's polity
and society.First and foremost, and more broadly,in
terms of what it reflects ,the obvious:the flexibility
and self confidence of contemporary Australia.Second,
and perhaps more importanty the putative revision of
liberal theory adn pracice , which is premised ,
roughly speaking on individual rights with a focus on
the individual.It appears that given the nature of the
world we inhabit and the inability of political
systems in place on advanced democracies to protect or
deal with minortites have been found wanting.Hence a
review.More specifially, in terms of Australia, it
appears to be chosen , so to speak, to be at the
forefront of this new expermiment.This reading may or
may nor imply over analysis.However there does appear
to be merit to this.And barring some hiccups and
teething problems , the price of which may have been
hard for some individuals , Australia, to say at the
risk of understatement appears to be doing well.It is
a remarkable nation and state that has forged a
polity, society and economy that can onky be the envy
of the world.The evolving outlook of its deniizens
especially the younger people and those inhabiting its
metros is remarkable for its sophistication.(I am of
course dicounting or ignoring here the bigots and
ignorami.These people do not have a monopoly over
Australia:they are everyhwere).
 
The gelling together or convergence of all these
elements is what may be called Ausrtralia's soft
power.That is ,roughly speaking the power to attract
on account of values , polity and society.(Nothing
save or but Australia can squander its soft
power).This, by implication, is its security policy
both on the domestic as well as the international
front.However there exists an inherent
danger:Australia on account of , to use a cliched
term, 'entanglements abroad' which have domestic
implications in terms of ugly or recourse to a
Kafkaesque state posture may render its soft power a
tad rough on its edges.It is upto Australians and the
projection of their collective self through the
mediating tenor of their values and polity to ensure
security, prosperity and happiness for all
Australians.A corollary to this makes us us return to
the concluding theme of contemporary Australian
nationhood rendered poigant by or for which the
lightning rod has been the apology: first it suggests
that the work of nations is never complete.Renewal and
redefintion define or are the hallmarks of nations
that be.Last but not the least, it(apology) may be a
prelude to a wider ad broader schism or split from the
'mother'country.This may be the real and long lasting
message or the implicit , explicit as well as
comprehensive break from some imprisoning
paradigms.The land down under has evolved and charted
its own path.Now is the time to be a real nation and
state in its own right.A bold and beautiful destiny
awaits. 
 




Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.   
      
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. 

Peter Ustinov