Australia Day

It's quite interesting actually to discuss, what it means to be an Australian.... since Australia Day is looming in our heads.

Living in Australia all my life, it has been difficult to feel accepted in a country that is supposedly a giant melting pot of cultures. What I found growing up is actually a lot of division. People are readily able to point out another person's differences.

In some cultures it is offensive to ask someone "where are they from" for example. When you have lived in one place for a very long time, where else are they from?

This question, in cultural theory, would be deemed as 'otherness', pointing out the 'other, exotic, foreign or alien' as opposed to the supposed 'normality' that everyone else is about.

Australia Day is also the day that our indigenous Australians, the aborigines, had their homeland invaded and were subjegated into learning the customs of  'normal people', while having their land piliged, childrens displaced and friends killed.

When you come to realise, there is no such thing as normal, because everyone is different and that is what makes us all individuals and beautiful. Take consideration when you are asking a question to someone about themselves, respect them as an individual person with a story and a history and phrase your questions by properly utilising the English language to get to the specifics of what you want to say.

Racism and cultural ignorance is a daily battle for some people. Let us not contribute to their struggles.