Diverse society seeks to define Australia’s values

By Seamus Carr

Seamus Carr

MELBOURNE, Australia –Since Prime Minister John Howard’s government first introduced the Citizenship Test in 2007, politicians have been bandying around words to describe what they believe are ‘Australian values’. Trying to define what Australian values are in a way that is meaningful to our diverse society, and is not just about political point scoring, is actually quite difficult.

According to the Department of Home Affairs, Australian values include respect for freedom and dignity of the individual, freedom of religion, parliamentary democracy, equality of men and women, tolerance, and most importantly, opportunity for individuals, regardless of their race, religion or ethnic backgrounds, with English being the national language. I certainly agree with all these values, as I think do the vast majority of Australians, whether theyvare indigenous, native born descendants of migrants, or migrants in their own lifetime.

Yet there are more to Australian values than those listed above. Being Australian is about freedom of choice. What you value the most about Australia is entirely up to you. It may be the ability to go watch your footy team on the weekend (and blame the umpires for their poor performance without repercussions), or to get a sausage after voting in an election to celebrate your suffrage, or the fact that you can take an occasional ‘sickie’ from work, even if you’re not all that sick.

I recently started my own non-for-profit organisation called Colouring Clouds. Our mission is to help young people achieve optimal mental health. We currently do a lot of work in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and so come into contact with many young people from families who have left war-torn countries to seek refuge in Australia. We often talk about what they value most about this great country. Nearly every time, they mention the ability to be safe and free to be who they are, without constantly fearing persecution due to their race, religion, ethnicity or creed.

I myself am a third generation Australian, and proud of it. I love the freedom, the diversity and the incredible beaches we have here. I am so grateful for this country, because like many other people, Australia provided a safe haven for my family after they had been violently rejected from their original homeland (I mean violently quite literally).

My grandfather, Gerhard, was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1934, on the cusp of World War Two. In 1936, my grandfather and his parents fled from Germany to Czechoslovakia to escape Nazi persecution; however, as was the fate of many Jewish families, they were intercepted and sent to Theresienstadt, a Nazi concentration camp. In 1945, out of 15,000 children who had been incarcerated in Theresienstadt, only 150 had survived. My grandfather was one of them. Having lost many of their family and friends during the Holocaust, and stripped of their German citizenship, my grandfather and family applied for two visas; one to Australia and one to Brazil. Fortunately, the Australian visa arrived a week earlier.

From the moment he arrived, my grandfather immersed himself in Australian culture. The first phrase he learnt in English was ‘Carn the Cats’ (Australian for ‘Come on Geelong’—his newly adopted Aussie Rules football team). He changed his named to Garry. He married, had children and settled into a thoroughly Melbourne life. His Jewish beliefs and culture remained a vital part of his and his family’s life, but I can’t recall a time growing up when we spoke much about our German roots. We were always Australian, and proud of it. We watched the footy, cricket and followed Australian politics closely, but there had never been much discussion about being German. I had always been confused about where my grandfather was from and sometimes wondered what we were before we were Australian.

Going to school and playing soccer in the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne, I heard a range of enthusiastic stories from my peers about their non-Australian origins. I would often be told about the incredible traditional food cooked at Nonno and Nonna’s house, or at Yia Yia and Papou’s house. It almost made me sentimental about their former countries that I had never seen. Don’t get me wrong, my grandparent’s house had incredible food as well (my grandmother’s chicken soup is to die for), but there was no nostalgic talk about ‘the old country’ in our extended family. My grandparents were never Oma and Opa; they were always Nanny and Pa, which suggested to me that we were Australian and nothing else.

As I grew up, I began to ask more questions about our origins. When I was eleven years old, we went on a family trip to Germany, and that suddenly made me even more curious to learn more about our German culture and identity. I started to truly understand the magnitude of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, and how such horror must never be allowed to happen to anyone again.

I love Germany, and plan to visit several times more throughout my life, but first and foremost, I remain a proud Australian. A few years ago, my grandfather finally applied to have his German citizenship reinstated, and that allowed my sister and I to also gain dual citizenship. But we will always be Australians first. This is the country that gave my family a second chance. In Australia we have not been persecuted for practicing our faith. Australia has provided my family with opportunities to contribute to the democratic process, which if you look back through history, is not something Jewish people have had many opportunities for. We have been able to make independent choices, be included in the community, and most importantly be safe from violent exclusion.

That is what we value so much about Australia. We all have our own story. Those of us who are migrants and descendants of migrants (the vast majority of Australians) have come to this country for a better opportunity and the freedom to be who we are, that is, a unique mix of different cultural and ethnic identities. What makes Australia so great is its inclusive nature and its ability to enable freedom of choice to be who we are and contribute to the country in the best way we possibly can. Sure, Australia is not perfect; there is racism, discrimination, and hatred, as in every large group of human beings, but in times of crisis, we can also be compassionate, united and egalitarian. What true Australian values are will always be debated, and so they should be. Australia is a country built on diversity, and long may that continue.

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Carr, currently in his final year of his Masters of Public Policy and Management at the University of Melbourne,  has interned with local Members of Parliament, and the Rail, Tram, and Bus Union, before being employed at Darebin City Council. Carr is the vice-president and co-founder of the non-for-profit charity Colouring Clouds, which was established in 2017.  This article was first published in issue 51 of the Mosaic magazine by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia. http://fecca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/FECCA-mosaic-ISSUE-51_WEB.pdf

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