The Australian Identity

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Australia's citizens have no national identity and this freedom from a defined national identity allows each separate culture to live and develop according to its own principles. The paper examines how current values in society influence the education system, while education also has a profound effect upon the evolving world in which it functions. The paper traces the history of the ancient Aboriginal tribes, the British convicts and then the later settlers. The paper discusses how a class system developed, with the settlers believing they were a superior class and the convicts being concerned with equality and human rights. The paper illustrates how this class segregation manifested itself in the education system.

From the Paper:

"The first national Australian identity in prehistory manifested itself in the ancient Aboriginal tribes. Rather than a single identity, each tribe had its own identity that it guarded fiercely. The in-group identity was maintained at all costs (Swanson, 2000). This seems to have set the stage for the Australian idea that, even in modern times, there is no all-encompassing Australian identity.
"The first white citizens to make their home in Australia were British convicts. Their numbers were later supplemented with free British settlers, referred to as the Exclusives. The Convicts became Emancipists, implying their freedom from British rule, whereas the Exclusives were very pro-British (Swanson, 2000). The hostility between these two groups matched that between the various Aborigine tribes in the country."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Australian Education Union. (2006, September 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:54, September 21, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australian_Education_Union&oldid=75360857
• Constitutional history of Australia. (2006, September 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:53, September 21, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constitutional_history_of_Australia&oldid=73730599
• Swanson, Chad (2000, March). The Australian Identity. http://www.convictcreations.com/research/identity.htm

More papers on The Australian Identity:

• Research Paper # 101410 : "The Australian Identity and the Great War (WWI)"
• Essay # 112877 : "The Australian Aborigine"
• Term Paper # 119076 : "The Australian Pub and Gender Relations"

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