The Importance of Becoming Australian

January 26^th was Australia day. My two sons, aged 8 and 10 years became Australians on that day. Australian citizenship with all its attendant rights, privileges and responsibilities was formally conferred upon them at the city hall in a ceremony presided over by the mayor. The cultural performers from the local aboriginal community – the Wurrundjeri Nation – who were supposed to perform, failed to show up.

I watched from the audience as my two imps scampered up to the Mayor grinning like chimpanzees to receive their certificates of citizenship, an Australian flag, a poster of native australian wildlife and a handful of lollies. I watched them sing the Australian Anthem with gusto, followed by “Waltzing Matilda” and “Give me a Home Under the Gum Trees” with the accompanying actions. They were having the time of their lives.

I couldn’t help my tears which flowed freely as the import of what was happening before my eyes suddenly hit me. What right had I, to uproot these two innocent lads from their native culture and land and bring them here to Australia to become Australians? We weren’t fleeing  disaster, war, persecution or economic deprivation – the traditional imperatives for human migration. We weren’t even seeking a “better” life! The life we had in our native Sri lanka was extraordinarily privileged. The truth was that we took a socio-economic step down when we migrated here. So why did we come?

Several years ago, back in Sri Lanka, as we were preparing to emigrate, I had the answer to everybody’s question – “Why are you leaving when you already have a great life here”? My response was “I can’t deprive my children the opportunity that is available to them [to grow up in Australia and all the attendant opportunities that would give them]”. Once they grow up, if they decide they want to return to Sri Lanka, they could do so, I told myself and anyone else who was interested. I was particularly keen to give them the benefits of Australian Primary School education. I had observed their cousins going through primary school in Australia and was convinced that the Australian Primary education system, was perhaps the best in the world. (I wasn’t so impressed with the secondary education, but that is another matter).

But the real reason we came was much deeper than that. I wanted to save them from growing up in an atmosphere of uncertainty – where the course of one’s life could be suddenly wrenched and torn apart by the fickle whim of a politician, a monk or a rabble-rouser. Where social diversity was considered a social danger and being different was a basis to be despised and hated rather than included and celebrated. Where the basic luxuries of life like a decent education and a decent job depended on whom one knew rather than who one was. Where one could not get basic services from any government department unless one “spoke to someone” or “knew someone” or “oiled a few greasy palms” on the way. I wanted my sons  to have a “Fair Go” in life!

Co-incidentally, after coming here, I discovered that a “Fair Go” for everyone, is what Australians espouse, treasure and aspire to. It is the conscious and sub-conscious yardstick by which all Australians measure policy and social fabric. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from or why you are here – you deserve a fair go!

Now, four years on, my sons are well into Australian Primary school and thriving. They are enthusiastic participants in local sports clubs, little athletics and anything else that happens to be going on in the neighbourhood. Once they finish primary school, they will move on to one of several available secondary schools in the area – any of which will give them a “fair go” at a place in University or TAFE (vocational college) or whatever they wish to pursue in life. Whatever path, career or job they happen to pursue, will give them a “fair go” at paying their own way – buying a decent house, a functional car and starting a family.

None of this will come without some hard work and effort. But it is possible and achievable to any Australian child, except, perhaps, some native Australian children. For although the Australian system has been working hard at absorbing and integrating the migrant milieu that has been arriving on its shores for over a hundred years, it has only recently begun to address the problem of absorbing and integrating the original inhabitants of the land in to mainstream Australian life and all its privileges. They still don’t have a chance at a “fair go” like the rest of us newcomers and old timers who make up the modern face of Australia. 

A migrant nation has been forged on this land by a raft of migrants new and old and it continues to grow from within and without as more migrants continue to arrive and be absorbed into this nation. It has been forged on land occupied for centuries by others and they too, need to be welcomed and included into mainstream modern Australian life. It is not sufficient to verbally acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we live and thrive on.  They need to be celebrated and assisted to become fully Australian with all its attendant benefits, rights and responisbilities, if the flag  of a “Fair Go” is to continue to fly high and proud over this nation.

Harin Corea

1^st February, 2012

Melbourne, Australia.