Mateship in Australia: is the modern move towards individualism placing it under threat? They could be your sibling, neighbour or even a complete stranger, but a mate will always have your back. However, is this value slowly disappearing? Georgia Walker writes. The iconic Australian term has been around for over a hundred years, being traced back to the convict era, where inmates referred to their fellow prisoners as ‘mate’. To this day, the term is still used to describe a good friend, or someone who helps you out in a time of need. Mateship has always been an integral part of the Australian identity, a classic example being when we band together to help one another out in tough times. Whether it be at home or on foreign soil, history …show more content…
Poet Henry Lawson featured the topic in his poem ‘The Shearers’, where he says “The mateship born of barren lands, of toil and thirst and danger - The camp-fare for the stranger set, the first place to the stranger.” Tim Winton portrays some examples of mateship in his book, ‘Cloudstreet’, written in 1991. As the story progresses, two families, the Pickles and the Lambs, grow closer together whilst sharing a house. Winton portrays mateship in an interesting light in his book. While it is a subtle background theme, it is easily identifiable. As the story of the working class families rolls over 20 years, we see them grow and develop compassion towards each other. It seems that over time, the idea of mateship has changed. ‘Cloudstreet' was based on the post World War II period, and since then, our values of mateship and its definition have begun to change. For example, today, how many people would be willing to share their house with complete strangers? While it is possible that the value may not hold the same meaning as it once used to, it is safe to say that Australians will always help a ‘mate’ in
In this paper, I am going to use concepts from the social exchange theory and relational dialectics theory to describe my relationship with my boyfriend. First, I will discuss the cost and rewards of the relationship. Second, I will then discuss the dialectics of autonomy and connection followed by, openness and protection.
The 2014 Walkley Award winning documentary, "Cronulla Riots: the day that shocked the nation" reveals to us a whole new side of Aussie culture. No more she’ll be right, no more fair go and sadly no more fair dinkum. The doco proved to all of us (or is it just me?) that the Australian identity isn’t really what we believe it to be. After viewing this documentary
Then it was the outback pioneer, battling the bush to build a new nation prior to the First World War. The Anzac legend – bold and ferocious males, unwilling to bow to military discipline, never flinched in battle defined the evolution of the image of Australian masculinity. Professor Manning Clark in his opus A History of Australia imaged the bronzed and noble Anzac as males involved in sex orgies, having violent scuffles, and in Egypt burned belongings of local people, brawled, got drunk and rioted and patronised brothels. Hero and larrikin, ratbag and rebel, the Anzacs ... ...
Some would say The Anzac Legend all began when Britain declared they were in need of help and it was Australia’s duty to go to their aid. Australia tossed aside experience and opted for youth. There were big incentives to go. To travel and visit foreign places, economic reasons, to be with their mates but the most incentive of all was that Britain needed help.
Australia is a relatively young country; only becoming a unified nation in 1901 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). A young country is no different from a young person; identity is an issue. Questions of who am I and where do I fit in the world are asked, and unfortunately not often answered until a tragedy occurs. National identity is a sense of a nation and its people as a connected whole. This feeling of cohesiveness can be shaped by many events in a nation’s history but none more so than war. War is a stressful, traumatic affair that changes forever, not only the people that go to it but the nation as a whole. Many consider the Great War Australia’s tragedy where we became a nation (Bollard, 2013) with our own modern identity.
...at these several events in our nation’s history have demoralised our reputation to other countries globally. To make us known as a better country to other nations, we’ve completely abolished the White Australia Policy, gave back the aborigines their freedoms and we were also the first country in the world to give women rights. Australia today in present day is now one of the most multicultural societies on Earth, and we definitely follow our values of mateship, acceptance and freedom.
T Australians can be represented in a positive way by celebrating its diversity as a united nation, between its people and the land. Nevertheless, Australia can also be seen in a negative way, as being harsh and cruel. S – This presentation will be analysing one Australian song, I am Australian by Bruce
“Johnno” the new mate in town, is a Canadian who has just moved over and for his first job, driving the local miner’s bus to and from work every day. The mateship between Johnno and the other workers begins to express over time. But they never treat Johnno with disrespect, they’re not rude, not mean, they show mateship. Mateship is an important part of Australians history. When either it’s your first day at a new job, first day at a new school, moving and meeting your new neighbours. Australians are kind and welcoming people. This is seen in the movie, multiple times. There is no fights (punch ups) there’s no bullying, everyone is friends with everyone and the bond that keeps them all connected is one such thing, a dog, Red Dog. The audience feels sympathy for Johnno and this connection will soften the harshness often associated with Australian
In the movie, The Castle mateship is portrayed in minuscule acts of kindness to large acts of intrepidity. A more diminutive act of mateship is when Dale goes and optically discerns his brother Wayne who is in jail every Monday. Every Monday no matter what? This might be considered brotherhood by some but not every brother would go and see the black sheep
There is a reference to our multiculturalism in the lines ‘All cultures together as one. Yet, individual until the game is won’. These lines acknowledge the fact that even though Australia is an increasingly Multicultural society, all Australians, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, share the same values, principles and national identity.
The novel challenges the contradicting sides of the expectation and reality of family and how each one contains a symbiotic relationship. The ideal relationship within families differ throughout The Bean Trees. Kingsolver focuses on the relationship between different characters and how they rely on each other to fill the missing gaps in their lives. When Taylor and Lou Ann meet, they form a symbiotic relationship and fill the missing gaps in each others lives. Once the two women move in with each other, Lou Ann fills Taylor’s missing gap of motherly experience and opens her eyes to a life full of responsibilities.
By definition a friend is a person who provides assistance and support. We have different groups of friends for different purposes in our lives. Although there are many different categories of friends, Marion Winik author of “What are Friends For?” mentions that some of the more common groups consist of the faraway, work, family, and former friends (132). We keep our friends because we value their loyalty, communication, support, and dependability.
Elizabeth Jennings, author of “One Flesh”, uses the idea of love diminishing over time in order to represent a difficult relationship between the couple. For the couple are “lying apart now, each in a separate bed”, suggesting the separation has gradually increased over a prolonged period of time perhaps caused by domestic tension consequently resulting in a strangely uncomfortable dissipation of the intimacy and closeness they once possessed. This is a literal and metaphorical representation of the isolation and emotional distance that has led to the mental and physical solitude. Another example of the waning of love is the “Silence between them
Dictionary, its use is mostly explained by examples cited from this. country. The. Also, rich entries on mateship as well as mate can be found.
'The Australian Legend', in itself is an acurate portrayal and recount of one part of society, from a specific era, ie. the Australian bushman of the 1890s. Its exaggerations, however, such as the romanticism of the bush ethos by Australian writers, the unbalanced use of evidence, and the neglect to acknowledge the contribution to our national identity from certain sections of society, ie. aboriginal people, city-dwellers, women, and non-British immigrants, render this book to be flawed. For these reasons, it cannot be regarded as a complete and balanced account of Australian history.