The first European settlers in Australia used a dizzying array of flora and fauna in their kitchens – but they cooked them in a traditional British style.
Is Nick Kyrgios too difficult – and different – to become an Australian hero?
AAP Image/Joe Castro
Australian cinema has offered striking, intelligent and forceful evaluations of our national identity. Rather than play an outdated gambling game this Australia Day, why not watch the best of Aussie film?
Some Aboriginal people and a number of other Australians see Australia Day as a day of mourning.
AAP
Protesting about Australia Day is a smokescreen to obscure the real problems that many Aboriginal Australians face today.
Children representing the diversity of contemporary multicultural Australia stand near a sign depicting an ‘idealised’ white Australia. Blackwood Recreation Centre, South Australia, 2015.
Photo: C. Smith
How might an Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory experience racism? There are many material signs that can make a person feel excluded from society.
A march in Perth on Australia Day this year in support of Indigenous people.
Angie Raphael/AAP
Changing the date of Australia Day celebrations – as the City of Fremantle has done – is a move towards a less racist future. And when it comes to challenging insularity, there are other positive signs in Western Australia.
Like a lot of people, I’m embarrassed to be living in an advanced industrialised OECD nation where our national flag includes that of a foreign nation. I just want us to grow up. Canada, a significant…
Perhaps you might enjoy this list of movies and videos that look at ways contemporary Sydney has been fictionally invaded or destroyed on the big screen.
Ross Fowler
It seems to me no coincidence that in Australian popular culture our founding colony is usually the site of major onscreen attacks. Might this speak of cultural guilt and repressed truths?
Former Army chief David Morrison helped boost the number of women serving in the military and promoted diversity.
Lukas Coch/AAP
High-profile former Army chief David Morrison is Australian of the Year, with the award given for his commitment to “gender equality, diversity and inclusion”.
If there is ever a day that I don’t feel Australian, it would be on Australia Day. My mother is a fifth-generation Australian of English and Irish heritage and my father is Munanjahli and an Australian-born…
Australians have high levels of national pride and belonging – much higher than for many comparable countries.
EPA/Barbara Walton
Every year, come January 26, Australia Day revives the annual dialogue around notions of national identity, our values and what it means to be Australian. It’s an opportune time to reflect on the findings…
Get your telescopes ready for a rare close encounter with an asteroid this Australia Day.
Flickr/Ryan Wick
Clear skies this Australia Day could give observers a rare look at a giant asteroid flying past Earth at 56,000kmh. The asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, will not return to Earth for around another 200 years…
The progressive side of politics in Australia needs to embrace the nation and nationalism in order to achieve lasting change.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Australian flag boxer shorts and bikinis, an annual political stoush about who was named Australian of the Year (and who was overlooked) and a binge-drinking holiday to mark the destruction of one of the…
We could be celebrating an anthem with words most other English speakers don’t understand.
Dan Peled/AAP
Australia Day looms. Across the country, ceremonies large and small will stand for the national anthem. Lots of golden soil, nature’s gifts and girting by sea. The national anthem is ubiquitous now at…
Thousands will take part in citizenship ceremonies this Australia Day, but to what set of values are they pledging loyalty?
Wikimedia Commons
This Australia Day, thousands of migrants and refugees will stand proudly and pledge their loyalty to Australia and its people at citizenship ceremonies around the nation. The citizenship pledge is considered…
Australians draping themselves in the flag is part of the rise of a more jingoistic nationalism, which often rides on an ugly undercurrent of racism.
AAP/Damian Shaw
The decision by Aldi and Big W last week to remove their government-approved Australia Day T-shirts from sale followed a social media-led backlash against the slogan on the shirts: “Australia Est. 1788…
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University