“Australia’s culture is multiculturalism.” This was the answer my high school teacher gave when my class was discussing what Australian culture is, back in the late 1990s.
Apparently, Germany, Lebanon, France, and every other country in history had a culture, but not Australia, which was merely a collection of co-existing cultures.
At the time, I believed my teacher – and he was a great teacher. I have since been told by countless people, ranging from many of my fellow late-Gen Xers down to the Zoomers, that they were told the same thing: “Australia’s culture is multiculturalism.”
This myth of multicultural essentialism must rank near the top of the list of the most pervasive and detrimental pieces of propaganda inflicted on Australians over the past thirty years. Not only is it false, but it has proven to be severely detrimental to the well-being of our nation.
Is Australia British? British Foundations
Australia was not settled by a tossed salad of Italians, Greeks, Lebanese, Chinese, and a hundred other nationalities; it was not even settled by Australians. In 1788, Australia was settled by the British (including the Irish). In other words, Australia’s formative ideas, language, political institutions, expressions of Christianity, tastes in sport, economic system, literature, forms of entertainment, security alliances, and even sense of humour have been most powerfully shaped by Great Britain. This simple and obvious historical fact is the key to understanding who we are as a nation, even to this day.
As long as this truth is repressed, we will never know who we are; and if we do not know who we are, we will be powerless against false narratives about who we are. Indeed, the very point of telling Australians that our culture is multiculturalism is to weaken our sense of national identity in order for ideological movements such as multiculturalism, Aboriginal grievance, cultural Marxist wokeism, and Islamism to have an unopposed walkthrough in reshaping our laws, education system, and nation as a whole.
If the true answer to the question of who we are as a nation is banished from the public discussion, why should it be any wonder that Australians find it difficult to define themselves as a nation? It would be like trying to explain who you are to someone without being allowed to talk about your work, beliefs, interests, or family background.
There’s not much left to say, not because there isn’t a truth to be said, but because the truth is the one thing that you cannot say. The truth is that Australia is historically and still to a large degree a British nation, albeit one which has welcomed people in from cultures all around the world to enjoy the fruits of the British traits I listed above.
It is less cultural amnesia than it is a form of hypnotic memory erasure cast upon us by professional multicultural activists, the ABC, and educators over the past thirty years. In our school curricula, the British aspect of our identity has been consistently left out of accounts of who we are and replaced by a focus on Asia and Indigenous history. When the impact of Britain is mentioned, it is solely to highlight the sins of colonialism. In other words, Britishness equals bad, and who would want to be defined by the bad guys?
Deep Division
The most pernicious effect of the myth of multicultural essentialism is an immigration system that has produced deeply divisive sub-communities and social trauma, every now and then exploding unto ugliness and violence – the 2005 Cronulla riots and their reprisal, and Islamist protests glorifying terrorism.
For decades, no one has been able to say that our immigration policy should be guided by the need for immigrants to be able to conform to Australian identity, for apparently, Australia has no identity other than multiculturalism. Thus, Australians have lacked the knowledge and vocabulary to say no to massive and rapid intakes of Muslim and Chinese migrants, for it’s impossible to argue that such irresponsible immigration will disrupt and threaten a pre-existing culture, when we no longer are able to articulate what that pre-existing culture is.
In other words, when we wish to object to certain immigration schemes but lack the cultural-historical knowledge to articulate our concerns, our concerns are easily dismissed as simply racist and xenophobic. But they are not. And recent pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic protests should alert us to the legitimacy of many Australians’ concerns with our immigration system.
Some have asked me why it’s even important to nurture the Britishness of our identity. The answer is simple. The positive and negative aspects of every society grow from deeper cultural roots. While Australia is not perfect, it is far more good than bad, as testified by the fact that people freely come from around the world to live here far more than vice versa.
Australia’s political stability, social peace, and economic prosperity did not come from nowhere. They grew from deep roots in a British heritage that came to emphasise government by open reason, rule of law, economic efficiency, and Christian teachings.
These are the ideals that nourished our political, economic, legal, educational systems, and our daily interactions with fellow citizens. In other words, to ask why we should care about nurturing the Britishness of our culture is analogous to asking about why we should care about nourishing and maintaining the roots beneath the garden that sustains us.
Monarchical Identity
Vague talk of Australian values does little to nothing to define who we are. At best, it really just says we are not North Korea, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia. Vague, abstract values are also easily manipulated to serve any ideological agenda. We must abandon the tedious, road-to-nowhere discussion of Australian values and lodge our identity in something more concrete and historical: our British heritage and its continued powerful effects.
This, to my mind, is the main reason Australians should wish to preserve our ties to the British monarchy now more than ever. Our membership in the Commonwealth is a spectacular declaration and reminder of who we are in a period in which our self-understanding has never been weaker and more under attack.
Ours is a time when people wish to divide the country into racially defined fragments, whether along lines of Indigeneity or lines of ethno-religion. The Voice referendum, the continued push for a treaty, the new (Islamic) Australian Voice party, unbridled, culturally insensitive immigration, and the rising anti-Semitic and Islamic extremist movements are all threats to national solidarity and stability.
Once we recognise and understand our British heritage we can embark on a responsible immigration programme that ensures we do not nourish the growth of migrant communities that stand opposed to it. Australia’s immigration problem is not so much about individual immigrants, but the creation of immigrant communities so large, assertive, politically powerful, and insular that many within them fail to assimilate as well as they should. We can also make it very clear to migrants who we are and invite them to assimilate to a reasonable degree to that identity and to make their valuable contribution.
The question of who we are as a nation is becoming an existential issue for Australia, and the only answer that can be powerful enough to resist forces that would erode our national solidarity is the one grounded in our actual history and our present institutions.
Australia is not essentially multicultural; it is essentially British, and if we wish to have a responsible immigration system and a cohesive society, this must not only be recognised, but unashamedly celebrated by all Australians, regardless of their cultural and racial background.
Originally published on X. Formatting: The Daily Declaration.
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