The Unfinished Land- Summative Entry

Source https://visual.artshub.com.au

On the 1^st of July this year Australian’s were blessed with yet another pseudo inspirational and seemingly insightful speech, by one of the multitude of well meaning middle aged white male representatives, as Mr David Hurley became our 27^th Governor General. He spoke of David Malouf’s famous but slightly dated comment from 1979 “Australia is still revealing itself to us. We oughtn’t to close off possibilities by declaring too early what we have already become,” commenting that Australia is, 40 years later, amazingly still not a finished product. His speech included pleasantries aimed at minority groups and had the overwhelming flavour of the tasteful inaction to which we have become accustomed.  But underlying it all was the sinister ringing of men who still are fixated with the idea of measurable growth, categorical labeling and the reaching of an endpoint, some hidden goal in a western, capitalist system. Even the absurd concept that a country could ever be “finished” is a telling sign of the lack of understanding and reality these leaders have on the existence and nature of humanity.

Of course Australia is not a finished product!

The mere suggestion that it even could be seems such an absurd concept. Maybe if Mr Hurley adopted a little of the approach of Indigenous Australians, of whom he spoke with such fondness, and their reciprocal, respectful coexistent relationship with Australia he would know that this categorising of our vast country is at best problematic. The blatant arrogance and self-importance of thinking that we in anyway define or have the authority to declare a country as  either finished or unfinished, or that we could possibly ever define a nation as complete, is illogical! When we ourselves as humans are a mere microsecond on the vast timeline of earth. All countries and in fact the whole world are subject to the unpredictable and forever changing journey that is life. From politics, to religion, to technology, to generational characteristics and popular culture, immigration and multiculturalism, to the environment and our turbulent relationship with the plants and animals we co-inhabit this earth with, to the arts and literature and their shadow like following of societal changes…………all a constant changing tide.

Purely on a geographical and physical level our earth and more specifically our country, Australia, is constantly evolving. Once a part of the large Pangaea, in a time long before the window of human existence, now broken away and its own content. Once free of the infestation of humans, now deeply scared by our mines, destruction and infrastructure. Who knows what new changes and effects will behold our blue planet as we increasingly pollute and abuse her vast gifts. A country millions of years into evolution with constant weathering, erosion, sea level changes, periods of ice age and dynamic changes in flora and fauna is far from finished on its journey of change. I spoke of this in my blog ‘Thoughts on Pam Browns “At the Wall” and current political events’ touching on the current state of the environment and our need for increasing action on the issue after years of complacency, something I feel is extremely important and necessary for our countries survival.

With each generation brings new challenges and the eb and flow of population growth through multiculturalism and immigration is certainly one that regularly changes the face of Australia. From colonial invasion and the dramatic European influence this caused to the many waves of immigration since including Chinese gold rush, post World War ll eastern Europeans, 1970’s Vietnamese and other south east Asians, and modern-day Lebanese and middle eastern to name a few. With increasing globalisation these migratory trends will certainly continue bringing with them unknown social, popular culture and political changes and the Australian identity will bend to match this ever changing population. I commented on both colonial invasion and the ever changing and re-imagining of the Australian identity this semester in my blogs ‘Dear Mr Cook’ and ‘Patterson VS Lawson, and the Australian identity.’ These blogs were written with candid honesty and reflect much of my spirit and both the responsibilities and privileges of what it means to me to be Australian. The issue of reconciliation and aboriginal experience was also written about by other students this semester and I reviewed one piece on the Garma festival by Chikuru Malula, the need and relevance of this festival showing once again that Australia is by no means a finished product. Whilst the need for reconciliation and reformation on all Aboriginal areas still continues so too will the great damage to the culture and identity of Australia.

Source https://www.dreamstime.com

The final issue both myself and my peer reviewee Caitlin Burke felt needed addressing was the still evident problem of gender inequality, treatment of women and the feminist agenda, written about so well in Patrick White’s Miss Slattery and her Demon Lover and also covered in my analytical essay this semester looking at Barbara Baynton’s The Chosen Vessel and Henry Lawson’s The Drovers Wife. The simple fact that the speaker of this aforementioned quote, Mr David Hurley, the 27^th Governor General is one of the 26 men who have been appointed to the role highlights this issue well. That’s right in Australia’s’ history we have had one female governor general, also notably only one female prime minister and currently 80 per cent of the government MPs and 78 percent of cabinet ministers are men (Sydney Morning Herald). This ceaseless divide in our country continues to hinder our relationships, leading to increased violence and abuse in homes and society, ongoing wage gap, uneven representation in professions, arts, media and sports, discrimination in work places, uneven domestic workloads, sexual assault and body autonomy issues. How could a country with so much to fix be even remotely considered “finished”? To see my blog on this click here or my peer review of Caitlin’s blog on the same topic click here.

Source CNN.com

We are so much better than this. This current state of divide, of left versus right, of discrimination, alienation and abuse of both nature and humanity. But neither growth nor a finish line is the answer, more a returning of balance, a changing of ways, a reconciliation if you will; with each other, with our country; with our home. An acceptance of ongoing and ever-adapting respectful stewardship until the end of our species existence, leaving this land to continue on without us as before, a country without limits, boundaries or the constant need for definition.