-my activist friend and mentor
Subliminal Matters: Australia Day 2012, what the 2012 image of an Australia is and what it should be, Aussie identity inclusive or exclusive to all Australians
Location: Australian Television ad for AU Day
Ad review:
The ad is quite funny. I like it for its festive tone and the yummy lamb chops but I love it for the other issues it raised in my mind. I couldn't help but think, there seems to be a lag between Australian immigration laws and Australia. Despite the fact that Australia continues to lawfully adopt minorities as Permanent Residents and Australian Citizens, Australian identity remains stoically defined by images of caucasians, bbq's and surfers. This old image, I realise, is difficult to let go of, however, the government continues to permit people outside of this concept into the country with what seemed to be no intention of initiating or encouraging a formal image change.
Charlie Teo was perhaps just the wind of change that I was looking for. Being a Chinese-Australian neurosurgeon, Dr. Teo represented something quite far away from the old Aussie image which is wonderfully displayed by the advertisement above. On Australia Day 2012 the feature speech
given by Dr. Teo encouraged Aussies to be kind to immigrants. Added to that, the faces of the awardees for Australian of the Year indicates that there is a desire for a new Australian image after all. Click here for Dr. Charlie's post speech interview.
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| 2012 Awardees for Australians of the Year: Geoffrey Rush, Laurie Baymarrwangga, Marita Cheng, Lynne Sawyers
Unfortunately, even the date of Australia Day has many other problems of it's own.
FOR THE FULL STORY SEE MARTIN FLANAGAN'S
Does it have to be this difficult? Why?!! #smh where's the silver lining I thought I saw?
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