After a year of turbulence and debates over national identities -what it means to be British, what it means to be American – we watched in slightly morbid fascination as Trump took power in one of the most divisive democratic elections in recent times.
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Whatever side of the fence you sit on, a week of protests not just from America, but all over the world showed a tug of war between multiple understandings of what it means to be American.
In the million woman march, in a unique moment, a Honduran American named America argued that the government wasn’t America - the people marching were.
From this and the many heartfelt debates on the ‘Brexit’, we can see how deeply national identities can go, how connected they are to our personal values and how much a country’s ideals can affect the wider world.
As a young Australian, I admit to sometimes being confused over what that means.
I think this is because unlike America, we are not a country of pledges of allegiance in schools, flags in every second yard, where leaders become celebrities and celebrities become leaders.
Instead Australians like to sit back and observe. We don’t like taking ourselves too seriously and are always wary of authority figures. And these are qualities I deeply admire. But sometimes that also means we don’t stand up. We’re not always willing to show our hand and say how we feel.
We often hold back from showing how we feel about our own country, talking about what makes Australia great and what the ideals are that we need to hold onto.
I’m not talking about the kind of blind nationalism that makes any lover of multiculturalism shudder – the drunken racist who tells anyone with a different skin colour to go home or the well meaning but misguided person who believes their country is the best simply because they were born there.
I’m talking about a love for our country and freedoms that makes us fight for what we believe in – to make sure our laws reflect our ideals. The love for our community that pushes someone like Danny Middleton create a safe space for everyone or spurs on the Kurrajong re-enactment committee to find a way to honour and grieve local soldiers.
I think our Australia Day ambassador Robyn Moore summed it up well when she said being Australian was a choice. That it’s not about whether you were born here or not – it’s about what you choose to do with your citizenship.
