An Aussie Aboard: How I Discovered Australian Culture Overseas
AUSTRALIAN culture is hard to define without turning to the ridiculous stereotype found in Hollywood movies and exported TV-soap operas.
Being away from Australia for the past six months has helped me reflect on what Aussie culture looks like. The distance from my sunburnt country has given me perspective to appreciate.
Australians are made up of more than Vegemite, fairy bread and sausage sangaz. We are a culture of outdoor loving larrikins who are known for our borderline alcoholism, loud mouthed nature and invention of smashed avos and flat whites.
The Aussies I meet abroad all celebrate the fact that you can buy a pint of local larger for AUD$4. They’re all relentlessly defensive when someone brings up the notion of tipping. They are proud of the fact they live in a country where people are supposed to be paid equally for their work without needing to ask for tips.
Ask any Aussie aboard about the political situation back home and you’ll usually be met with a short sharp expletive. Aussies know we’re not all on the same page politically but we will make sure you know that we’re bloody proud of our version of democracy, of our pride in gun control and ashamed of our revolving door policy when it comes to Prime Ministers.
When it comes to adventure, I’d say largely Australians are up for it. Be that trekking and paragliding in Nepal, climbing monster sand dunes in the Gobi Desert or jumping off waterfalls in Taiwan. We’ll give anything a go once.
These same Australians I meet aboard also like to see our country in black and white. Grey isn’t an area we like to contend with. These polarising viewpoints means that we can succumb to the more obnoxious stereotypes of Aussie culture. The casual racism and the blind, unsubstantiated claim that Australia is an egalitarian utopia are products of our often binary nature. These are the same traits that often poison Australian politics back home.
Aussies aboard are enthusiastic about their home and are always willing to spin a yarn or two about life back in Australia. Be that the ongoing Cold War fought between Melbourne and Sydney for the right to claim Australia’s best city, or the tales of the dangerous drop bears. I’m sure you can even get a lick of Vegemite from any Aussie travelling abroad, as they’ll often carry their national dish overseas with them.
Through the people I’m meeting whilst travelling I’m rediscovering what it means to be Australian. I’m questioning the stereotypes and proudly reinforcing some of them at the same time. You probably won’t hear me utter the words “shrimp on the barbie” but you might find me necking a frosty tinnie after a long day on the road.
