Governance and Multiculturalism by Catherine Koerner & Soma Pillay

Author:Catherine Koerner & Soma Pillay
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030237400
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.4 Is Australia a White Country?

This section will analyse the discourses that the interviewees draw upon to talk about race and the nation. The first interviewees to be discussed are Louis and Phyllis previously mentioned, who are the children of migrants, married with children, and in their early 40s. They live on an orchard that Louis’ family have leased from the South Australian Government since his parents migrated to Australia. They were interviewed together and when asked if they thought Australia is a white country they replied:The big push lately is that Australia is a multicultural country and the sad part about it is that I don’t think we have embraced all the cultures, because there is still racism out there and, like Phyllis was saying before, the kids don’t have a bar of it, because at school, bullying is the biggest thing, but racism isn’t an issue. At our school it isn’t. It might be different at other schools but we talk about it and the big push is multiculturalism. (Louis)

It is. (Phyllis)

But even so there are certain cultures that haven’t been embraced and there are still stigmas and so forth attached with these… we are supposed to be a country of how many cultures? We still seem to have problems you know. Religion is the big part because we don’t understand certain religions, we don’t have the same sort of beliefs, then we start to suggest so and so and it becomes a big thing… The first thing that comes to mind if someone asks me: what is Australia? It is multicultural. Yes, but when you go a little bit further on, it might be multicultural but are problems. The other day I was talking with my friend and I said, maybe not in our lifetime but our kids’ lifetime, I don’t want us to go the American path and racial violence because of the many cultures that have been introduced… Aboriginals are part of this gathering… but we still haven’t come to terms with accepting them as part of our own. And they are our own. We are the same nation. They don’t walk under a different – they prefer their own flag but that is beside the point. (Louis: Louis and Phyllis)

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