Learning from our Australians of the Year

There’s a lot of talk these days about role models.  As the lure of celebrity continues to grow, it seems that it’s pop starlets, football stars and anyone who’s had their fifteen minutes of fame who are set up as examples to follow, particularly for our kids.  And far too often, these people seem to be letting us down with their all too human behaviour.  It can make us sceptical about looking up to anyone at all.


And yet, accepting people’s humanness as part of the package, there is still much to be said for having role models and mentors who can inspire us to reach that little bit higher.  That’s what the Australian of the Year Awards is all about.  It’s about providing a broad range of alternatives to Britney and Paris.  Each year, 128 Australians, from all walks of life are acknowledged as finalists and recipients for the Awards.  That’s 128 stories of people who are making a real difference – many of whom are every day Australians you’ve probably never heard of.  Each of them excels in their field of endeavour, has the potential to inspire us and is making a marked contribution to their communities and Australia as a whole.  Of course, come 25 January, there can only be one Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia’s Local Hero.


Over the past five or so years, I have had the privilege of getting to know these extraordinary Australians for myself.  And they’ve taught me a thing or two along the way.

Firstly, each of them will tell you that they were just doing what they had to do – going about their business.  For each of them, going the extra mile, working hard and harnessing their talents and passion to make a difference are just things that they do.  That’s not to say that it’s always been easy.  If fact, many of our Australians of the Year have paid dearly for their commitment…but these sacrifices are made willingly and without thought of reward.  Not in some unrealistic, moralistic kind of way, but driven by passion and determination.  It’s part of who they are.


Secondly, they feel the weight of responsibility that comes with such an honour.  Being THE Australian of the Year is a very big deal for anyone, and generally not one that any of our award recipients ever expected to encounter.  They genuinely want to do their very best to fulfil the role in a way which will do Australia proud.  While it’s not always widely known, every Australian of the Year I have known has given above and beyond of their time and energy throughout their year, talking to school children and community groups, participating in public discourse and getting out to talk with Australians all over the nation, including in remote areas.  The gift of their time is precious.   They all have jobs and families and other commitments which are heavily stretched during their time as Australian of the Year.  And yet, all give this time with a wonderful grace and good humour.


Finally, they are human.  Like the rest of us, they will occasionally have a bad day.  But what I’ve learned is that this doesn’t make them any less worthy of our admiration and respect.  Rather, it demonstrates that even the best of us have to pick ourselves up and start again once in a while.  That’s life, and the ability to do that, with 21 million Australians watching, is something that I admire greatly.


This year, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Australian of the Year Awards.  Hopefully, this will be an opportunity to get to know a few more of this amazing group.  I know I won’t be disappointed.  Not because they’re perfect, but because they’ve put themselves on the line to make a difference and that’s something to be proud of. 

Tam Johnston

Click here to check out the stories of our past Australians of the Year.

Do you know someone who makes you proud?  Why not nominate them? 

Bogan Day, I mean Australia Day

This is the title of a video rant posted by AngryAussie on You Tube two years ago. I missed it until I was surfing the web this week. While I don’t agree with all AngryAussie said, nor the way he said it, I laughed allot and agreed with his broad intention. If you can cope with his language, it is worth your time to watch here. One of his rambling statements stood out for me.


Who gives a ... [toss] what you are proud of [on Australia Day]?
What have you done that Australia should be proud of you?


We have nothing to be proud of if we are not all actively engaged in building the Australia we want for the future. On Australia Day we can we can all ask ourselves – what am I doing of which I can be proud?

Warren Pearson

What is the positive legacy of the convicts and their captors?

It is sometimes joked that the British sent their worst subjects to be punished on the best beaches in the world. After a shaky start, there is considerable irony in the success of the colony of New South Wales which, along with its sister colonies, grew in prosperity and stability to peacefully federate as the Commonwealth of Australia. This was achieved a little over one hundred years after the arrival of the First Fleet.

With 26 January 1788 marking the occupation of the continent by the British, it must be acknowledged that there was little irony for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Dispossession, discrimination and death of the first Australians is a tragic aspect of the Australian story.

Fully acknowledging the impact on Aboriginal peoples and despite the varied acknowledgment of the convicts over the years, Australia Day has always recalled the day of British settlement, one of many defining moments on the path to modern nationhood.
Arthur Phillip brought on his ships of the First Fleet the beginnings of the rule of law, democracy, liberal ideas and some spirit of egalitarianism that was well expressed in his proclamation that ‘there can be no slavery in a free land, and consequently no slaves’. From these ideas came our political institutions and aspects of our national identity which we still live today.

An important facet of our national identity is the much lauded mateship. Mix a ragtag group of British folk struggling to eke out an existence on a strange and foreign continent with the notion of egalitarianism, and you end up with the beginnings of a spirit of mateship in the early colony. Decades later, the Gallipoli experience strongly galvanised mateship as dominant national myth. While I strongly question the universality of mateship in Australia, I certainly see a spirit of mateship: treating others as though you are their friend – even when they are unknown to you.

It is interesting to compare the cultures born of the arrival of the convicts and captors in Sydney with the arrival of the pilgrims in Plymouth in North America. The first modern Australians were banished to the other side of the earth where they would seek to build an existence together: the result a modern nation celebrating ‘a fair go’ and the spirit of mateship. The first modern Americans voyaging to the other side of the Atlantic in order to express their freedom of religion and to maintain their cultural identity: the result a modern nation emphasising liberty and prosperity.

If La Perouse had arrived before Cook or if the Dutch had done more than nail a plate to a tree on the west coast (such was the limit of my primary school history), things might have been very different. But as history would have it, the arrival of the British convicts and their captors has profoundly shaped modern Australia. On Australia Day we cannot help but celebrate the arrival of the British who brought the underpinnings of the institutions and laws which have served us well. So too we can celebrate the cultural values which have evolved to shape our contemporary national identity.

Not bad for a bunch of crooks.

Symbols Matter

What do a stuffed Aborigine and the Queen have in common? The answer is Australia Day 1961.

I am pleased that it was a different Australia Day organiser than me, and one from an earlier generation in 1961. Professor McMahon Ball described one function he attended where

...immense care had been taken to make the stage platform an expression of what Australia stood for. This had been achieved by putting a stuffed kangaroo and emu on the right, stuffed aborigine on the left, and a coloured portrait of the Queen in the centre.

An earlier generation still had an even more exclusionary attitude to the Aboriginal people. When preparing for the centenary in 1888, and when asked about what he had planned for the Aboriginal people, Henry Parkes Premier of NSW responded, 'And remind them that we have robbed them?'

Symbols matter and our national day is a very powerful symbol. Symbols can build up or symbols can put down. The description of 1961 seems to categorise the ‘aborigine’ as wildlife, a notion which is now, thankfully, unthinkable. Her Majesty, however, is realised in full colour. Knowingly leaving the whole indigenous population out of the centenary celebrations possibly makes an even more powerful statement.

Thank goodness much has changed in recent decades. We are getting better at recognising the unique place Aboriginal people have in our history and our present. The Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 provided an uplifting moment when in the opening ceremony Djakapurra Munyarryun walked out onto the arena hand-in-hand with Nicky Webster. A wonderful symbol of reconciliation – walking together into the future.

Australia Day is a symbol – a symbol of who we are and what we choose to celebrate. It is a day when we talk about our strengths and achievements as a nation. It is also a time to talk about our future as a people – to share ideas for the future – to address our weakness and challenges.

In recent decades tokenistic representations if Indigenous Australians have been replaced by real people. People who’s contribution to the fabric of the nation can be celebrated. People who at an Australia Day event might welcome you to their country and share a story with you. Real people who have great pride in their enduring culture.

Symbols matter. Australia Day must be a day to honestly acknowledge our past, rejoice in the present and look confidently to the future. Australia Day must be inclusive of all.

While we have come so far in many respects, I suspect that generations to come might be puzzled by the fact that it still remains a formal requirement to display a portrait of the Queen at Citizenship Ceremonies on Australia Day.

Warren Pearson