“Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi”: Situating and Understanding Social Identities in Australia

Abstract

Australia is a nation of multiple identities. These identities include perceptions of Australia as the great southern land, the largest island continent in the world; an ancient land with the world's longest surviving indigenous people; a ‘lucky country’ with decades of economic wealth and prosperity; a wounded, colonized country because of its violent convict past and displacement of indigenous people; a multicultural nation which millions of migrants now call home; a comfortable, modern, English-speaking, White, Christian country. As a nation, Australia bubbles with numerous contradictory and complex identity-oriented tensions. At the sociocultural level, all these Australian identities reflect the effects of history, power and the struggle of different representations. The multifaceted, shifting and hybrid sociocultural mosaic of Australia has attracted great interest from local and international social researchers. The concepts of ‘Australian-ness’ and the narratives of being ‘Australian’ or ‘un-Australian’ are embedded in everyday discourse in this country.