Rethinking the Nation in the Chilean and Australian Bicentenaries

Abstract

Abstract Bicentenaries, as created and chosen historical moments, can be considered a space for reflection on the achievements and challenges of a nation and its collective project in a setting of contestations. This article argues that rethinking the nation and articulating the discourse of identity both in Chile and in Australia have become contentious within the respective bicentenaries because of issues of exclusion and inclusion in which the 'white' settlement associated winners with 'white' people and the defeated with indigenous peoples. Both located in the southern hemisphere, Australia and Chile share a past as former British and Spanish settler colonies, respectively, and they have therefore shown certain socio-historical similarities in regard to the nation-building project against the original indigenous population that have fractured the discourse of the nation. Introduction Bicentenaries are an appropriate framework within which to examine the nation as an unfinished project and as a unique experiment that attempts to give cohesion to its members. These commemorations challenge the nation with reference to tradition and continuity as well as certain ambiguities of mutable national identity in the midst of inevitable cultural tensions between the present and the past in a society that tends to be heterogeneous, controversial and the object of continuous debate. Usually conceived as commemorations of the beginning of the nation-building project, bicentenaries can also provide a suitable framework within which to discuss the achievements and challenges of a nation and its collective undertaking in a setting of contestations. To understand the nation's capacity to integrate and articulate itself, it is necessary to examine these commemorations in terms of inclusion and exclusion processes as well as multifarious contradictions. This article argues that rethinking the nation and articulating the discourse of identity both in Chile and in Australia have become contentious within the respective bicentenaries because of issues of exclusion and inclusion originating from the idea of imagining a 'white' nation, where the 'white' settlement associated winners with 'white' people and the defeated with indigenous peoples. Despite the fact that Latin Am?rica is not usually described as a 'whitesettler' country, it shares common features with the English expression.2 This article aims to compare and deconstruct the discourse of the nation in the context of the Australian bicentenary in January 1988 and the Chilean bicentenary in September 2010. This article situates the analysis within the ideas of nation and identity according to Benedict Anderson3 and Jorge Larrafn.4 Anderson suggests that the nation is imagined as a community because, despite the fact that most members will never know each other, they still share a sense of communion in their minds.5 Larrafn understands the idea of identity as a social construction that entails the identification of individuals with shared social categories, such as nationality or ethnicity, and consequently, he argues, 'all personal identities are rooted in collective contexts culturally determined'.6 Therefore, if the sense of belonging to a group is not strong enough, the notion of identity might weaken. Australia and Chile consider different historical starting points to commemorate their respective bicentenaries and, owing to their distinct social, cultural and historical processes, they have approached these chosen moments in a unique way. Along with Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, Chile celebrates the commencement of the independence process from Spain (18 September 1810) ? a time when the nation-building process began to emerge. On the other hand, Australia's two-hundredth anniversary is based on the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet ? 11 ships transporting convicts and crew ? and the starting point of British colonisation (26 January, officially known as Australia Day). …