I was very impressed with the first episode of Immigration Nation on SBS. It really brought home to me the deep-seated roots of racism in Australia and put it in an international context, showing it’s effect upon the world around us. To not realise, or not care, how this appalling attitude would impact on our Asian nation neighbours, and in particular Japan, conveys an incredible contempt and naivety for and about the non-white world at the time. Perhaps it puts the reported ferocity of the Japanese soldiers during WWII into some sort of context, as there is no action without a reaction – treated as less than human they became so in battle – fueled by vengeance.
It also made me think about John Howard and his decade of denial as PM of Australia. He attracted around him all those who would sweep the past under some sort of carpet. Historians reinventing a milder, less guilty history and spinning a new truth for those who just wanted to get on with things and bugger what happened in the past. Of course it has been shown time and again, that those who ignore the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them. If we choose to see the past as an innocent time of white picket fences and lawn tennis clubs, and turn away from those we embittered by our prejudices, then nothing and nobody evolves.
The men who made up the parliament of Australia, were white, anglo-celtic in the main and determined to create a paradise for those who reflected their own identity and colour of skin. This urge to make something exclusive – where does it come from? I see it still today in the attitudes of recent Australian immigrants, who are vociferous in their condemnation of refugees and the next wave of immigrants coming to this country. I also see it in the ‘sea changers’ – those who move to places like Byron Bay – once they have found their niche in paradise, they actively deter others who come after them as spoilers of their exclusive environment.
The great egalitarian Aussie digger, who fought the good fight and was a shining example of the sanctity of mateship – as long as you were white of course – seems to be a lot less innocent in the expanded light of what White Australia was really about. The democracy we forged at Federation seems less in the shadow of all those we left out, the so-called servile races. No wonder bitterness lingers, towards Australia, in the hearts of recent leaders of countries, like Malaysia and Indonesia. Policy based on fear usually creates the very things that are feared – treat people badly and they will act badly.
Australians really need to come to terms with our racist past and this program can contribute to that process. In our heart of hearts white Australia is not out of the woods yet in relation to our feelings for those racially different from ourselves. Political correctness is still only a very thin layer in the consciousness of those who live in the cities and if you travel out into more ‘white bread’ regional areas you still find the same nasty, intolerant, fear based attitudes to non-whites commonly expressed.
I look forward to the next episode of Immigration Nation. Sunday night at 7.30pm
