*play Great Southern Land by Icehouse while you read this..
Australia and Canada are an interesting study in Colonial Evolution. Both countries are young and the byproducts of Rule Brittania. However Australia has had the benefit of being isolated, atleast geographically, from the overwhelming influence of the our next door neighbour, the USofA.Whereas Aussies have an overwhelming unique brand (18Million people vs our 30M) we Canucks are generally regarded as sedated versions of Americans.
A quick review think
Australia; HOTBeer,Sharks,CrocodileDundee,Salties,Kangaroos,Koalas,
Boomerangs,Slouch Hats,Strine,INXS,Surfing,Men At Work, ACDC,Split Enz (close enough) Savage Garden,Box Jellyfish,Air Supply,Midnight Oil,Poisonous snakes,Blue Ring Octopus,my list would be huge.
think Canada:
COLD Beer,Mounties,Beaver, Bears,Celine Dion, Shania Twain and Bryan Adams, eh!,Maple Syrup, Pine Trees,Igloos,and Hockey.
Australian and Canadian Aboriginal struggles are similar(indeed as they are worldwide)the first immigrants to Australia arrived about 50,000 years ago and here in Canada about 12,000 years ago. I suppose that both First Nations could be classified as First Asians since all humans travelled through Asia to reach their destinations. I tend to regard all humans as having evolved from Mitochondrial Eve 150,000 years ago in Africa so no disrespect is intended. I do find it interesting that Australia's first inhabitants have done a much better job of exposing their issues around the globe than their Canadian counterparts. For instance one of my favorite movies is Rabbit Proof Fence. I fell in love with those kids as they escaped the British indoctrination process to find home.OMG Fabulous film.
Hopefully both groups will eventually find a homeostatic position in this world that we have to share and that NOBODY really owns anyway.
I have lost
a few friends to the Land Downunder because there has always been an enthusiastic exchange of young people between Canada and Australia. While I was at Whistler Ski Resort in British Columbia (eh notice the B word eh) it was impossible to overlook the number of Aussies working there, they seem to love our mountains. Alternatively Canucks go to Australia to find the eternal beach. Both countries are celebrated for their rugged out-of-doors lifestyles. Even though we have HOT summers and beautiful lakes (no sharks mate) the world still thinks of us as a WINTER wonderland.????Australia is always considered a SUMMER place (Melanoma capitol of the world) where the water swirls in the opposite direction d
own the loo.OK wrap it up.
Australia to me is SHARKS!
(a future6000 word post lookout)
As a confirmed shark nut I even named my eldest son after Spencer Gulf where most of the Great White Shark films are shot.
Both countries are cinematically portrayed as dangerous places for humans. I laughed through the movie SIRENS where Hugh Grant read headlines in the morning papers describing how somebody died from a shark attack, jelyfish, snake or crocodile attack! It's all relative. When I talked to a surfboard dude in California he said that he would never go into the Canadian woods because of all the Bears!
One of my favorite memories of Aussies involves Grizzly Bears.
While camping in Banff, Alberta (another British stamp) my buddy and I returned from a night in town to find our Aussie mates at the next tent lining there tent with weiners (yes alchohol was involved)to attract a Grizzly for a photo op. A huge bear had been seen around the campground that day and warnings were posted. I slept in the car that night and our mates were evicted around 4 am! YIKES!.
Here in Canada more people are probaly killed by Moose on the highways than from a Bear attack (Black/Grizzly/Polar) but the image persists of a land where, as they say in the film Missouri Breaks..
"the closer you get to Canada..the more things there are that'll eat yer horse"
Branding is weird eh mate?. I think that we should form one country, enjoy our similarities, and cover all of the bases. That's fair dinkum eh!
My stereotypes find the two countries in strong contrast.
ReplyDeleteAustralia I think of as dominated by barely post-colonial racist and male chauvinistic attitudes. A pawn in the imperialist game.
Canada? Everything's lovely and green with progressive politics, if arguably on occasion a little righteously so.
Admittedly, I haven't left these shores for a while.
That's interesting. I remember a National Lampoon satire on different stereotypes in the 70s. Canada was ridiculed as a nation of boring white backbacon munching accountants and Australia was a land of drunken loudmouth roughnecks whose idea of a good time was to throw up on your car.
ReplyDeleteBoth countries have changed so much since then but some stigmata remains I suppose.
I have a completely unrealistic view of OZ perhaps but I have a romantic notion of it's natural isolation and exotic wildlife (Evolution's Laboratory).
If and When I finally get there I am almost certain that I will never return.
G'day maiite ;-) I come from the land down under...hehehe..
ReplyDeleteA very well-covered summary of Aus. I like it.
whenever I hear of 'Canada' all I think of is snow and the maple leaf :) I have alot of friens in Canada but never visited there. Not yet. Would love to some day. In SUMMA ofcourse!
get the beer outta the eski, throw another shrimp on the barbie and lets just rage ;-)
hooroo!
Keshi.
Form one country? That'd be one mighty long land bridge, wouldn't it? But I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteAt first blush, one might see very little similar between these two oddball nations.
But by pointing out the obvious contrasts that themselves are strikingly and strangely similar in the ways you outline, they become almost carbon copies, or like two countries looking at each other in the mirror.
Fascinating thought, really, all the images that are so different yet so identical, if that is possible.
OK, so let's get all those excess Roos to join those humungous feet together (got to keep those Great Whites away from 'em tho) and we'll chop down a few million maple trees and we'll form a living land bridge to make us one.
Or maybe we could tame some Beluga whales from Churchill and start a trans-oceanic ferry service to unite the Aussies and Canucks.
We'd really have to work on the lingo, tho...Gdday, eh, mate?
Note to Keshi: You can't truly say you're an honorary Canuck unless you sample a winter, Prairie style...
keshi,
ReplyDeleteG'day. When I get to Oz you are welcome to come diving with us to stare at the White Pointers face to face. I hope that you'll be able to withstand my excruciatingly longwinded lectures on sharks. Just keep handing me Rum and eventually I'll change the subject or fall overboard.
Thanks for havin' a lash.
within,
Take off eh! You hosehead.
Good day eh.
I guess that we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. For now let's just start with vegemite sandies, roo bars on the cars and come up with better slang eh?
grumbly,
To hell with the Earth's wobble! Once our countries are united there will be 48 million people wobbling around thanks to all of the free beer (or wobbegonging) as we celebrate the formation of Austranada or Canalia.
If we wait a couple of million years Australia will plow through Antarctica and Canada will meet them at the equator. Hooroo eh!
**hope that you'll be able to withstand my excruciatingly longwinded lectures on sharks
ReplyDeletehaha no probs! Im sure I'll be able to divert ur attention from sharks to some other things pretty soon :):)
**Note to Keshi: You can't truly say you're an honorary Canuck unless you sample a winter, Prairie style...
huh wuts a Prairie style Winter like mate? :):)
Keshi.
I am waiting for you to write on INdia! ( Sulking!!!)
ReplyDeleteBTW, reading your post, I recalled what I had known about these two countries but forgotten!
keshi,
ReplyDeletePrairies style WINTER is like living on the moon. A warm day would be -12C and a cold day can below -30C and skin freezes under a minute. There is sunlight from 9am until 5pm and that's it. Yet somehow life goes on?
gautami,
I shall indeed.
For the benefit of my dear friend within,without please confirm that the correct pronunciation of the mountain range that Americans refer to as the HIM-a-LAY-yaz is actually the him-MALL-yahs.
We have been arguing about this since 1979.
Canadians as "sedated versions of Americans," lol - did you make that up?
ReplyDeleteI might be more inclined to think, "relatively civilized versions of Americans." Guess I should have been born French or something...
HE and Keshi:
ReplyDeletePlease let me add to HE's rather shallow description of what a winter on the bald Canadian prairie is truly like.
Yes, it's -60C at times with the windchill, enough to shrink men's body parts and to fill the almost unbreathably frigid air with so much steam that we can barely see each other.
But those harsh conditions are also the thing that makes sitting around the fireplace such a joy, hot chocolate a prize after an hour of shovelling snow, red cheeks a staple of our expressive faces and street hockey every kid's mandatory mountain to climb.
I'm imagining it must be like enduring the hot weather Down Under, Mate, and the feeling you must get from cooling off in the water off those many beaches.
HE/Gautami:
They may pronounce it Him-ALL-yuhs in beautiful India and thereabouts, but HE is the only individual who pronounces it that way in all of North America. He's so geographically and historically correct.
Stay tuned for my post, coming soon to a theatre near you, on India, the most remarkable place I have ever seen.
There seems to be a "bond" between both countries that is hard to explain. Indeed, I have come in contact with my fair share of Aussies here. I work(ed) with two in the past year.
ReplyDeleteIf you were to ask Canadians where they'd like to travel to if they could go anywhere, I bet at least half would say Australia. I know I would. But why is that?
darius,
ReplyDeleteI've always been under that impression. You notice it when you are visiting other countries. In foreign restaurants for instance waiters will gush over you (except in France of course NYEH!) when they find out that you're Canuck.
We politely ask for things and try not to attract too much (negative) attention. We consider ourselves guests and act accordingly,What a concept!?
Is that subtle enough?????
within,
C'mon cut the crap and quit hoggin' my space. You know that guatami is gonna say him-MALL-yuhs...now bugger off...You've got your own blog..shoo!
hehehehe...see ya 'round 9ish for our weekly rye & reason night.
anonymousblogger,
It is a frickin' lovesfest! I would guess that 80% of Canadians would pick Oz, even if we're separated by a common language.
**Prairies style WINTER is like living on the moon. A warm day would be -12C and a cold day can below -30C and skin freezes under a minute.
ReplyDeletewhoaaa -30! I think I'd just freeze n die :(
WW heyy :)
**Yes, it's -60C at times with the windchill, enough to shrink men's body parts and to fill the almost unbreathably frigid air with so much steam that we can barely see each other
My goodness -60! no ways man I dun think I'll survive that! Im thinking that Aussie Winter is bad enough lol!
**I'm imagining it must be like enduring the hot weather Down Under, Mate, and the feeling you must get from cooling off in the water off those many beaches.
SUMMA is so HAWT in Aus that u can basically fry an egg on a road. But yeah the lovely cooling beaches make up for it :)
Keshi.