Steve Irwin, icon, Australian, environmentalist, Mensch.
US icon, Steve Irwin, died yesterday doing what he loves; working with animals.
Wildly vibrant, Steve Irwin was a ‘rough diamond’, a diamond in the mud that sparkles for those who see past the bits of mud. A massive icon in the US where he was a refreshing, honest, straight forward, passionate walking inspiration, here in Australia, Steve Irwin had a smaller following and in his own words on the tribute show last night on Andrew Denton’s ‘Enough Rope’, Steve talked of Aussies finding him ‘a bit of a joke’, an embarassment.
I find this sad fact to be about the embarassing nature of how Aussies cut down Aussies, ashamed of almost anyone ‘home grown’, including many of its own talented indigenous people.
Steve Irwin was idiosyncratic to the max and as such he barely noticed the ’social normality’ most people are perhaps too conscious of to their own detriment. This idiosyncratic nature allowed him to be a raving non-conformist, to be blatantly honest, to innovate, to believe he could do the impossible; even buy up vast areas of land for the conservation of endangered species around the world.
Whilst Steve had no problem blowing his own trumpet he was no narcissist. He was an exhuberant character who lived life as if it was to be celebrated every day, including the appreciation of one’s own existance among that of others; human, animal and all of nature alike and equal.
Steve Irwin epitomises the Aussie ‘dag‘ the person who is so self-owning, so non-conformist they let it all hang out, the opposite of self conscious. Given all the harm we do to ourselves and others through our over-developed self consciousness, Steve Irwin reminds us spiritually, that there are other ways to live our lives.
Stung in the heart by sting ray, perhaps one of the strangest deaths of any human being, it is perhaps poetic given that Steve Irwin, like so many idiosyncratic people so seemingly ‘off in their own world’, probably knew on a soul level that people needed to open their hearts to the plight of native and endangered species, to realness and caring and each other.
Steve Irwin lives on in those he has touched in so many ways and in the legacy of habitat he has left behind for those he spoke up for; animals who we so often never listen to.
author, artist, screenwriter, eccentric.
[…] Update: Donna, my lovely wife, has written a nice piece about Steve Irwin. […]
Here in Wales, (the old one, not the New South one), the tragedy was the topic of conversation everywhere we went. As one naturalist said on TV here, if everyone who feels sad about this awful happenning puts a pound in the conservation pot… what a wonderful legacy that would be.
RIP
Very true, or at least visit the sanctuaries and realise what they do. They are peaceful places and the proceeds benefit the sanctuary which gives some safe space to many endangered animals made homeless and foodless by our growing concrete jungles.
… Donna *)
It would be good to save whatever that is left & we’re so guilty of destroying the earth for our future generations. Steve Irwin would be turning in his grave if we don’t change our ways & our planet would be too hostile to live.
I’m with you on that Eleni
Thanks for the nice piece. It breaks my heart to know that he was kind of a joke to Aussies, yet at the same time makes me think “What’s wrong with them?!” Maybe his personality was larger than life, too big for many, but he did more for our world than those nay sayers. Even if they have something nasty to say of him, I hope they can realize the greatness of the legacy he has left behind.
I think the issue is actually not about Steve Irwin, I think its about him as a cultural icon representative of Australia and Australians. If his detractors look at what he stood for as an environmentalist and someone respectful of indigenous culture and social diversity, they may realise their embarrassment reflects more on their own feelings about being Australian than on him.
Australia used to be renowned for its love of eccentrics. Perhaps modern ‘global culture’ driven by sniping gossip mags and snicker-style ‘reality’ TV diets changes us, made us more judgmental , petty as a culture, or maybe we were all along but just hid it and as society got more blatant, less subtle, the hypocrisy shone through. I don’t know.
We are also renowned for the ‘tall poppy’ syndrome in which its a cultural trend to fight for the underdog but once they rise to any kind of acclaim cut then down as publicly as possible. Not much of a cultural phenomenon to be proud of but all cultures have their own dominant ones.
We are a very multicultural society. Steve certainly was the iconic blond ‘anglo Aussie’ with the associated broad ‘ocker’ accent (an accent associated with anglo Australians going back many generations). Perhaps some of his detractors found this an uncomfortable reflection on the days when many anglo Aussies proudly saw themselves as ‘true blue’ (’real’ Aussies) not among other non-Anglo Australians, but somehow more Australian than others. I think this would have been a projection onto Steve who was certainly an egalitarian.
This earlier time became outdated as Australia moved towards national and international shame about having taken this land from Indigenous people and treated them so disrespectfully. It also became outdated as anglo-Australians progressively lost their place as a racial majority Australia moved from a mono-culturalist (anglo-Australian) stance to a multicultural one in the 1970s. Today’s Australia is far more multicultural and pro-diversity than the Australia of the pre 1940s.
A large percentage of Australian’s progressively can’t identify with the ‘anglo Aussie’ image as ‘true blue’ and see it as a stereotype.
But, for those who look more deeply, Steve Irwin had a great respect for Indigenous people of this country and saw himself AMONG Australians of all racial backgrounds.