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This earlier time became outdated as Australia moved towards national and international shame about having taken this land from Indigenous people and treated them so disrespectfully. It also became outdated as anglo-Australians progressively lost their place as a racial majority Australia moved from a mono-culturalist (anglo-Australian) stance to a multicultural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.

Donna *)

… Donna *)