Being an Australian

Emily asked me to blog about being "native to Australia". I've never been anything else, which makes it kind-of hard to write about, but here goes...

Culture
I was born in Australia. So were my parents. So were their parents and their parents and ... you get the idea. About seven generations ago one of my ancestors came out to Australia from England; Cornwall, I think it was. But Australia is becoming a lot more "multicultural" these days. My sister-in-law is the daughter of immigrants from Italy. My brother-in-law married a lady from Singapore who he met at university here in Australia. The congregation of my church is probably two-thirds first or second generation immigrants on any given Sunday, with many people in particular from Singapore and South Africa. The Ministry of the Word candidate at our church came to us from Indonesia. When I was a private school teacher in Darwin, I worked mainly with Aboriginal students, and came to appreciate the cultural divide between us. This diversity is one aspect of life in Australia today.

Religion
I am a Christian. I was brought up within the Uniting Church and was amember for a while of a Baptist church. My theology is fairly conservative, reformed and evangelical (and I could add many other labels, but I won't bore you.) What I mean when I write those things probably differs from an American definition, however. By conservative, I don't mean legalistic, I just mean something more along the lines of orthodox (not to be confused with Orthodox, however.) Reformed is broadly equivalent to Protestant, with the added understanding that I trace the history of my doctrinal inheritance from the Calvinist reformers rather than simply the Church of England. And by evangelical... well, in America that seems to mean you believe in the need for a personal rather than inherited faith, as evidenced from being "born again" - am I right in this? Anyway, when I use this term I concur with the personal faith issue but I would also place emphasis in the need for both evangelisation of non-Christians and discipleship of Christians as the two central "good works" of the worldwide Christian Church; and in the centrality of the inerrant word of God, His Bible, in these two activites (and indeed all Christian life and theology.) In Australia, evangelical is pretty much the opposite of liberal, in terms of definitions - although I am sure not everyone would agree with me, particularly those who claim the title liberal.

Sport
In Australia our men play Australian Rules football (which is *nothing* like American football) and rugby, with soccer rising in popularity. Other popular sports are tennis, cricket and swimming (summer) and netball (womens' winter sport). I grew up orienteering and also have rogained for much of my adult life. Rogaining is a home-grown sport, having been invented by Australian bushwalkers who wanted "something more". Rogaining is sort-of an extreme sport version of orienteering, with regular 12- and 24-hour events where you plan a route through bush (in England that would be "natural countryside" - what do they call this in America?) The aim is to find checkpoints to obtain the most points possible in the given timeframe. This might not be the most well-known sport, but it is growing in popularity, here and internationally.

Shopping
In Australia, we don't have as long a history of local manufacturing industry as in America and as a consequence many things cost a lot more here than they would there. And what is it with shopping coupons in America? We have nothing even remotely like that here. Sure, we have catalogue sales, but... well, suffice it to say that Gayle from Grace for Gayle posted on her new blog The Grocery Cart Challenge that she bought three loaves of bread for $2.67 a few days ago. This is about what I would pay for *one* loaf of bread. Except that we have a breadmaker, which I should obviously use more often in order to save money from our meagre budget...

Politics
Australia just had an election and elected the (left-wing) Labour party to replace the (more right-wing) Liberal party which had been in power federally for over a decade. I cannot comment on my opinion on this change as here in Australia, it is generally considered impolite to discuss politics aloud. With anyone other than your spouse, and if they disagree with you, you're better off not talking to them about it either. In Australia, everyone over 18 is legally required to vote, unless they somehow manage to get themselves removed from the electoral role, like my father-in-law who lives overseas.

Spelling
In Australia, we can spell correctly. I'm sorry, but sox just doesn't cut the mustard. It's socks. And grey, not gray. And -ise, rather than ize. And... I could go on, but I don't want to alienate anyone too much.

This is what it means to be Australian. Some of it, anyway. I hope that helps you understand me better, Emily.