Let’s face it, who doesn’t want to wear a KFC bucket hat at the SCG and scream abuse at the Poms? Surely that’s the gold standard in one-eyed Aussie devotion. But is going completely “berko” during sporting rivalries really the best channel for national pride?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy brandishing an inflatable roo with the best of them and belting out slurred chants after only a handful of beers is my forte. Perhaps I’m sipping on the wrong brand of turps but I’m beginning to think that our patriotic fervour is wildly misdirected.
Take social commentators, Peter Fitzsimons and Mike Carlton, for example, both of whom I admire for their journalistic flair. Hardly a day goes by without them bemoaning the short comings of our flag or lamenting the failings of the national anthem.
I don’t see them getting too hot and bothered about the real threats to our country. Is the demise of the Great Barrier Reef on their radar? Is fracking the beautiful Kimberley causing them lost sleep? Is the predicted extinction of koalas sparking any vitriol?
The land we cherish is being poisoned, polluted, felled, mined, cleared and dredged like there’s no tomorrow. To use a sporting metaphor…it’s being flogged all over the park.
Far fewer Northern Hairy Nosed wombats now exist than China’s much venerated Pandas. Can’t our sense of civic loyalty be galvanised to give these embattled Aussies some rabid support?
If you love this country so much – not as a jingoistic construct but as a place of deep connection – then surely, by comparison, the design on a flag should fade into insignificance.
To me, the real patriots are people like Miranda Gibson, who sat in a giant tree for over a year in Tasmania’s forests attempting to stop rapacious logging or Jonathan Moylan who was hauled through the courts for trying to save Leard State Forest from Whitehaven Coal obliteration. There are many local environmental heroes on the Northern Beaches too. Three of them have recently achieved prominence and should not go under our radar.
Scott Daines received the NSW Nature Conservation Council’s award for Outstanding Volunteer Service this year. In 2019 he was co-recipient of the Bob Brown Foundation’s “Environmentalist of the Year” award. Born and bred in Manly he’s been a long-time activist against logging, fossil fuel extraction and biodiversity loss across Australia.
Sue Lennox was a teacher at Freshwater High school before establishing the environmental charity OzGreen. She’s since developed sustainability programs in 1,600 locations across Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Pakistan. In 2020 she became NSW Senior Australian of the Year.
Helen Kvelde, formerly of Manly Vale, is a member of climate activist group the “Knitting Nannas”. In 2022 she helped launch a successful legal challenge in the NSW Supreme Court against draconian new laws targeting peaceful environmental protesters. Any coincidence that all three have campaigned to Save Manly Dam from development threats?
Let’s indeed get behind the Wallabies, Kangaroos, Wallaroos and other eponymous “true-blue” sports teams. But spare a thought for the actual creatures they’re named after and the lands they live on. They need your unwavering allegiance too!
1 Comment
Great article Mal – I would add that our climate is collapsing around our ears, we are still opening coal mines and gas fracking that will kill 25m people – yeah that’s right more than our entire population, mostly of our own kids generation (if my sums are right). NOTHING will kill nature in all its forms more than climate collapse, but we are delusionally complacent to this existential threat.