Multiculturalism, National Identity and the Republic

Nyadol Nyuon, lawyer, human rights advocate, Chair of Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change addresses the National Press Club in Canberra. On the Australian version of multiculturalism, Nyuon says it needs to “come of age” and recognise that our national identity and power structures are still held by a patriarchal Anglo-Saxon monoculture. WfaAR comment: this sentiment further reveals the complexity of our emerging national identity reflected in many progressive issues concerning the country’s future. Forging a settled national identity is a constant evolution Australia shares with all former British colonies predominantly European in their establishments and retaining the British monarch as Head of State atop a population of many ethnicities. The coming Australian Republic, where the country pulls its final connection to the British and goes it alone while retaining the good principles of governance bequeathed to the new nation by its colonisers and our own high aspirations of modernity post Federation – that we lost sight of after WWII – is at the intersection of all this complexity. Tellingly, Nyuon also commented that “there is little appetite or tradition in Australia for grand statements”. We know.