Both my parents were born in Australia, all my grand parents were born in Australia and the vast majority of my great grand parents were born in Australia. My non-Australian heritage, as distant as it may be, is comprised largely of Irish and Scottish background with a healthy dose of English and I’m told a tiny fraction of French but we don’t like to talk about that. The closest I have to an ethnic identity is Irish Catholic if you could call that an ethnic identity in modern Australia. My point being that I’m as Anglo and Aussie as a person could be. I’m also male but I’m not sure how relevant this is.

Simpson has no significance to me. I don’t want to detract from the great man that the history books tell me he was (nor do I dispute this) but he is irrelevant to me. To me, when I think about Australia and what it is to be Australian I don’t think about Simpson. Moreover, I honestly have no idea what he is meant to represent to me as an Australian. Maybe this is because I’m 25. But I doubt it. To be honest I’m not even sure if he served in the first or second world war.

I’ve asked a few people today what Simpson means to them. To anyone under 40 I’ve asked just doesn’t care or doesn’t know what Simpson represents.

Is he meant to represent a ‘fair go’? To me, my grandfather’s experience in the second world war is far more defining of what it is to be an Australian. He was stationed in Papua New Guinea and was a doctor in the army. He doesn’t really talk about the war much other than amusing anecdotes about getting drunk with a few larrikins and so on - the good times I guess. He doesn’t like to relive the bad times so much. But from what I can gather he was told not treat the natives (unfortunately he still refers to them as ‘boongs’ or something along those lines). He flatly refused his orders and continued to treat them. Then when threatened with disciplinary action he threatened to go to the papers about how his superiors were letting these people die unnecessarily and continued to treat them. Needless to say this then when on unchallenged

It represents a few things. Firstly a very basic but unmovable humanity - above all else. Despite the occasionally outrageously racist comment my grandfather may make there is still a very basic respect and compassion for all humanity. Secondly a complete disdain for authority, a trait I’ve certainly inherited from my grandfather. It’s an acknowledgment that this humanity is often not derived from authority but from a sense of respect and decency. It seems very basic to me.

I’m a very proud Australian. A friend of mine and I often argue about the merits of patriotism. While he loves Australia he’s an internationalist through and through and sees patriotism as the source of entirely too much violence and negativity in the world. Not me though. I love this country and stand proud when I say I’m Australian. To do this I also have to acknowledge our past and present injustices. I also feel compelled to work to address these injustices because I love this country so much. When your best mate really fucks up, you don’t abandon them and keep going, you stop and pick them up - that’s human decency, that’s Australian.

Clearly I’m a bit emotional about this. Pride will do that. Then I read about Howard and Nelson saying that to be Australian is to be like Weary Simpson and it makes me feel sick. There is no human decency in this statement. There is no stopping to pick people up. There is no defying of authority to help someone.

Perhaps a necessary part of this Australian identity is having people like this to fight against, to hold in disdain. However we certainly don’t need these people to try and tell us about what it is to be Australian - particularly when they evoke dated and irrelevant symbolism that simply means nothing to me and is insulting to so many non-Anglo, but 3rd generation Australians.

Then I start to think about symbolism itself. It’s always tricky and ultimately if you deconstruct any symbolism it is absurd. Conservatives tend to cling to symbolism, particularly older symbolism - that’s what it means to be conservative. To conserve the past, and as sociologists will tell us, symbolism is massively important to all cultures. So if symbolism is so important to the federal government then why haven’t they said ’sorry’ yet? When it comes to this symbolic gesture they all of a sudden become highly ‘pragmatic’.

Then I remember the symbolism of my grandfather and what that means to me. It reminds me what it is that I’m proud to be - Australian - and how that’s something that is worth fighting for. It’s worth fighting for us as a nation to say ’sorry’ and to fight for everyone in Australia to be treated above all else with a basic human decency. A human decency that admits past injustices and works towards a better nation for all of its inhabitants no matter who they are. A decency that acknowledges the contributions that non-Anglos have made to this country.

The example of my grandfather is relevant to me. Simpson is not. As a country we’ve much to be proud of but we need symbols that are relevant. The example of my grandfather is relevant to me but not to you I suspect. Why not find your own act of human decency that you can draw on to evoke what it is to be Australian to you.

I kind of like the image of Gough Whitlam poring sand into the hand of Vincent Lingiari but I’ll let you come up with your own.

Update: Yes, yesterday this read ‘Dunlop’, not Simpson. My bad - it’s what happens when you read a bunch of stuff then wait until lunch time to blog on it.