tauris29,
I disagree with you. No person can discribe his/her culture in 50 words or less and I consider it an insult to even ask that of anyone, of any culture. There is so many facets of a culture that makes this task impossible. One could not even list the number of facets that go into the making of a culture in 50 words.

I am sure that there are many of aboriginal blood that could tell you why they believe they are the historical owners and how it was taken from them. This is not unusual. In world history there have been countless invasions, takeovers and deals done in relation to land. This has happened many time to the one country sometimes and even complete nations of people have vanished.

All human cultures deserve much more than 50 words. More like 500 pages.

50 words or less is not something that I seriuosly proposed Banjo..

But the fact still remains and in actual fact if one thinks about it..we can scale it down to 50 words or less..

Culture for Indigenoius people comes down to ..'traditions and sacred sites being the spiritual heart for Indig. pple...lands hunted thru the ages by countless generations who previuosly took care of it.The cycle of life and death , lessons learned by ancestors thru the ages then passed down to successive generations.'
I believe that is under 50 words..

So how does that compare to BBQs..beer..sheilas..and cricket..sounds a lot like old mother England to me.

Taurus... u are missing an important point.

yes.. it's true that 'white man' came here and disposessed the indigenous people. Sad.. regrettable but true.

This therefore puts a mark in time as to when the country in it's white incarnation was founded. So, its young.

This does not mean it doesn't have a culture. The people who came here had one each. Mostly they were English. Then Irish, then Welsh and Scottish. Each one had a culture, and would have had to adapt it to 2 things

a) The new circumstances
b) The other cultural forces among them (Irish etc)

So, what we ended up with is a modified cultural mix, which in time, distilled itself to 'Australian' Culture.

Then, we had the Wars and post WW2 we had a large intake of Migrants from non traditional countries.

Now, I expect those cultures to be absorbed, to adapt themselves and along with the English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh founders, to build a hybrid, assimilated, homogenous culture in the same manner.

We will of course be enriched by various new foods, and possibly some dress sense, but it must happen by 'osmosis' and natural gravitational movement, not by a policy of 'Multi culturalism'.

Intermarraige should be encouraged and migrants should be asked to COMMITT to the idea of their children marrying a person of THEIR choice, rather than a choice of the parents. This will speed up assimilation.

Yes David, some people seem to lack commonsense on this subject.

This is the end of another piece I wrote a while back.

It has been said that even though Australian "cultural" achievements are recognised world wide, in areas that are considered "high - culture"; film, music, painting, theatre, dance, literature and crafts - that it is difficult to discern much about Australian culture by just examining them. Traditional "high - culture" gains little attention from much of the population, in contrast to popular culture is no surprise in Australia. "High - culture" still thrives nevertheless, with excellent galleries (even in surprisingly small towns); a rich tradition in ballet, enlivened by the legacy of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Sir Robert Helpmann; a strong national opera company based in Sydney; and good symphony orchestras in all capital cities, particularly the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras.

As the Australian landscape is defined not by it's small mountains, but by the vast "sweeping" barren plains, Australian culture is probably best defined by looking at the less prominent, by considering it's more subtle and pervasive aspects. Perhaps this is why so many people consider Australia culture-less... a case of not being able to see the forest for the gum-trees.

As I have said before...

We want others to join us as Australians and change with us… not force change upon us, or be separate from us.

Various links with thoughts on our CULTURE...

http://home.alphalink.com.au/~eureka/cult.htm
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/index.htm
http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/culture.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Australia
http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/bev2000/strine.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/civics/globalcitizens/ozstrine.htm
http://www.whitehat.com.au/Australia/Inventions/InventionsA.html
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/inventions.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/04/1067708214342.html?from=storyrhs
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:Gtabcp56zocJ:www.radioaustralia.net.au/australia/pdf/popular_culture.pdf+australian+sporting+culture&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/nationalities/Australian.html

In immigration, you need a more tangible basis of assessment than merely describing 'culture'. This is because it all comes down to a yes/no answer when assessing a potential migrant.

If taurus29's 'culture' is the basis of assessment, then a lot of indigenous aborigines from Africa, Papua New Guinea and Bornea would come to Australia because they fit in so well.

To formulate a tangible assessment policy. I reiterate my thinking the best starting points are:

1. How likely will a migrant abide by principles of western liberal democracy
2. What type (eg. age group, relationship), skills, race of migrants to accept.
3. How many and in what proportion.

There must be no political correctness. Be 'racist' if you have to.

tauris29,
I don't wish to be critical but what you have written is what I would call a motherhood statement and would suit as introduction to a paper on the culture of any group. Certainly the beginning of a foreword for a book on any aboriginal culture in the world.

It does not give me any idea of the aboriginal culture in Australia, either contempory or of past times. What is required is wording about their tribal structure, inter tribal relations, their family life, their traditions, whether different tribes had different laws, coming of age social events, what foods and how prepared, how various tasks were allocated and by whom, marriage. etc. etc. This may all have to be repeated if the northern people had a different culture than the southern people, or the coastal differed from the western or inland people.

This is why i say it cannot be done in 50 words. One can make comments about various aspects of a culture, but not a culture.