Holy Moly,
I forgot to add. Many aboriginals, or even the majority, these days can claim some other heritage as well.

Ginx, you have, perhaps deliberately, misinterpreted my post. I am sure you realise that there are many native born Australians who are descendants of migrants. Those native born descendants are obviously NOT immigrants—they are native Australians. Take the example of a young Australian girl I know with Greek great grandparents. She is often distressed by people asking her about the Greek culture and implying that she is Greek when in fact she simply thinks of herself as Australian. She wants (and deserves) to be thought of as Australian. Yet, and I think this comes about because of the misconception that all Australians are immigrants, people continually think of her and refer to her as Greek.

Australians like her are made to feel they don’t belong here because, instead of being honoured as native Australians, they are told they are immigrants. Consequently many feel a need to seek their cultural identity from the country their descendants came from. Is this one of the reasons why so many young people leave our shores? How can we expect them to feel a strong sense of place and connection to the land and the country if they do not see themselves as natives?

What would I call Australia? Marvellous. A marvellous country of diversity.

What history books are you reading (or misreading) Foxy? The First Fleet did not bring 1000 convicts. There were 1400 people who sailed from Portsmouth on 13th May 1787 of which 780 were convicts. Furthermore I cannot imagine any history book, certainly not any recently published, claiming the 780 convicts were English. Many of them were Irish for a start! What they may have said was that ‘the First Fleet carried convicts from England to Australia’ or words to that effect. Such a statement does not claim the convicts were English.

A very common and well known convict story is the story John ‘Black’ Caesar a convict of African parentage so I don’t know where you get the idea we are taught that convicts were English.

But I am intrigued at your implication that just because someone’s ancestors may have been from ‘Ceylon, from India, from Spain, from Portugal, from Hungary’ that person is an immigrant and not a native Australian.

Yes, Banjo, I agree, if we use the term ‘immigrant’ in the general sense then it is indeed just like saying ‘we are all humans’. However I am referring to the implications of using ‘immigrant’ as a descriptive term for Australia as though it separates this country from others because of its immigrants. Labels narrow the focus and can exclude as much as they can include. Any label applied to Australia is going to be inadequate. This is a country that is neither New World nor Old World, yet has a modern culture and an ancient culture. It includes a land that is home to the people of the world’s oldest continuing culture, a nation that began as a penal colony, has an ancestry that embraces a kaleidoscope of religions, races and backgrounds.

Dear Holy Moly,

The source of my information is a textbook called, "The Changing Australians : A Social History," by Sue Fabian. It's a History text book - issued as part of the High School Curriculum for Year 9 Students. It belongs to my son.

If you truly believe that we are a country to which migrants have made a valuable and richly diverse contribution - that we are all part of the tapestry of being Australian - why would you deny migrants the recognition that you claim you're being denied?

I don't understand. I don't have a problem with all of us being -
Australians - I take that for granted - that indeed we are. But to say that "Australia is not an immigrant nation," is to deny it's heritage - yours, mine, and ours!

Your response to me makes your point a little clearer I'll grant, but I am still perplexed by your denial of immigrant influence in the building of this nation, Australia.

Foxy's last post puts the point very accurately.

Further;-YOU referred to Australia-labelling. my point was that we ALL refer to Australia as...well,..Australia! I cannot see your point there either, I really can't.