Australian History 101:

Australian History 101: the story of how Australia adopted Multiculturalism

(Author’s note: This is a hilarious attempt to address a serious issue which is the title. If readers are interested to know more academic articles on this subject, the author recommends that one reads the p3 - p26 of the publication “Goenkars in Western Australia: Voices and images of a vibrant Goan Community” by Jaya Earnest, 2009 Black Swan Press, Curtin University of Technology, 1st Edition, ISBN 9780980631333. However, the author contends that the account is correct and many of the statements can be verified through primary sources. He therefore claims this paper is informed by published literature. There is an element of imaginative conjecture in order to maintain the hilarity of the paper)

By Adolph de Sousa

This is the story of how Australia became a multicultural society from a colonial perspective. There are five phases in the evolution of multiculturalism. They are The Unadulterated Ghetto, The Adulterated Ghetto, The Introduction of Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism in Practice, and The Post Multicultural phase.

The evolution story is unique to Australia because Australian history of Western settlement is different from that of Canada and the USA. Yet this document is aimed at the North American audience in the hope that a comparative analysis may evolve.

The Unadulterated Ghetto (1788-1918)

This was the era when a group of mighty Celts and Anglo Saxons -thereafter referred as the Almighty Celts decided to settle in Australia. They were concerned that the French and the Dutch were nosing around this continent, and they did not want them to claim this land. Of course, they simply took possession of the land. They did not believe they conquered it, even if they had some skirmishes with the inhabitants. In fact, for a long time, they told the story that it was Terra Nullis to their masters back home in England, and in children’s story books. They didn’t bother to find out that for centuries before this land was settled by a few Indonesians. They tolerated the fact that the Japanese pearl haulers had come to Broome, that the Torres people used to cross the straits up north and settle here for extensive periods. They cast a blind eye to the Chinese who came here with the gold rush, whilst being concerned at their growing numbers. They permitted the importation of indentured labourers from the South Seas islands of the Pacific (The Kanakas) and deported them back to their islands (1901) so that they would not increase their population numbers in Australia. As soon as these separate colonies in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth agreed to come together in a federation - given autonomy from their mother country - they tackled the problem of the Chinese by passing the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 on a bipartisan basis (otherwise known as the White Australia Policy). Under this policy some Chinese were helped return to their motherland. Occasionally, - apparently more than occasionally as it now turns out- there were skirmishes with the indigenous who were regarded as fauna, and sometimes shot at with their muskets. No match to those smart arses who were using their poisoned spears. They needed to open up the country and communicate with their mother land, so they brought in the cameleers with their camels – who they called the Afghans from India. You see if you made an analogy, this was like a glass filled to the brim with distilled water. That is why this period is called an Unadulterated Ghetto phase. The Almighty Celts saw all this and it was good. These Celts were tremendously loyal to their motherland. 416,809 enlisted for World War one, of whom 60,000 never returned and a further 156,000 were gassed, wounded or taken prisoner. At 64.8%, the Australian casualty rate (proportionate to embarkation) was amongst the highest of the war. Their bravery in Turkey is immortalised in the Anzac story and solemnly

       

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commemorated each Anzac Day, 25 April – a day more solemn than Good Friday. Newer Australians pay tribute to these diggers who died. They are our ultimate friends because they died for our freedom. Many of us would not have been here today were it not for their sacrifice.

The Adulterated Ghetto (1918 – 1960)

The post War years were difficult. Many returned scarred and struggled hard. Some other people came from Europe, in fact under the radar so to speak, a number of Germans had settled in South Australia and others from Europe had fled some type of persecution and settled here. The Dutch from Dutch East Indies were welcomed. But population growth was small. Before we knew it, they were called to War again in 1939, against the Germans and their allies the Italians and the Ottomans, and the Japanese in the East. Over 1,000,000 enlisted 500,000 went to Europe and North Africa, the rest went to Singapore and Malaysia and fought the war closer to home against the Japanese. Out of a total population of nearly 7 million, nearly 40,000 died in the war. When they returned, they returned to a country struggling to grow. They were so concerned about our small numbers, they said ‘populate or perish’. They were worried about the Japanese having an eye on our land, and later also the Chinese ‘, Vietnamese and that lot of communists spreading across Asia. We signed the Geneva Convention on Refugees, and we began to carefully plan the intake of new migrants from Europe, who were displaced by war, and to all purposes spoke no English. For the Celts at the time, the wogs were found across the English Channel so they had to be careful who they brought. The first load of refugees came from the Baltic States. They were beautiful/handsome women and men with blonde hair and blue eyes. When they landed in Melbourne the press were there and reported very favourably on what they saw. The Almighty Celts saw it was good, and authorised the migration from other parts of Europe; from Italy and Greece and from other Eastern European countries. Now some of these people were darker skinned, particularly the ones from Sicily, but they worked hard. The Almighty Celts saw this was good. After all, bringing them from Europe did not break the White Australia policy. Towards the end of the 1940s there was a challenge to this concept of whiteness. The story goes like this. In 1948 there was a Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in London. India, Pakistan and Ceylon had just got independence. Bob Atlee, the British PM, wanted to raise an issue with the Australians, but he did not want to do that in the presence of these newly independent nations. However, Lord Mountbatten had the ear of the incoming PM, Menzies in 1949. He told Menzies he had a problem and he hoped Menzies could help. He explained that with the independence of India a number of the loyal servants of the British crown were being displaced and would seek to migrate to England. He wanted Australia to share the burden. Menzies came back the next day, and asked for clarification: “who are these Anglo-Indians?” Lord Mountbatten gave a quick explanation, and Menzies inquired: “Does that mean they have blue blood in them? “Of course!” was the retort, and Menzies said then that is fine. You see these Anglo Indians were Christians, spoke English and were familiar with the Celtic ways. So, it wasn’t a matter of colour. The White Australia policy remained unchallenged. So, Anglo-Indians came in large numbers from 1949 onwards. They introduced cricket and hockey, which we passionately love, and they also drank like us Aussies. In fact, some were more English than the English, what more could we ask? So Almighty Celtics saw this was all good. To go back to the to the glass analogy, it was a glass of water, with hardly a few drops of brown oil. These European and Anglo-Indian migrants over time would assimilate and become

 

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honorary Celtics. They would forget their culture – a bit like mixing a bit of orange concentrate in a glass of water and making cordial. You see when a Celt knocked at the door of an Italian family at dinner time, Nonna quickly hid the spaghetti under the dining table before inviting the Celtic into the home. Now over time this was having a disturbing effect on Nonna and the other members of the family. (I will explain later.)

Introduction of Multiculturalism and the abandonment of the White Australia Policy (1961 – 1975)
The Celts said this experiment at orderly settlement was all good. However, they were still very worried about our small population numbers because of the veiled threat from these Asian communists. In fact, they decided to send our young men to Korea, and later to Vietnam to try and stem the hordes coming down our way, with the help of our friends, the Americans. Now there were other places these white Europeans were going – to South America - besides the USA, and Canada which were hard recruiting them. All this made it hard for us to get these ideal settlers. Then one politician who had a very good memory said “weren’t we successful in bringing Anglo-Indians here? – and what good citizens they turned out to be. We should do more of the same”. So, they scouted around the British Empire for more new settlers from places like Africa, and also closer to home - from Burma (the Anglo- Burmese), Singapore, Malaysia (Eurasians), Ceylon (the Burgers) and even Hong Kong. After all these loyal subjects worked as subalterns for us, they understood and spoke in English and they had similar values – and of course many of them were Christians. Our missionaries were a great help. You see we could depend on their recommendations which they made to our embassies in those countries whenever they saw a model migrant. And they helped accommodate them on arrival. Besides they did not have to pay subsidies for these migrants, unlike British migrants. So now not only brown people came, but also yellow and a few so-called coloureds from places like South Africa. And they all, worked hard and settled well. Never mind they were of different colours; they do not think they compromised the precious White Australia policy. They of course selected only the best amongst them like teachers and doctors and engineers, planners – and yes, some brilliant academics – even though some of them were eccentrics. And the Almighty Celts saw all this was good. Now Australia were good members of the UN. They wanted to stay that way, but these new members to this august body were always reminding us we were just like the South Africans and their racist/apartheid policies. So, to make sure we did not discriminate, the Celts extended that experiment of the Anglo-Indians not only to citizens of the British Commonwealth, but also to the rest of the world. Now no one need have spoken English or be brought up under British common law, or even be a Christian, you could apply to migrate here in a non-discriminatory way by satisfying our points system. One of course got extra points if one could speak English. So, to the glass analogy. This glass of water now had more drops of coloured oils, brown, yellow and even black, and the glass remained stable. And the Almighty Celts saw all this was good.

But there remained a few challenges to our world integrity. First some people in these international forums reminded us (Australians) that the way we took care of the indigenous was like we take care of our wildlife and native forests. After all our welfare Officer designated to look after them was in our Department of Fauna, Wildlife and Forests under the so-called legislative Act. So, what did we do? We held a referendum, and our citizens did the sensible thing and said we must give these natives the right to vote. It was a win-win

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situation for everybody – our international critics were silenced for the moment, and besides we suddenly had a jump in our population statistics – such an important thing – to ensure that our enemies knew if they invaded us, we now had many more people to fight for us.
But we were still concerned that our island continent could not be sealed off from unwanted migrants. That was our second challenge. We couldn't build a wall the way Israelis and even Donald Trump did. So, we had to come up with new ideas. The Celts encouraged us new migrants to think outside the box. So, one Anglo-Indian chap who worked in the Geography Department, at the University of Western Australia had this brilliant idea. He said the UN needed a “Law of the Sea”. So, he was appointed to a working party of the UN to help frame this new Law. That is how we determined maritime economic boundaries, where we could fish or drill our wells, safe passage routes under the freedom of navigation principle, and we also determined our sovereign national boundaries from the high tide levels of the oceans. This was a very useful Law. Now we had this constant problem of these Indonesian fishermen travelling in their boats are far as Australia, and even landing here to dry their fish and nets. Some even traded with our natives, what’s more some married them, and they were having offspring who we did not have a say on. They did this for centuries even before these shores were discovered by us. So, when the Law of the Sea became law as it were, precedents were not an issue. We could get these fishermen, confiscate their boats, send them to court, and yes deport them back to where they came from. What’s more we could now burn their boats on the grounds that the wood in them had this deadly furniture eating worm. Besides it was a good lesson – do not mess around with us guys. We did this all in the name of the Law. After all we play by the Rules – don't we? We are a model world citizen

And the Almighty Celts saw all this. They saw it was good.

Oh, and there was one other problem. Do you remember I said Nonna was very unhappy that every time this Celt visited them at tea-time, she had to run to hide her spaghetti under the table, before inviting the Celt in? Now the mighty Celt heard this was having some psychological effect on these otherwise model migrants, so they needed to address the problem. They appointed Galbally, a distinguished Lawyer of Italian descent, to find out what was the problem and to write a report with recommendations. He wrote his report in 1975/6. He said this ‘assimilation’ thing was having a deleterious effect on these new migrants. Why make them lose their heritage he asked? Why try and make them honorary Celts? A much better approach would be to regard them as “multicultural”. Our brothers and sisters were doing this in Canada and other places and see how happy they are? He recognised that over the years the White Australia policy died a natural death and was not implemented. So why draw attention and formally rescind the legislation? Instead lets us adopt multiculturalism as a formal policy. You see, he said I have brought you two glasses to your cabinet room. One glass is full of water, and I will pour cordial. See how it dissolves? That is assimilation. Now look at this other glass of water, I will pour drops of oil, brown ones, yellow ones, coloured ones, and even black ones. I will shake the glass. See how these oils stay separate. But the important thing is that the glass is stable on the table. So, cabinet got the idea and adopted Multiculturalism in Australia from there on. And the Almighty Celtic saw all this, and it was all good. However, good news travelled slowly from Canberra

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to Western Australia. That government decided to a adopt a Multicultural Charter in 2004. To be fair they updated the aims to bring it to the 21C

Multiculturalism in Practice(1975 – 2019)

From now on ethnic foods became popular. A diversity of restaurants developed (before this we could only go to pubs for a meal). We imported spices and we exported chicken feet to Taiwan because nobody eats them here. So general trade benefitted. We could proudly have multicultural concerts with people dressing in their national costumes, even the Scottish and Irish had their contribution to make, and the aboriginals gave their traditional welcome to country and smoke welcome to their ancestors’ spirits – and most of all we respect each other.

Early on some people found it difficult to understand the concept of Multiculturalism. The manager of Curtin Radio (6NR I think it was called), was funded by government to support community programs including providing access to communities who wished to broadcast in their own languages. A visiting African Vice-Chancellor was curious to find out how the station operated. She told him the station broadcasts for 20 ethnic communities, 10 non ethnic communities and the remaining were sports or religious programs. So, he asked her “Do you have non-ethnic communities?” she replied “Yes”. “Oh” he retorted “I feel very sorry for them”. She asked why? He replied they are worse than bastards, then? It was difficult to understand that multiculturism was an all-inclusive term; it included the Celtics the English the Scottish, the Irish as well as all the other immigrants. Therefore, no one can be a non-ethnic. But apart from these initial hiccups the concept got embraced very well. And Almighty Celts saw it was all good.

The English and Language Departments in our universities were also having a field day with these newly arrived migrants. Academics in such Departments love to create a taxonomy to classify people just like botanists do. You see, to be politically correct, they were first referred to as New Australians but then how long could they be regarded as ‘new? Then when migrants came from the crumbling non-Celtic Empire, and spoke little or no English, they were called a people from Non-English-Speaking Background or NESB for short. This was a way for the universities and TAFE institutions to get substantial monies from Government, to make such new arrivals acclimatized to Aussie ways and get jobs. More recently the acronym CaLD was invented. Culturally and Linguistically Diverse is the acronym used to provide for children’s and aged care services so that people from this so-called background could be provided with targeted programs. However, when someone wanted to provide aged care to the Celts under the CaLD programs someone felt it was not appropriate use of funds. Yet when one now looks at the Australian Society as a whole, the concept of CaLD like Multiculturism is an all-inclusive term and there is no such thing as a non- CaLD person. To be a non-CaLD is therefore worse than a bastard!

There were occasional issues that needed to be tackled during this phase. As was said earlier the Western Australian Charter adopted in 2004, brought multicultural practices to the 21C. Better late than never. The new Charter covered things like democratic pluralism, affirming shared responsibilities of all citizens, enshrining the values and ideals of a liberal democracy, ensuring the hallmark of a vibrant democracy where all its citizens have equal

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rights and responsibilities so that they can participate fully in social, economic and cultural life (rather than merely sharing food and dances – my clarification)

Then there was the other problem. Our friends in Canada and the USA, created this one for us. Although they are such generous hearted people and give refuge to the downtrodden, every October or November, their turkeys flee their countries – I think they call it Thanksgiving. Some even fly as far as Australia because of the deadly persecution they face. And now turkey smugglers help them by putting them on these rickety planes and they try to land in Australia. We are so upset about this. The Canadians and the Americans will not tell us who should land here! Only we will determine that. So, we put our thinking hats on again. We negotiated with PNG and the Solomon Islands to build camps on Manaus Island and on Solomon Island. These turkeys are taken there directly; when these planes are spotted, we send our fighter planes to redirect them to those islands. And there we ‘process’ their claims for refugee status. You see this way we do not face the very difficult problem to accept their claims for asylum simply because they have landed here and more importantly, we have not broken any rule of the UN. What’s more we allow the UN representatives to assess their claims after we have done that to ensure there are no terrorists amongst them. By the UN declaring they are genuine refugees, they then go on a register which can then be taken up by other countries like Canada, NZ and the USA, and there is no obligation on us to do the same. In fact, we will not touch such refugees, otherwise the turkey smugglers will think that their model is successful in getting settlers to come to Australia. And the Almighty Celts saw all this, and it was all good. People were living in harmony in this Garden of Eden.

The Almighty Celts have seen what has been happening elsewhere with this Multicultural project. In England there were riots by Pakis and the West Indians who live in these multicultural ghettos. Yes, it was okay to have adulterated ghettos in days gone by even though one would prefer unadulterated ghettos before then, but to have multicultural ghettos is a no-no. They noted with alarm the disturbance on Bondi beach by these Lebanese thugs who tend to concentrate in the Lakemba area of Sydney, an area where there is a high concentration of Moslems. Also, Parramatta is becoming a Little India, Cabramatta is almost all Vietnamese. Isn’t it nice to have suburbs like Waterford where they are truly multicultural? Adolph best describes Waterford when he says one neighbour is Pakistani, another is Chinese (mainland), another Chinese from Singapore, another an Italian, yet another an Irish etc etc? That’s what is ideal multiculturalism isn’t it? Adolph so aptly and proudly states they have occasional afternoon teas, and everybody brings a plate. The Chinese brings moon cake, the Italian brings a cheese board with a bottle of wine, the Pakistani brings barfi, Adolph makes samosas, and the English brings scones. Is that not perfect multiculturalism in action?

Another issue are these indigenous people. They say Australia Day is a day for mourning for them, not a day to celebrate because James Cook landed here. Some even have the audacity to say it is “Invasion Day!” 26 January is not only India’s Republic Day but also Australia Day where we go out on this public holiday and celebrate. Not mourn! So Almighty Celts needed to consult them. They said ‘I hear you. You go and decide what you want and come back to us.’ So, these Aboriginal people had a big conference in the middle of the desert and came out what is now known as “The Uluru Declaration: A statement from

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the heart”. In it they set out certain claims and most of all they want a Voice in the way decisions are made for this country and, on matters affecting them. This is too hard for the almighty Celts. We cannot change the Constitution to have a third Chamber for the first nations only. We have a bicameral system of governance, that is hard enough to manage. We do not need this added complication – do we?

The Post Multicultural Phase: a work in Progress (2020 - ?)

In 2020, Covid started to delay the progress of Multiculturalism – to the relief of some Almighty Celts. But they are going to have to address them.

First, they heard that this Adolph was asking some questions to what a peaceful arrangement is already. He says he cannot walk the streets of Waterford in his Zanzibar Kanzu and cap without everybody turning around and seeing what the hell is gone wrong with him. To their relief they have established his spouse thinks the way of the Celts. She simply said “Now that is going too far! I do not want to walk next to you if you are going out in that outfit!” So, what is Adolph’s argument. He is simply saying that if he walked the streets in Mumbai in his Zanzibar clothes, nobody would turn around and raise eyebrows. He cannot do that in Waterford at the moment. Now the Almighty Celt is thinking about a policy response to this issue.

Second and more importantly, we need to see how the indigenous can be brought into the equation. Multicultural and Indigenous people agree on one thing. How can we all become the Almighty Australians and include the Almighty Celts in it? They both want their voices heard.

When the author gave this curriculum for Australian Studies to his Nyoongar friend to check the draft, he came back and said: “Adolph, your Australian Studies 101 only goes back a little over 200 years. What about the 50 000 years we lived in this land?”. Gee weez, I knew that was coming. Now I have to start all over again with a clean slate. I agree, that until I do that there is no hope for Reconciliation in our nation.

Epilogue

Following the advice of the aboriginal sage, I started to write again on a blank page. I soon realised it was an enormous task. How could one write a history going back fifty thousand years in a mere seven pages? I would need to seek a sabbatical in some university. Besides I do not know if the Almighty has given me that much time to accomplish that here on earth.

So, I paused and thought about it. I said “What indeed if this was Terra Nullis? What if in this Garden of Eden, Eve did not eat the apple and send us to earth? Instead, if Adam and Eve procreated, but their children came out white, black, yellow, brown and all shades in between. Would we all share this piece of paradise equally? With dignity and respect for one another?

Going back to the glass analogy. What if the glass were not filled with water in the first instance? What if it were filled with milk? Milk provided by our Mother God. What if it was

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her mother’s milk – a heavenly gift to us. And we her children of different colours all drank this milk? What if we poured drops of different oils into this milk? White oil, Black oil, yellow oil, brown oil and all other oils in between these colours.

That then is Ultimate Multiculturalism.
Therefore, Multiculturalism in Australia is a work in progress. Adolph de Sousa

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