That comes from a marvellous blog entry I discovered just recently: Australia’s Secret History as a Racist Whites-Only Utopia by Matt Novak. Not so secret actually, but people do forget and not everyone is 80 like me! Or can reach back to when that song was a thing. My mother was born the year after, and her parents — Roy and Ada Christison — I of course remember very well. Here they are around the time I was born.
They score a mention in a Facebook rant I did yesterday about Matt Novak;s post.
A must read if ever there was! We cannot be complacent about where we came from and what many in our own families thought. My lovely gentle grandmother Ada for example would probably have made Pauline happy! She believed — as far as I recall things she said — that all the problems of Australia were because of the Irish, that Greeks and Italians were barely white, “lived off the smell of an oily rag”, and sent all their money overseas to bring more of their kind out. She also loved Liberace and could make a mean brawn — that’s a jellied meat thing for those who don’t know. Her husband Roy was much more open — spoke to the Italian migrant neighbours and admired them, but was still a subscriber to The Bulletin when it still had Australia for the White Man on its masthead. Least bigoted man you could hope to meet, especially in the 40s and 50s when Grandma Ada was pretty much the norm — at least among the non-Irish. My paternal Whitfield Irish ancestry was at least Orange rather than Green…. After all they were Plantation Irish — but maybe Quakers, which is a tad radical at least….
Yes I am sure they generally voted for Mr Menzies….
I say all this because a friend recently referred to the great writer Arundhati Roy’s views on Winston Churchill. And yes Churchill had appalling views on race — but so did almost everyone of his generation who subscribed to the fantasy of a British Race that science after all since Darwin had been able to prove was the pinnacle of evolution! Why they had all those skulls in the museums to prove the point — I recall even in The Australian Museum in Sydney seeing Aboriginal skulls on display! And yes Churchill had appalling views on Arabs and Palestinians. (So did most Anzacs and Light Horsemen in WW1 if you care to look.)
However Churchill never went as far down the race superiority fantasy as the Nazis did — for whom it was pure science. So obvious the Aryan Race was the pinnacle of evolution and we needed selective breeding and elimination of inferior species to save mankind and push evolution forward! Shame the Aryan Race never actually existed though….
Pity about all those dead Jews, not to mention Slavs and other Untermenschen…. But survival of the fittest rules, eh. And Francis Galton’s crackpot ideas about eugenics were regarded as scientific not only by the Nazis but by many eminent Australians early last century.
But by God we all should be grateful that Churchill stepped up in 1940! My God we should!
Facile judgements and moralising about the past can be good for our ego or sense of worthiness — but it is also dangerous ground. So read this and think. It is an excellent presentation.
Totally setting up the creep Tom Buchanan who echoes the fashionable racism of the 1920s …. not only in America!
“Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?”
“Why, no,” I answered, rather surprised by his tone.
“Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be — will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”
“Tom’s getting very profound,” said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. “He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we ——”
“Well, these books are all scientific,” insisted Tom, glancing at her impatiently. “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
“We’ve got to beat them down,” whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun.
“You ought to live in California —” began Miss Baker, but Tom interrupted her by shifting heavily in his chair.
“This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and ——” After an infinitesimal hesitation he included Daisy with a slight nod, and she winked at me again. “— And we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization — oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?”
There was something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
“I’ll tell you a family secret,” she whispered enthusiastically. “It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose?”
The Rise of the Colored Empires was a real book, Well, in fact The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920) by one Lothrop Stoddard. Very popular in Germany in fact. Nowadays of course we have crackbrained conspiracy theories about the “Great Replacement”. Insanity is never far away….
The Commonwealth Film Unit here in Oz has over the years made many documentaries, some awful, many really excellent, all of course propaganda either for home or overseas consumption, sometimes both. I have recently enjoyed a 1969 offering. available through the excellent National Sound and Film Archive.
The NFSA’s mission is to collect, preserve and share Australia’s vibrant and diverse audiovisual culture as embodied by our evolving collection – reflecting who we were, who we are, and who we want to be.
Audiovisual technologies enable us to capture moments in time: moving image and sounds in their most vivid forms. At over 3 million items, the NFSA collection transforms these records into ‘living memories’ – the many facets of Australia’s peoples, cultures, ideas and beliefs, both over time and across the land.
The collection invites all Australians to connect, no matter their background and life experiences, and find common ground and a shared sense of community. All can access it to celebrate our cultures and learn from our history to build a better future.
The particular item I saw is After Cook (1969):
Made by The Commonwealth Film Unit 1969. Directed by Donald Murray. Narrated by John Meillon. A survey of everyday life throughout Australia, emphasising the outdoor and rural element contrasted with modern, urban living and culture. A look at the Australian people, their character, attitudes and way of life. Every three years or so Film Australia made a general film on Australia. At its most basic the film would have a landscape sequence, then a farming sequence, then transport, then cities, then sport and night life. It would probably contain a mining explosion, a ballet class, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and kookaburras. After the first few films, the makers tried to find a new approach – to present its as a quiz show, or a computer report, or a film script conference. After Cook had as its working title ‘Fellow Countrymen’. Helped by the fact that it was made on 16mm with practicable synchronous sound, it is in its final version the warmest and one of the least predictable of all the general ‘Australia’ films.
Here are a few stills I captured:
A steelworker
Political demonstration in Sydney advocating — successfully — lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
Shopping at Paddy’s Market, Sydney
Volunteer firefighters — bushfire in Sutherland Shire. Rather more sophisticated nowadays.
Family at a picnic playing cricket
CWA — Country Women’s Association — meeting
Country school-teacher
Ballet class
And so many more vignettes, so evocative for me — — some great footage of people going about their business in a very different Australia. This is the place I knew when in my first school appointment, Cronulla High, almost a lifetime away! In fact the Class of 1968, who have their own special private group on Facebook — I am a member! — are now like me septuagenarians! Can you believe it?
#Strongwomen. "I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it." Kristin Armstrong
All abandoned: Chernobyl / Pripyat, Nara Dreamland, Anti-Zombie Fortress, Japanese Sex Museum - and many, many more! Plus: North Korea Special - 2 trips, 16 days / 14 nights! As seen on CNN...
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