There’s currently a proposal to have formal citizenship tests for would-be Australian citizens. While I’m all for encouraging the learning of English and making its competence a requirement, I’m a bit ambivalent about the so-called “values” side of the tests. It’s all very vague.

Australian citizenship discussion paper – National – smh.com.au
‘Fair go’ for immigrants – National – smh.com.au

Yvonne had done a humourous take of it:

Cricket is: (a) A sport the English will never kick our asses in. (b) An insect.

While Jack Marx @SMH did a piece about the misconceptions on what constitutes the Australian “identity”:

Forced Australianisms, either here or abroad, are ugly, and entirely at odds with the “laid-back” and “carefree” image many of us would like to believe Australians are famous for. A more desirable and honest idea might be to just let our character happen, rather than searching for it, commodifying it, boasting it up with neon lights to the sounds of that bloody Down Under (just think, for a moment, what we’d make of Italians if they thundered Shaddap You Face every time they won a race).

I’ve attempted to quantify what is Australian by using the rudimentary list of people and things below that are commonly identified with Australia, and by rating how “Aussie” they are.

My rating system is thus:

  • true-blue you beaut = 100% Aussie
  • expat = born and raised in Australia but now no longer here; or foreign-owned
  • reverse expat = foreign origin, embraced to be “ours”; has become entrenched in Aussie culture

So let’s have a go shall we? I’m sure there’ll be a surprise or two which will challenge your initial beliefs about something or someone on the list. :)

People

Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts
  • Eric Bana – actor, born in Melbourne, true-blue you beaut
  • Cate Blanchett – actress, born in Melbourne, true-blue you beaut
  • Victor Chang – prominent Sydney heart surgeon who was murdered, born in Shanghai, reverse expat
  • Russell Crowe – actor, born in New Zealand, reverse expat
  • Mel Gibson – actor, born in New York, reverse expat turned expat
  • Steve Irwin – born in Victoria, true-blue you beaut
  • Olivia Newton John – actress/singer, born in England, reverse expat turned expat
  • Nicole Kidman – actress, born in Hawaii, reverse expat
  • Rupert Murdoch – media mogul (King of the World! Really!), expat
  • Jack Wong Sue – World War 2 hero, true-blue you beaut
  • Geoffrey Rush – actor, born in Queensland, true-blue you beaut
  • Naomi Watts – actress, born in England, reverse expat
  • Hugo Weaving – actor, born in South Africa, reverse expat

More famous Australians in Wikipedia.

Things

Female Ugg boots
  • Ford Falcon – automobile, reverse expat. Owner: the Ford Motor Corporation of the USA.
  • Holden Commodore – automobile, true-blue you beaut turned expat. Owner: General Motors Corporation of the USA.
  • Ugg boots – fashion (?) item, true-blue you beaut.
  • Utes – type of automobile, true-blue you beaut.

Sports

  • Australian Rules Football – true-blue you beaut
  • Cricket – reverse expat
  • Rugby – reverse expat

Food

Doing the Tim Tam Slam
The Tim Tam Slam
  • Hungry Jacks – BK in the rest of the world, reverse expat
  • Arnotts, maker of Tim Tams and Iced Vovos – true-blue you beaut turned expat. Bought by the Campbell Soup Company of the USA in 2001.
  • Kit Kat – chocolate bar, reverse expat. Owner: various around the world, Nestle in Australia.
  • Mars Bar / Snickers – chocolate bar, reverse expat. Owner: Mars Incorporated of the USA.
  • Meat Pies – reverse expat.
  • Sausage Rolls – reverse expat.
  • Vegemite – true-blue you beaut turned expat. Owner: Kraft Foods of the USA.

I didn’t include such obvious Australiana as kangaroos, koalas, boomerangs and the Aboriginal people because to do so would skew my entire rating system. They are the 100% “true-blue you beaut” Aussies, and everyone and everything else would be “reverse expats”. Which if you think about it, is really the truth isn’t it?

So how Aussie are you? :)

ADDED 8:33PM
Dominc Knight weighs in too.

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