In this essay, we are going through important
issues about Australia, such like music and arts, literature, myths, food and
recipes, pastimes and the issue of most importance in Australia according to
me; Education. I think Australia has done a good work on every issue mentioned
above, but they are the greatest on Education.
Australians have a lot to say about music and
arts. Australian Indigenous art is the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the
world. Every
piece of art work of Indigenous culture was collected by anthropologists and
then they took it to museums or universities, not art galleries. All changed in the early 1960s, when a
Place called Panpuya Tula was established. It is a community of Indigenous
artists that collected they art together. They were the inspiration and model
for many other Indigenous artists’ collectives. By 2009 there was 42 desert
Indigenous art communities represented by Desart. The movement was seen as a
way to keep the Indigenous culture alive.
Ceremonial performances are seen as the core of Indigenous
cultural life. These ceremonies bring together all aspects of their culture
like song, dance, body decoration, sculpture and painting. Indigenous people
gathered together at large ceremonies and exchanged songs and dances. They took
advantage of those moments to exchange goods. These gathering often occurred at
a time and place when there was plenty of food. Ceremonies are the birthplace
of Indigenous songs, music, dance and visual arts. These expressions of arts
and music were extremely important to Aboriginal people because through these
expressions they depicted dreaming stories and they pass their history to next
generations.
Arts and music are still
an important issue in Australia nowadays. Australia is home to a vibrant
community of artist like painters, photographers, glassblower, sculptors and
digital and multimedia artists that have been working in a wide variety of genres
and styles. Australia has many art galleries, museums and libraries holding
more than 60 million items and an estimated 20.000 working artists. There are
also a lot of music and multi-arts festivals.
It is evident that Indigenous arts
and music were extremely important at ancient times but they are still
important today and Australia has done a good work taking care of it. It has
evolved through time but not died in the process. Nowadays, Australia is
evidently a country with artistic consciousness. There are multi-arts festivals
all year long in different parts of the country. It is the birthplace of many
artists that has international recognition. It is clear enough, that Australia
is indeed an Artistic country.
There is a unique literature in
Australia. I’m talking about the one that came from the bush. To
Australians the bush means a lot. It was a unique feature of Australian
landscape that differenced them from Europeans, which had green and prosperous
landscapes. It was home of many immigrants and Australian families. It became
the icon of Australian rural life, which was a hard one. The bush life is
generally associated with hardship, unemployment, poverty, hunger and a
lifestyle totally opposed to the European. Many Australian were immigrants who
have came from Europe to Australia and found themselves living in the bush. They
embraced the bush because it was a self-identity icon. Soon it was romanticized
and its spirit still remains strong in Australian folklore.
The Bulletin was a magazine which its politics and
ideology reflect the bush people mindset on that time. It was very popular
among miners, shearers and timber-workers from all over Australia. The bulletin
soon was known as “The Bushmen bible”. The Bulletin was the cradle of the bush literature and
its artists. The bulletin encouraged an Australian romantic nationalism that
was reflected in this literature, which main expression was the poetry. The
Scottish style ballad was the favorite genre of this new poetry.
Through years and Wars the Bulletin went through
several changes, and the essence of Bush literature began to vanish. But its
influence has remained because it was the first of pure Australian literature
that ever existed. All literature in Australia before the bush literature was
influenced by European or other countries authors. Also it has artistic merit
due to it origins, which were humble and not from upper class like other
countries literature artists. Australian literature will always have a debt with
the Bush literature and all its national literature is influenced by it because
it started all that can ever be called Australian literature.
About
Australian myths, the ones that relate to the Universe creation and natural
laws have established this people rule of human behavior since these myths were
accepted as facts of absolute truthfulness. The Times in which these tales took
place is called “Dreamtime” and due to the variety within Australian aboriginal
tribes, dreamtime is not the same for all aboriginal tribes.
Some
aboriginal tribes told this version of the creation story. In Dreamtime Great Spirit
Ancestors came out of the earth and created all the things they know. It was
the beginning of time and the beginning of knowledge. In the time before time,
or dreamtime, the Earth was dark and silent. The Great Spirit Ancestors slept
underground, until one day they woke and broke through to the surface. The sun
then came up of the ground and the Earth had light for the first time.
The Ancestors
began to travel around, and on their journeys they created the landscape, the
mountains, rivers, trees, waterholes and plains. They made the tribes of people
who became their descendants and taught them how to survive as well as the laws
by which this people lived. They made all the animals; they also made water,
fire, air, the moon and the stars.
The Ancestors
were so tired after creating everything that they laid down to rest and sank
back into the ground again. But their spirits stayed on the Earth. They went
into particular rock and trees and other parts of the landscape. These things
and places were very special, people believed they were sacred and could only
be visited and seen by men who had learned about the Ancestors.
Every country has its own food and recipes! Australia has a lot
of traditional meals, which has been created by the people who settled in the
country as the colonial societies and the indigenous people. One of the most
beautiful things about Australia is the coastline, which means that there is
plenty of seafood. Traditional meals include beef, cattle, sheep, and wheat, which
were strongly influenced by the British and Irish, and as well it has fast food
which is a common meal for many Australians.
Due to the British tradition, different
varieties of meals were introduced. Roast dinners became a meal to the typical
family along with Australian meat pies and fish with chips. Occasionally the
nice outdoor barbeque, also known as a treasured national tradition, was a meal
that Australians got to love.
Vegetables are very important to Australian traditional
meals. The general type of vegetables eaten are; Artichoke, Asparagus, Bean
shoots, Beetroot, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumber, Leek, Lettuce,
Mushrooms, Peas, Rhubarb, and Spinach which are found during spring and
Capsicum, Cucumber, Eggplant, Squash, Tomato and Zucchini.
Australians usually sell food in street or outside
large retail place in order to raise money for a charity or people in need.
This stands usually sells fried onion served on a slice of bread with barbecue
sauce or tomato sauce on it.
About drinks, Billy tea is an old traditional
drink prepared boiling some water and placing a few gum leafs inside to give it
a little bit of flavor. Australians drink this tea since the colonial period.
Also beer is a part of every Australians diet, there is nothing more relaxing
for an Australian to open a beer after a nice Australian meal, put their feet
up and relax.
Australia has the third largest fishing zone in
the world so Australians has access to many different types of seafood. There
are many lakes, rivers as well as oceans and bays were Australian fishers can
go to catch seafood. There are over 600 varieties of seafood species that can
be caught in the country and then sold.
A very important meal for Australians is
breakfast, which usually consists of a toast with something light on it, such
as vegemite (a traditional Australian food paste made of yeast), cereal and
fruit. Along with this they drink a glass of juice, milk, tea or coffee.
The evening meal, which is also known as the
meal of the day, is generally consumed at home with all the family members at
the table, it is also a great time for the family to catch up and talk. The
main food consumed is roast meat and vegetables, pasta, pizza, casseroles,
barbecued meat, salad, soup and stir-fries.
Australia has many traditional meals, including,
cakes, burgers, sausages, barbeques, biscuits, fast foods and drinks such as
beer and wine. All meals are a large part of an Australians life and a daily
part of it. It has changed a lot from the aborigines to the 20th century
although each cuisine dish is as unique as the other.
Australian
loves pastimes. Australian has preference on three mayor sports. These are
Cricket, Rugby and North American Football. They play Cricket in the summer,
Rugby in the winter and Football between March and September and Australians
have its own rules for football, they call it Australian Rules football.
Aussies love to paint, and with the diversity of
landscapes that Australia offer, there are a lot of outdoors painting classes.
It is a usual thing to see old aged people having painting classes at a park or
at any viewpoint.
Other Aussies
love collecting stuffs, it is a usual thing to see when visiting some friend
that someone of his or her family collects some kind of things and he or she
would be pleased to show you the collection.
Aussies might collect stamps, paintings, books, antique items, even
rocks. Everything you can imagine, there is a museum of that in some Australian
folk house.
Another major
point of interest among Australian is Theme Parks. Fun and Theme Parks are
abundant in Australia because Aussies love them. Just about every city in
Australia has one or two theme parks. There are parks for fun and with rides to
enjoy but there is also Zoos. Australians love to visit and walk among the
animals due to its fauna appreciation culture. There are also water parks, with
classical wet slides, these ones are a favorite for kids and adults on summer
time. But there are more parks; Australians even have show parks like the
Australian Outback Spectacular where they go to see real Australian talent. There
are so many parks in Australia that you would spend days trying to visit them
all, ride every ride, slide on giant water slides, pet all the animals or sit
back and enjoy a great show.
The young Aussies weekends are spent doing any
number of pastimes, dancing, gardening, hiking or bushwalking, scuba diving, horse
riding or just spending time with friends enjoying a glass of wine or a beer
around the barbeque.
Australians hike,
trek and bushwalk all over the country, because there is no other part in the world where can you walk and
come face to face with marsupials like the Aussie kangaroos or find a koala
sitting in a gum tree. Hear the cockatoo’s screeching or the famous kingfisher,
the kookaburra, laughing. Not to mention the fantastic untouched wilderness scenery,
the long deserted beaches and the views from mountain tops where next to no one
has been before.
“Mention any
pastime and Australian’s are likely into it – it’s that simple” I would say
that it is true. Australians do everything and they have forged a culture in
which pastime are respected and spread. Also, the country lands are perfect to
perform any pastime you want either Australian or a pastime brought in from any
other part of the world. If you can imagine it, you can do it, Australians know
about that, can you picture yourself doing any Chilean activity on Australia? I
do.
And now it brings me to the most important issue about
Australia according to my study on this country. My overall opinion about
Australia is that the country has done things pretty well, but this is all
because of Education. Education is the most admirable issue about Australia.
According to
the Australian government, when planning their goals on education they try to
emphasize the practical nature of public education and embrace education as a
comprehensive process of the student. What does this statement means is that classes
do not limit up to lessons inside a class room but goes farther. That teacher
must give students notions about how to apply what they have just learned on
real life. That student must understand that all subjects are linked together
as a whole no matter that they study them separated. That everyone above the
student within an educational institution must treat students as an individual
in a learning process that goes from classes subjects to values and everything
among those two.
At first sight it may seems obvious and you might
think that every school should think that way and that they actually do, but probably
that’s not true. Although theoretically they should act and think that way, the
reality is that most schools and educational institutions have other priorities
than students and their learning process.
In
April 1999, State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers of Education met as the
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in
Adelaide. At that meeting, Ministers endorsed a new set of National Goals for
Schooling in the Twenty-First Century. The new goals were released in April
1999 as The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the
Twenty-First Century. In this declaration, they emphasize the importance of School
education as a basic feature of future citizens, taken it as knowledge, values
and skills. They also insisted on the school education role as a learning
community in which parents, students and teachers must cooperate together.
They are also constantly trying to improve
teaching profession status and quality, to develop new evaluations systems and
educational accreditation. So, Australia educational system is always moving
forward, they do not stop and keep doing the same over the years but constantly
trying to improve and change.
Australia is an example on higher
education. Its model has gone beyond because it presents achievements that
attract attention to other countries. In example, they included technical and
vocational education on high school and this is a common point with Chilean
educational system, the difference lay on the attendance and permanence on
class rooms which in Australia actually increased. Bad quality workshops and
unmotivated teachers might be factors responsible of Chilean bad results. But
Australia good results go further; with this system they also reduced youth
unemployment,
Students from other countries are going to
Australia to study; currently 65 thousands young foreign students are studying
in Australia. Language teaching on Australia is also encouraged with priority
on these languages; aboriginal languages, Arab, French, German, Greek, Italian,
Spanish, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese. Together with that, Asian languages are
now being encouraged, specially Japanese, Indonesian, Korean and Mandarin.
Why Australian educational system is so
admired? Because this system has more benefits to students than any other; it
generates in every student an independent study style, it is an extremely
flexible system and the practical use of information is their principal
priority in the learning process. When giving priority to students over money
something good must happen, and that’s why Australian education system is so
successful.
I think that Australia has grown with a great
development, but they performance on education is breath-taking. Australia
educational system is an example for every country and with a good education
the country will grow in every aspect like the ones mentioned above in this
essay. If a country makes and effort on education such like the effort that
Australians do, that country is just going to be better and better.
