Narratives

How do we change the narrative about what Australia is, what it has been and what we want it to become?

 The subject of narratives is on my mind a lot because we have been sold so many: narratives about migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and Indigenous people.

 With all the talk about diversity and multiculturalism, migrants have always been considered in terms of their use. A good migrant is one put to work quickly and who contributes to the economy with a smile.

 Anything other than this is a bad migrant.

 If there is a conflict lurking in the background, they’d do best to keep silent because we want happy, upbeat migrants, nothing that tampers with our public face of harmony.

The onus is always on migrants to forget in order to fit in. They can bring their food but anything else needs to be left to one side.

 When Mykaela Saunders and I did the Fully Lit podcast about the Australian novel, I sensed the real question was who is Australian and who is not?

 My favourite part of the podcast was Saunders saying nationalism sucks.

 Today I am thinking about this again because of Gaza and the Middle East, and the essay Cultural Rigour: First Nations Critical Culture by Jeanine Leane that highlights the many issues with our national narratives.

 How do we address the project around the uniformity of national narratives, how to make the monolith show us more than a single face?

 I have no answers but in science a well-defined research question yields clear answers. Or at least I hope.