One of great things I’ve noticed about New Zealand and Australia is how people can choose their identity rather than being dominated and shaped by it.
This even extends to the grace with which Kiwis generally accepted the All Blacks defeat by an outstanding England team last night, as I can personally testify. Never one of the “anybody but England ” brigade, I was shouting for them well outnumbered in largely Kiwi company and lived to tell the tale, even to be congratulated. Which was one sort of comfort after watching Ireland’s humiliation twice in similar company. Come on Wales!
Anyway…
Fkexibility and tolerance over identity extends beyond the sexual which has radically altered the stereotype of “Ocker” to ethnic backgrounds in the hugely diverse societies of today. Profound feelings of guilt for the oppression of the original peoples extend beyond respect for their ancient sustainable ways of life, to inspiring action to deal with climate change. These are societies living in something of a bubble, uneasily perched on the edge of the great continental outback, where the environment is as much of a threat as an asset to vulnerable interdependent human life. But this arms length relationship with the greater environment has prompted many people to acknowledge a heritage which is actually called “other”, being neither completely indigenous nor colonial British- European.
Sydney and Melbourne, each with populations around the 5 million mark, have central business areas dominated by the clustered skyscrapers of the big banks and other global business, most of them less than 20 years old. Enormous suburbias each with its core identity and usually well planned and designed despite their scale, stretch along the 60 bays of Sydney for 30 or more miles (although rising property prices and changing tastes have produced a rash of apartment blocks accompanied by construction scandals).
Sydney and Melbourne’s imperial heritage of long gracious thoroughfares with parks and grand buildings exceeds most of London’s in scale and grandeur. These great cities are expected to double in size over 30 years. The average age is 37.
Politics is fiercely contested but along more “normal” lines. While the great hinterland produces idealistic themes, mining a vast range of minerals including increasing volumes of coal to China is responsible for 35% of the country’s GDP. Tensions are mounting over climate change without much sign of resolution by a succession of conservative coalitions.
Nevertheless I’m struck – and slightly depressed- by how dynamic is the atmosphere of the big cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland compared with a London mired in reactionary Brexit, never mind little Belfast.
But yes, we know in our bones how strong is the pull of sentiment. The very first person I met in Melbourne walking along the banks of the Yarra river in 30 °C had a voice that came down loud and clear from the Black Mountain. Her husband was a public servant of a kind I won’t disclose but you can guess, and they emigrated 40 years ago. “It’s been a wonderful life for us and the grandkids, but my heart is still in Belfast”. Her husband has since died but her son is still in touch with his old mates and “he’s taking me home for Christmas.. It’s such a beautiful city now”, she said -with perhaps just a touch of exaggeration.
Heritage is so flexible is it not?
Inch by inch Arlene Foster seems to be a acknowledging a heritage that can’t be separated from her own particular part of it. Rather than remain as a few placatory words in a party speech this should firm up into an offer to Sinn Fein to pass an Irish Language Act. The broad English language culture needs no similar protection and Ulster Scots which still receives government support is simply not the direct equivalent of Irish. Tolerating a proper asymmetry of treatment would be provide a test for a people happy in their own skin.
The cadres of shell shocked unionism would serve themselves better if they adopted the lessons from Down Under. A free people from any background are able to choose a mix of identities rather than remain dominated by the one they were born into.
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
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