MOBSTERs
Many have waxed lyrical about southern European culture, and how its arrival effected white-Anglo (or English if you prefer) non-culture, (Anglos will forgive the snobbery of the term) in Australia. Yet of all the words and phrases written, it seems that those alleged academics managed to remain strangely silent about one group, the children of those immigrants. Now I'm not talking about those of you whose parents were born in Greece, but came here when they were five, and were educated here. I'm talking about those of you like me. Those in your 20s, perhaps older who have grown up in Australia, but whose parents came here when they were in their 20s. Comrades, we are a special group. We are neither here nor there. We were born in what is known as modern day Australia attended school here, but were raised in a "Greek village in the 1960s" environment. Most of our parents have yet to move on from those days, and hang to that way of life. We, are first generation Australians, we have no predecessors, no one to take our cue from, to do it as it has been done before. We have inherited some of our Greek culture and have blended it with the new Australian culture. For example, we don't eat meat pies, but we go to the football, (and
Culture is something that breeds very true, and to deny I believe, is to deny a part of yourself. It is just beyond his comprehension. How many amongst us actually feel Australian? I know I certainly don't. I could keep writing until the end of time about the reasons and excuses, but I believe what is more important is the effect. My cousin has moved so far away from his Greek culture, that he can barely speak the language, and he certainly can't understand it. They baptised their little girl last week in an Anglican Church. I'm sure many of you out there will strongly disagree, but I'd like to think that if I ever made the decision to have children, they would know about their culture, and be able to speak their ancestors language. I learned very early in life that we didn't act very Australian. Recently my family had a dilemma of a spiritual nature. "But aren't you Australian," they asked somewhat surprised? I always answer in the negative. And by the looks of things here in Melbourne, we aren't about too. My ideology has become westernised in the extreme. In her eyes I was Australian, my family was Australian, she had supposed we dumped our culture many years ago back as our parents got off the boat.
Common topics in this essay:
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Greek Orthodox,
Greekness Australianness,
English Greek,
Greek- Australian,
Cameron Kelly,
Cypriot Australia,
Dad Personally,
I've Greece,
Anglican Church,
i'm talking,
generation australians,
children immigrants,
greek culture,
country birth,
australian don't,
act australian,
feel australian,
primary school,
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Acceptance Essays
