Fellow Australians, we are here today because we have a shared identity. We are Australian. ‘I am, you are, we are Australian. We share a dream and sing with one voice.’1 Where we live defines who we are as people. As Australians we value our cultural diversity, we cherish our ‘sunburnt country’, we celebrate that our great nation grew from peace and not from war.
Each year, more and more people from around the world seek a better life here in Australia. As of August 2011, Melbourne was honoured with the prestigious recognition of being the world’s most liveable city – proof once more that where we live defines us as happy people.
Now it’s easy for others to argue that a geographical location cannot possibly categorise who you are and what you believe in, but I ask you, where is it that we learn our values, our beliefs and our attitudes? Home, that’s where. As the old saying states, ‘home is where the heart is.’ At home we learn from our families and our neighbours. We build a sense of community and set our expectations and goals for the rest of our lives. Surely then, it is where we live that helps shape and mould us to become who we are. It is where we find our first sense of belonging and begin to forge ourselves into who we are.
Ask any man, woman or child to define a nation’s people, to apply sweeping generalisations or respond to widely held stereotypes, and I guarantee that 90% will be able to define others according to where they live. The English are prim and proper, they drink tea, eat scones, wear bowler hats and head to work every day on a double decker red bus. Right? Well, ok so many of these assertions aren’t
