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In addition, whereas in previous decades of the twentieth century, British heritages had
formed the foundation of identifying as an ‘Australian’, this had now dramatically shifted to
one of multiculturalism, with people identifying their patriotism through a multicultural lens,
as described by Turner:
The Bicentenary theme, ‘Living Together’, promoted a multicultural Australia
through its emphasis on culture difference and variety. The ABA’s contradictory
attempt to simultaneously signify cultural difference and national unity, and the
multiculturalist agenda seen as the motivation for such an attempt, met with
resentment from (among others) the Anglo Right, who regarded the whole thematic
project as an abandonment of Australia’s predominately British (indeed, nationhood)
in favour of non-British ‘minority interest groups’...Up to a point, the reactions were
understandable: to celebrate a nation which is united but diverse, on a day which is
the moment of both settlement and invasion, through rhetoric which foregrounds
difference and reconciliation over uniformity and assimilation, was not a simple
public relations exercise. (Turner, 1994, p. 70, emphasis added)
Celebratory discourses are prevalent and obvious by a quick scan of the types of histories
published for a general audience leading up to the 1988 Bicentennial, as already noted. These
books were often commissioned by government or government funded agencies (such as the
ABA) and offered by and large a very rose-coloured view of Australian history. Blemishes,
embarrassments or generally negative aspects of Australia’s past were either glossed over or
not included at all. As stated earlier, a noteworthy exception to this is the magazine series
published by The Australian as a 48 volume publication of Australian history from precolonisation
to the contemporary era. Here, a significant (but not unbalanced or overbearing)
portion of the content reflected aspects of Australian history that are not regarded as positive
examples of the continent’s developing nationhood, for example in describing events
surrounding Tasmanian Aboriginals in the 1800s through a story on Truganini, the following
concluding statement is made: “Australians had become the first people to commit genocide
of an indigenous race” (O’Brien et al., 1988b, p. 325).
The written word was not the only way aspects of Australia’s cultural heritage—within a
contemporary memory making context—were communicated to mass audiences. I am
Australian, a song that is now widely regarded as one of a number of informal anthems was
released in 1987 and written by renowned Australian song writers, Bruce Woodley and Dobe
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