The three countries Australia, New Zealand, and The United States are each similar in some ways and different in others. Each country has their specific history that helped them create a sense of nationalism within, to help them create pride in their country.
New Zealand, Australia, and the United States were all part of Great Britan at one point in their past. New Zealand, and the U.S has declared their independence from England. Australia is still a part of England, but England has a nonexistant role in Australia today. These countries all have a tint of British Culture within their own. Each had their own aboriginal colony inside. The US had the Native Americans, New Zealand had the Maori, and Australia had around 600 types of aboriginies. And the Australian aboriginal population is only about 2% of australia today (www.infoplease.com/spot/aboriginal1.html). With each country having tourism and the "hotspots for people to see" the culture of the aboriginies may have been lost within people only focusing on the present rather than the past of the country. Also gold has been found in each of the countries. With this new discovery people rush to each of the countries in hope to find wealth. "There is no doubt that the gold rushes had a huge effect on the Australian economy and our development as a nation. It is also true to say that those heady times had a profound impact on the national psyche" (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/goldrush). A wide spread of people came to the land to each find their piece of wealth within the country. The role of Britan in developing the countries and founding them was key to the start and success of each country.Though each country had its similarites they were also different in some areas. Australia formally apologized to the aborigines while New Zealand has not and the US just recently did it last year with Barack Obama (www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113728438). This does not mean much to me because does it really matter if you apologize hundreds or so years after it had happened. All of the aborigines that were alive during the colonization of each country are dead now. So does it matter? No not to me. Each country also has a different sport that they enjoy. Australian Rugby is a big part of many Australian lives. While in New Zealand the all blacks are one of the best and most recognized parts of New Zealand. In New Zealand there are 520 official clubs (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RugbyunioninNewZealand). That is not including all the other people that just play for fun. Here in the US people have no idea what australian rugby is and many do not know the rules of rugby. It seems weird to us though, thinking about a sport that the US does not have. Something that we do not believe we are the best at. Also Australia and New Zealand have big stretches of wilderness, US does not have much that is not polluted by humanity. Aside from the huge time difference, US, Australia and New Zealand all are very different.
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| New Zealand Rugby |
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| Red indicates gold deposits in Australia |
Interesting blog. I think you should think about what an apology means to a group of people who have been treated so poorly. I know you said that since the people being apologized too weren't alive during colonization it doesn't matter, but I think an apology can still mean a lot to the relatives of the people who suffered. Also, I didn't understand how rugby got involved in this blog.
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Erik- when you were in Ireland, were you made aware of the prisoners that were sent to Australia......Where the significant in the make up of modern Australia? I often wondered about that...one of my favorite Irish folk songs from the pubs was Fields of Athenrey--about young Irish husband sent off to Botony Bay on the prison ship when he was caught stealing grain to feed his starving children.
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