A Yank Looks at "I Am Australian" Quiz

Answer: the Indigenous Australian cosmogeny story

"The Dreamtime" is the Indigenous Australian equivalent of "Genesis", a time when the creator spirits lived upon the Earth alongside their creations. The lyric gives the Indigenous Australians credit for 40000 years as the First Australians, but some ethnologists suggest that "The Dreamtime" story may have origins as far back as 70000 years ago. That makes "The Dreamtime" the prime candidate for the oldest spiritual belief with living adherents.

Answer: convicts "transported across seas"

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, a sentencing alternative for capital and other serious crimes in Great Britain was "transportation across seas". After the loss of the Georgia penal colony in the American Revolution, Australia became Great Britain's dumping ground of choice for both political and common criminals.

The lash was no figure of speech. The conditions endured by the transported prisoners were profoundly brutal, with very heavy manual labor and savage corporal punishment. Many did not survive.

Answer: gold

While all the minerals listed here contributed to Australia's wealth, in the early days, it was all about gold. The Australian gold strikes contributed a formative influence to Australia, bringing in wealthy, educated speculators, and the often appalling treatment of the miners led to several famous rebellions, which helped fix an independent, rebellious streak in the Australian national character.

Answer: a person who lives well away from settled areas

"Bushie" is a potentially loaded term in Australian English. At base it simply means someone who lives in the "bush", Australia's vast unsettled areas. It is proudly claimed as a birthright by many, representing a determined, fearless streak in the personality. Sadly, it can also be used as an insult, indicating a lack of social graces and sophistication, analogous to the American epithet of "hick". Those not fully in tune with Australian English are advised to avoid the term, lest you discover that Australian "bushie" has more in common with the Japanese "bushi" (warrior) than is readily apparent.

Answer: a famed Indigenous Australian landscape painter

Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) was a nationally renowned landscape painter, who brought Indigenous Australian sensibilities to Western style painting. He was also the first Indigenous person from the Northern Territory to be granted a limited form of Australian citizenship.

Indigenous people were regarded as wards of the state and lacked many basic rights. Gum trees are related to the eucalyptus and Australia has at least 70 species. One of Namatjira's best known works is "Ghost Gums at Glen Helen". Ghost gums are known for their silvery white bark.

While it appears orthographically similar to Japanese the name Namatjira is of Indigenous Australian origin.

Answer: a drover in a Banjo Paterson poem

Clancy was the creation of Andrew Barton (A.B.) "Banjo" Paterson, Australia's best known "bush poet". Paterson allegedly based the lead character of "Clancy of the Overflow" on a real drover (American equivalent: cowboy) by the name of MacNamara. Clancy also made an appearance in another of Paterson's works more familiar to outsiders because of the movie it inspired, "The Man From Snowy River".

Answer: a famous bushranger (outlaw)

The bushranger Ned Kelly (1854 or 1855-1880) was a contemporary of American outlaw Jesse James (1847-1882), and their stories have some remarkable similarities. Both grew up in what was at best, near poverty. Both were abused by the authorities when young.

When their lives descended into violent outlawry, both displayed enough panache to pass into legend, picking up "Robin Hood" overtones along the way. Kelly was especially noted for his homemade suit of bullet resistant armor, and his laconic last words "Such is life" before his hanging.

Answer: an improvised bedroll/knapsack

A.B. "Banjo" Paterson's poem "Waltzing Matilda" was set to a pre-existing tune, and became so popular, that it, like "I Am Australian" has been seriously proposed as an alternative to Australia's slightly staid national anthem "Advance, Australia Fair". "Waltzing Matilda" tells the tale of a "swagman", one of a group of itinerant agricultural workers, sprinkled with ne'er-do-wells, often found on the roads and trails of the Outback in hard times. Each carried his meager belongings rolled up in his bedding, which was called the "swag".

The swag was in turn nicknamed "Matilda", as the swagman's sole reliable companion, and sometime dance partner around the campfire. "Waltzing Matilda" is also used as a term to describe a meandering walk through the Outback, especially in search of work.

Answer: "I Love a Sunburnt Country"

All the works named are by Dorothea Mackellar. Only "I Love a Sunburnt Country" is widely known outside Australia. It is the second verse of Mackellar's poem that gripped Australia's heart by favorably contrasting Australia's often harsh sun baked land with England's refined and gentle greenery.

The work is evocative of the longing for an untamed homeland, and particularly impressive when one realizes that the author was a homesick 19-year-old girl.

Answer: "All the Rivers Run"

First published in 1958, "All the Rivers Run" is a paean to Australia's Murray River, wrapped in the tale of a shipwrecked English girl who grows up and lives a longish life on and around the river. It is regarded as an Australian classic. The novel is not without its detractors, not for any deficiency in writing skill, but because some of the heroine's life choices are regarded as inappropriate.