In my first topic of two i have chosen arguably one of Australia's most famous traits “AFL”, when people think of Australia people think of absurd stereotypes like “riding a kangaroo” and always having a “shrimp on the barbie” and one of the very few stereotypes everyone “loves AFL” and AFL was a sport that really transformed Australia into a prestigious country.
Football was created in 1857 by a man named Tom willis Football was advocated in the winter, football was a way of keeping cricketers fit during the off-season. on August 7, 1858, the year of the code's first recorded match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar (Scores Unknown) Throughout the next few decades teams started to develop starting with gelong in 1859 and then later on the tigers in 1908, in 1925 there were 12 teams that would have been unchanged until 1987 when the competition expanded to include the West Coast Eagles and the Brisbane Bears. By 1997, the competition comprised 16 clubs after Adelaide in 1991, Fremantle in 1991, and Port Adelaide in 1997, In 2011 the Gold Coast Suns joined the competition, followed by the Greater Western Sydney Giants, creating the 18-team national competition we see today.
Football reflects countless aspects of Australia’s identity such as “Mateship, companionship, love” and more, the way Football reflects to mateship by bringing people together to support their team of chose, football is a key part of Australia's ecosystem by making absorbed friendships or relationships or bring you and your family closer together. Football also brings love into this nation as it helps people find something they truly enjoy that may be sitting down at night by with your loved ones or by yourself and enjoy a game with a cold VB and a fourteen twenty pie. Football has not only give positives to this nation as a whole it has also given many negatives like “Enemies, Hatred, loss”, Football can lead into many negative traits about Australia, football has given Australia the privilege to watch such a hard sport and Australians can take that for granted and call other sports “Piss week, a pussy sport” or many other names. We still many of these features in today's Australia with families getting together to watch sports to support their favourite team and heckle their least favourite
One of the main factors AFL has endured through such time in Australia and still thriving is the love it brings this glorious nation and the meaning it gives each individual to embark on a journey with their teams through every season, afl helps Australian unite as one to bring happiness to one another and through the thick and thin has helped formed Australia's image to this day.
I have decided to choose frederick McCubbin as one of my two Australia cultural identity topics,I have chosen frederick because we have brushed over him in the past with an assignment similar to this and his stories he portrays in his art which really reached out to me and i really saw the true deeper meaning in his art.
Frederick was one of Australia's first painters as his one of his first nationalised painting were created around christmas in Australia called “Gathering Mistletoe” witch was created in 1889 , as depicted in this image it shows 5 people gathering “Mistletoe” as a collective. The painting really shows the meaning of “Mateship” witch is one of australia key traits as it is portrayed a group of people working together to achieve an outcome together, many of fredericks painting portrays many of Australia's key traits in many different ways as he saw Australia as its own art piece and placed it on a smaller canvas, Fredericks work brought a new trait to Australia in Creativity as his work was well known locally and internationally. We still see many of the traits frederick made Australia well known for today with Australia's creativity in abstract art or public graffiti walls such as (Hoiser lane and ACDC lane) these features were inspired by some of frederick's original art pieces. Fredericks legacy will live on through the ages as what he has formed Australia into is unmatched and will never be forgotten, and thats how frederick McCubbin helped form Australia's National Identity.