Shannon O’Neill

Sydney Big Day Out 2006. Photo by Mr Walker.

SMH letters 2006-01-28:

There has been a decline of the Big Day Out from being a good-natured, inner-city indie gathering to a field day for drugged-up bogans - some of whom were reportedly forcing other attendees to “kiss the flag” and punching those who didn’t comply. I understand that the BDO is very mainstream these days. Yet don’t you find it sinister that it has become a day out for the kind of patriotism that involves bulging veins in the neck and the ever-present threat of violence? This is John Howard: The Next Generation, and I’m not sure I want to be around when they’re all grown up.

Richard Martin Glebe

As Bernard Zuel’s article mentions (”Manners maketh music’s big day out“, January 27), there were many flag bearers at the Big Day Out, but I don’t agree with Zuel that this was a positive statement of unity.

I saw lots of frightening behaviour, including flag wearers pushing into an ATM line, people berating them for being “unAustralian”, they claiming to be more Australian than any of us. One person was asking people to kiss the flag he was wearing, and people who refused got a punch in the face. The flag is not a fashion accessory, and you’re better than no one for wearing it as a T-shirt. When you start seeing flags, that’s when nationalism is getting out of control.

Danny Yau Belfield

It’s so damn obvious. The current Australian flag, with its Union Jack, will never be the flag of all Australians, and will continue to be exploited by ‘anglo’ racists. The sooner it is changed, the better. But to what? Yet more from today’s SMH:

The reason, Dylan Sanders (Letters, January 27), that I would not accept an Aboriginal flag as the Australian flag is essentially the same reason I would like the present flag changed. The Aboriginal flag does not belong to me because I am not Aboriginal. I am not English and therefore the Union Jack does not belong to me, either.

It is about having an Australian flag - for all of us. And, don’t worry, when the inevitable change comes, the historic ties to Britain will not be “erased” - you could read about them in any number of history books.

Russell Edwards Ultimo

Dylan Sanders challenges “conservative society” to adopt the Aboriginal flag as the Australian flag. It is perhaps telling that conservative Australia would consider appropriating a flag that has for a long time belonged to someone else.

I am no expert on indigenous affairs, but to me the Aboriginal flag is a symbol of strength, unity and identity for a particular group of Australians - but not all Australians. (And there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way.)

That more recent arrivals would consider stealing it and using it as their own is … well, now that I think about it, maybe you can’t get more Australian than that.

Peter Harrison Camperdown

But whatever the flag is changed to, there is still the danger that it will be exploited by that peculiarly insecure Australian form of nationalism. That will be much more difficult to change than a flag design.

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