HOLDING TENSIONS in So-Called Australia: Can We Sing With One Voice?

By Rachael Jacobs

This year, Australia lost a few performing arts icons. One of those was Judith Durham, lead singer of the Seekers and solo artist. She will be remembered for her beloved folk tunes, her uplifting vocals and charming, yet humble demeanour. Her distinctive voice gave us Georgy Girl and the Carnival is Over. This year the music industry paid tribute to the Seekers’ contribution to Australian music. As a quartet they had an innate ability to reflect the national consciousness, most notably captured in their iconic song, I Am Australian.

I Am Australian features Durham in the final verses, but the song was written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley (the Seekers) and Dobe Newtown (the Bushwackers). There are five verses in the full version of the song, referencing First Nations peoples, convicts, women, the environment and a host of cultural icons, but the section that most Australians know is just four-lines, utterly powerful in their simplicity. 

The chorus begins with a declaration that We are one, but we are many, and we are reminded that there’s strength in being both. 

Aligning With Values

This is a concept that some Australians struggle with. We have a history of asking people to align with Australian values, without a robust understanding of what they are. Calls for all citizens to be Australian and abandon their home cultures have plagued us in years gone by. The hangover of assimilation remains, with large sections of the media representing Australians in a stereotypically homogenous way and conservative pundits decrying moves to give more voice to a wider diversity of people. 

While making space for a celebration of diversity, this song also holds significant tension. The very concept of Australia and being Australian is problematic. Australia was founded on the lie of ‘terra nullius’ (nobody’s land) which was used to justify and legitimise dispossession and genocidal acts against First Nations people. The land was, indeed, stolen. Sovereignty was never ceded.  

Further listening: In a 2021 episode of Creative Generation’s Why Change podcast Kabi Kabi and Wiradjuri artist and producer, Alethea Beetson, explains why she doesn’t engage with the concept of Australia and uses the term ‘So Called Australia’ to refer to the continent we inhabit. https://creative-generation.org/podcast-episodes/acknowledgement-decolonization-and-youth-led-change-with-alethea-beetson 

Holding Tension

First Nations people did not simply ‘stand upon rocky shores’ and ‘watch tall ships come’, as is described in the lyrics of I Am Australian. The song makes no reference to the ravages of colonisation that came with those tall ships, the massacres and destruction of language and culture, and the ongoing violence. 

The subsequent references to traditional Australian icons, Ned Kelly, Clancy and Waltzing Matilda are steeped in larrikinism, and don’t speak to much of the population, particularly the young. 

The ultimate tension we hold is that we are not one. We have a long way to go in reckoning with many aspects of our past and present before we can sing with one voice. It is possible that I Am Australian is too simplistic in its optimism, and denies the holding of tension in this deeply complex land. 

My View

But I am a music teacher and I know the power of singing with one voice. Not as a destination, but as a starting point. And as an alleviator of tension, and an acknowledgement of the existence of tension. 

I’ve seen first-hand, friends, strangers, and even enemies, standing side by side in song, finding harmony together. I’ve seen differences dissolve into vapour. I’ve seen people collectively become aware of their own humanity, and see the beauty we are capable of when we sing together. 

This is the gift the Seekers have given us. 

I Am Australian is regularly sung in schools and citizenship ceremonies. It bravely fought the divisions of Hansonism (the rise of far right figure Pauline Hanson) in the mid ‘90s, sung by Judith Durham, Russel Hitchcock (Air Supply) and Dr Yunupingu (Yothu Yindi).  It has been recorded in Yawuru language, translated into Auslan, covered by young multicultural celebrities, Dami Im, Jessica Mauboy and a host of others. It was movingly sung from the public gallery when our parliament legalised same sex marriage. For myself, a migrant with histories in many lands, the line from all the lands on earth we come speaks the strongest, recognising the legitimacy of migrants and refugees in our national story. 

Those iconic four lines of the chorus are the unofficial, and often preferred national anthem for many. 

Do Better and Be Better

I Am Australian is a rallying cry for us to share a dream. To do better and be better. To protect our beautiful environment. To make space for the keepers of the flame. This requires an acknowledgement of tension, but also a willingness to work together towards First Nations, racial and environmental justice. 

I’m using this blog to thank the Seekers and Judith Durham for reminding us we are stronger together. And to never stop seeking to sing with one voice while embracing our differences and meeting the tension head on.   

Further listening: Rachael Jacobs interviews composer, musician and conductor of ‘Pub Choir’ in Creative Generation’s Why Change podcast, coming soon. This episode explores the healing powers of singing and the significance of finding harmony in community.