The majority of people would probably describe themselves as “no religion”. Christianity is the most common religion, but there aren’t all that many of us. For example, there were seven Christians that I know of in my Year Twelve class of around one hundred and forty. (Those numbers probably aren’t representative of the population as a whole.) The Muslim population has been increasing in recent years. There must be a fair number of Buddhists around because my uni has a “Be With Buddha” society, but I’ve only personally known one. There’s a lot less religious extremism here than in the US.
As for sexuality, while there is still homophobia around, the attitude in general seems to be that it’s not that big a deal. My uni has a Queer Society, and several of my straight friends are members to show support. I’m not, but that’s just because I’d feel uncomfortable about misrepresenting myself or looking like I don’t take gay rights issues seriously. There are some discriminatory laws - in one state the age of consent for a homosexual relationship is three years older than the age of consent for a heterosexual relationship. Though that might have changed by now, it was two years ago that I read it. Perhaps someone who knows more about this will come along with more information.
Hmmm … social habits … this is hard! I’ve lived here all my life, so it’s hard to say what’s specifically Australian and what’s not. We tend to give people nicknames that are the opposite of what you’d expect - calling a red-haired person “Bluey” or a tall person “Shorty” and that sort of thing. As other posters have said, giving each other shit is an art form. Mum says that the tradition of bringing a plate of food to gatherings like barbecues is Australian too, so I’ll put it down even though I thought everyone does that.
Yes, we have an obesity problem. There was a study recently saying that we’ve officially become the fattest country in the world.
There is, unfortunately, still a lot of this around. Many Aboriginal communities live in appalling conditions, the government neglecting their need for basic services like water, power, sanitation, hospitals, schools and jobs. Communities are being forced to sign their land over to the government in order to be provided with houses. Then there was the Northern Territory Intervention. It was claimed that there was rampant child sex abuse in the Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and the government sent people in to deal with it. There was no evidence of sexual abuse, and many people now believe the whole thing was just an excuse for a landgrab. We’ve all heard the story of the Aboriginal man who was arrested a few years ago and died of heat stroke in the back of the police van. His family still haven’t gotten compensation. We have a long history of treating our indigenous population like shit.
We have been trying to make up for it a little lately - for instance, there was Kevin Rudd’s official apology to the Aboriginal population for the stolen generation. (A huge movement in the '30s to remove Aboriginal children from their homes and foster them to white families, put them in orphanages or train them as servants.) A nice gesture, even if it didn’t do much. And it’s become common practice for speeches at gatherings to begin “We respectfully acknowledge the [insert name of tribe] people, the traditional owners of this land.”
Shame: The way we’ve treated the Aboriginal population, the way we’re still treating boat people (asylum seekers), live animal export.
Pride: The beautiful physical environment, the friendly, laid back culture.We take pride in values like loyalty and fairness in much the same way that Americans take pride in values like liberty and rights.
) I’ve heard over the years, but mostly 20 years old or older, have indicated a greater relative level of machismo in Australia and slightly less everyday respect for women.