I think it's easier to love your country if, like Wales, there is a strong sense of national identity.

Ok I'll try and explain it.. it's when you feel a stabbing pain in your heart, it's sort of a warm feeling., it's painful. It's love that can't be explained. It's pride, it's like the pope kissing the ground. ... it is in your blood.. when you go home back to your land.. it is you.. a feeling of being.
I carry wales with me, it's me.. and even if I never get back "I am Wales and wales is me". gawd this is really hard to explain - you either have got it or you don't. I don't understand people who don't have this.. I find it so sad.

Do you know , I have many friends from all nations ( Asia and Europe) .. and the only ones ( personally speaking) .. I find that are similar, a great love for their country .. are my Scottish friends.

Thats really well put Ceri; sums up my feelings excellently. Even my nephew is passionately Welsh, and he's only 11 - you can see it in his eyes, the pride when he tells people he has Welsh blood!

I was brought up here (I don't count the first 10 years in South Wales, as I can't remember it, and it means nothing to me - I'm a sort of reverse image of Ceri! )

I want Aussie citizenship because I was brought up here, consider this country 'home', and consider myself an Australian. It took me 30 odd years to get back, and now that I'm here I've had two more years struggling to be allowed to stay. Now that we have that sorted (SIR(P)), I have another two years to wait before I can get PR, and another two years after that to get an Aussie passport.

Once I have that, NO BUGGER can throw me out of the country I consider my own.

Interesting thread!
Although I'm not in Australia yet I'd still like to comment.

I think that once you move to another country your perspective of your home country changes. I can see this with my fiancée, she's Australian and living in the Netherlands with me. She has said several times that she never felt this 'patriotic' when she was still living in Australia, only since she moved those feelings became stronger.
Even myself, I never really felt connected to the Netherlands, but now that I know that I'll be living somewhere else my perspective on things has changed. I've become more aware of differences between the Netherlands and other countries and began to realise that this is not such a bad place to live (and I'm NOT saying that it's any better than other countries). But somehow I'm feeling more connected to the Netherlands than before...I can't really explain it.

That said, I'll definately want to get my Australian citizenship when I can and I will be proud to be Australian just as I am proud to be Dutch. But only as long as I can become a dual citizen and keep my Dutch nationality as well, because I don't think I'd ever want to give that up...it's my home.

all of my values that i learnt are from Oz, so i guess it is in my heart that way, it's just a sense of being, just as my boyfriend is British, it doesn't define him, but it adds to his definition.There are people who are born here eg, to greek parents and they consider themselves greek, as their values are based around that culture, even though they were born australian, it's a sense and part of me, although i am happy to live whereever, i'm equally as happy to be home. when i was away, i always knew that australia would welcome me back.....it was my safety net.

Know exactly what you mean Ceri. I'm Australian, and always will be although I lived away from Australia for 24 years. Nowhere else I lived ever felt quite like home. I could have got nationality and a passport from quite a few countries that I lived in but I didnt cos it just didnt feel right to carry the passport without having the sense of belonging or the "feeling of being" that you mention. Even Scotland where I lived for 10 years and the fact that I have a scottish grandmother, and a scottish hubby still didnt fully give me a feeling of belonging although I probably came closest there than anywhere else.


To answer the original question of what does it mean to be Australian :

Its difficult to quantify, just as its difficult to quantify what being british, chinese, american, swedish, kenyan etc mean to those citizens. Yes you can take the stereotypical stuff (eg, being british is stiffupper lips, fish and chips, rainy mornings, whinging, Buckingham palace etal) but it doesnt even come close to scratching the surface of what it is about. Same for Australia. I could say its about beaches, sport and "fair go"s but thats about as correct as stiffupper lips and fish&chips are for defining british.

I guess its about lots of little things (many of them insignificant) that all add up to one big picture. And that picture will be different for every single australian that tries to describe it. Yes we might use some common themes but even so the detail is different

Australia is, was and always will be HOME for me. Even if I had to leave again tomorrow and never could come back it will still be HOME. I know its not perfect and to be honest I've lived in other countries that many people would say were better than Australia, but none of them tug my heart like Australia can and does.

maybe one way of looking at it is Australia is the only country in the world I would be prepared to sign-up into the armed forces for and the only one I would I would be willing to lose my life for.

I'm a born and bred Aussie....Lived there all of my life until I came to the UK in 2001.....I agree with one poster who said you dont realise just how much you love your home until you leave it...

To me, being Australian is just who I am....who I have always been. But its more than just a title...its a total identity for me....and no matter where my life will take me in the future....I will always be....Australian.

I love to travel and love to experience other cultures....but I cant imagine ever wanting to live and see out the rest of my days....and coming to the UK has shown me that.....

[QUOTE=Ceri]Ok I'll try and explain it.. it's when you feel a stabbing pain in your heart, it's sort of a warm feeling., it's painful. It's love that can't be explained. It's pride, it's like the pope kissing the ground. ... it is in your blood.. when you go home back to your land.. it is you.. a feeling of being.
I carry wales with me, it's me.. and even if I never get back "I am Wales and wales is me". gawd this is really hard to explain - you either have got it or you don't. I don't understand people who don't have this.. I find it so sad.
QUOTE]

I know what you mean because I often feel that way sometimes about Australia (!!!!!). But I am not sad because I have it. The fact I wasn't born there is neither here nor there.

BM

Don't forget to take the 'national character' (now, that is a generalisation!) into account. Eg as a rule, Americans are very outgoing and just lurve their country : with flags flying everywhere. The English are far more reticent. Aussies and Kiwis are in-between.

Another thing to consider is to what extent one's homeland has been subject to war, strife, inhospitable natural conditions - all of these stir-up passions : especially passionate feelings of belonging to it. Eg Russians, Americans (post-1776?)

I know what you mean because I often feel that way sometimes about Australia (!!!!!). But I am not sad because I have it. The fact I wasn't born there is neither here nor there.

BM[/QUOTE]

This thread is great , and reading everyone's responses has really got me thinking.

I'm Australian... born, raised, lived and travelled all over until I turned 30 and came over to the UK in 2001 and I've ended up staying here 4 years. However myself and my English boyfriend are getting ready to move (home) to Oz in 10 weeks, as we recently got his spouse Visa (Hooray!). My Dad is 4th generation Aussie and has never left Australia in his life. My mum is English, left England when she was 16 and is now a naturalised Australian who returns to England & Wales every 3 years or so to visit family and friends.

I completely and utterly regard myself as being Aussie. My boyfriend teases me and calls me 'half English' because of my Mum's nationality, but I could never begin to regard myself as such! I definitely had a strong English influence from my Mum when I was growing up. And after living in England and Wales for over 4 years, I love Britain including the people, landscape and some aspects of the lifestyle. And now having an English bloke in tow I have even stronger connections to Britain through him and his family. But, depsite my heritage and having lived here, I could never call myself even 'part English' or 'part British'! I'd feel like I was lying!!! As many others in this thread have pointed out, there are good, bad, awful and brilliant things about Oz and Britain, but none of that has influenced which country I truly identify with.

I am Australian... and I guess, for me, I feel that way purely because I grew up in VERY remote coastal town in South Australia, then spent some of my twenties living in Melbourne and Sydney, and it's made me into who I am today. For me, its my true home, and no matter where I live or how long I stay away it will always be a part of me. I will always have an everlasting impression of stinking hot weather, awesome beaches, watching my brother play cricket, our swimming pool in the backyard, kids at school with no shoes, red earth, the smell of eucalyptus, bushfires, crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the train to get to work, watching Aussie Rules football at the SCG, camping on the beach, family Christmas with the turkey on the webber (bbq) and loads more. Some of these things can be experienced in any country, but for me, that's how I identify with being Australian.

bindi
xxx

So many great responses and different points of views, now a bit about me, was born in Portugal but moved to the Uk when I was very young the strange thing is although im not living in Australia, but I have been there a few times, my ex was Australian a lot of my friends are Australians, the area where in live in London is full of Australians, there’s the down under centre across the road, 1 OZ/NZ pub, I can identify with Australians and not with Portuguese or Brits, who am I then? Portuguese blood but don’t remember nothing regarding the few years I lived there nor I have connections with the country apart from some family members, normal childhood in the uk, many happy memories, giving my best for my adopted home ( Uk ) but still cannot identify myself.

Am I mad not knowing my own identity :scared: ?? How can I have such a strong feeling for a place that barely know?? Is it because of “some� connections I have ( present ) and had ( past ) with Oz, I don’t really know how to explain this.

I wonder how a response from an indigenous Australian (aborigine) would compare with those provided by immigrants?

Any indigenous Australians out there? If so, please post your views!

You're a misfit, matey!

Too much Neighbours and too many good times at the beach and BBQ on holiday.

Cure is to go live there for a bit. Then see.