Dr Joyce Wu
ARTS1753 Culture, Experience
& Change
University of New South Wales
WEEK 4:
CITIZENSHIP
AND RIGHTS
Source: https://www.schoolsreconciliationchallenge.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NSWRC-language-map-update-
A3-text-boxes-2020_updated_detailed.pdf
 Acknowledgement of Country
 Housekeeping stuff
 Accurate citation and GenAI
 Nationalism
 Notion of citizenship, structural racism and deficit culture
 Police culture and intersectional discrimination – Veronica Gorrie
 Conclusion
YOU
LIFE
 UNSW Psychology and Wellness: https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/counselling
 1800 RESPECT (national sexual assault, domestic, family violence counselling service):
1800 737 732 For interpreter: 13 14 50
 Beyond Blue (education and support for anxiety and depression)
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
 Headspace (for people between 12-25 years old): https://headspace.org.au/online-and-
phone-support/
FOOD HUB is a free food pantry initiative and a student support and community engagement program for UNSW
students (including UNSW College). It's your place to stop by and get nutritious ingredients to fuel your studies!
FOOD HUB is located near Gate 2, High Street (between UNSW Fitness & Aquatic and IGA).
To attend, you are required to register for the following timeslots:
MON 2-4PM
WED 2-4PM
FRI 12PM-2PM
*Food Hub is open during UNSW holidays, it is closed on public holidays (e.g. Mon 7 October is closed)
Remember:
- Register ahead of time
- Please bring your containers and bags to collect your free food (no single-use plastics!)
- Stay at home if you have flu or flu-like symptoms
 Due Friday 4th October, 11:59 PM
 A few hours late (no extensions) = no late penalty. Five or six hours = late penalty
applies.
 You can have a two-day short extension (no documents needed). For more info +
how to apply, click HERE.
 Remember to add the assessment coversheet. Copy and paste the text from page 1
and address the questions in the coversheet (demo)
 Word count = research proposal (NOT including the coversheet).
 Assessments without the coversheet will be deleted, and you will be asked to
resubmit the assessment with the coversheet information included. Late penalty
may apply.
 If there is concern that your assessment has used GenAI, and you didn’t declare it
in the coversheet, or didn’t attach the coversheet. You will be asked to explain what
happened, and to declare any usage. A penalty may apply.
 Any usage = ChatGPT, Scite AI, DeepL, Google Translate, Grammarly, [please add
other software]
 Final word: This course is generous in that we allow students to use GenAI, and we
don’t have invigilated exams (less stressful for you). Please don’t abuse it.
 Let’s do a deep dive now (cue for Joyce: switch to different slides!).
 According to Merriam-Webster:
 Loyalty and devotion to a nation
 especially : a sense of national
consciousness exalting one nation
above all others and placing primary
emphasis on promotion of its culture
and interests as opposed to those of
other nations or supranational groups
NATIONALISM 101
 A relatively “new” concept, from the 18th
century, is that the nation-state is a form
of organising and ruling of the society.
 “Nation” is defined as having specific
national identities, such as a shared
language, culture, and values.
 Nation and nationalism are also defined
by territorial boundaries.
 At its best, nationalism is about
celebrating the identity, culture and
value of one’s nationality. At worst, it is a
form of dominance and exclusion
(whether targeted at people within the
nation, or against other nation-states).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
- Nations have the right to govern themselves.
- The nation-state is legitimate because of the active participation of citizens.
Sun Yat-sen 孫中山 (1866-1925)
- Three principles of the People: Nationalism, Democracy, Welfare.
- In response to the long history of feudal dynasties in China.
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)
- Jamaican political activist. Garveyism: Black nationalism and the call for the empowerment
and unification of African descendants.
- Black Pride (African people should view themselves with pride and appreciation).

 “Protection” acts were introduced in the 19th century in Australia by the state
governments.
 They are primarily aimed to control Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples’
lives
 Common features: making Indigenous people live in reserves (with very limited
mobility); limit their right to marry; right to employment – all part of the assimilation
policy (e.g. in the film, Rabbit Proof Fence – Molly was removed from family because she
was going to marry a “full-blood” Indigenous man)
 Blood quantum: descriptions or definitions to determine who is an Aboriginal person.
Essentially, based on skin colour.
 Similar laws were also in Canada and USA
 For more information about blood quantum:
https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary
_library/publications_archive/cib/cib0203/03cib10
“In 1935 a fair-skinned Australian of part-indigenous descent was ejected from a hotel for
being an Aboriginal. He returned to his home on the mission station to find himself
refused entry because he was not an Aboriginal. He tried to remove his children but was
told he could not because they were Aboriginal. He walked to the next town where he was
arrested for being an Aboriginal vagrant and placed on the local reserve. During the
Second World War he tried to enlist but was told he could not because he was Aboriginal.
He went interstate and joined up as a non-Aboriginal. After the war he could not acquire a
passport without permission because he was Aboriginal. He received exemption from the
Aborigines Protection Act and was told that he could no longer visit his relations on the
reserve because he was not an Aboriginal. He was denied permission to enter the
Returned Servicemen's Club because he was.(3)”
Historian Peter Read on the inconsistencies of the blood quantum law
https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/publications_archive/cib/cib0203/03cib10
#blood
 In Beaumont and Cadzow’s introduction, the authors argued that for decades,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service history and analysis of that
history, has been neglected
 This is due to the military historians’ focus on the military performing as
“collective units – such as armies, divisions, battalions and platoons – and the
manner in which these have been led, supplied and deployed to achieve the
political ends of war.” (Beaumont and Cadzow, 2018: 16)
 Individuals’ histories, on the other hand, tend to focus on heroic behaviors (for
example, Robert Kerr "Jock" McLaren and his guerilla tactics against the Japanese
during WW2)
Beaumont and Cadzhow (2018: 16-17) go on to argue:
“Of less concern to military historians has been what these and other individuals did
before they joined the defence forces. Their ethnicity, class or pre-war cultural
identification are all assumed to have been eclipsed by their new collective
identity. This, after all, is the purpose of military training: to subsume men and
women of diverse cultural and social backgrounds into a unified, even homogenised,
whole; and to transform them into a tightly knit collective in which individual
differences are erased. In combat particularly, it is argued, the need for small-
group cohesion makes any sensitivity to differences of race and class
irrelevant and dangerous.”
Do you agree with
Beaumont and Cadzow’s
argument that the purpose
of military training is to
subsume individual
identities and intersectional
experiences?
Can you think of examples
which contradicts or
support the authors’
argument/theory?
Beaumont and Cadzow’s argument is not about “military
brainwashes its recruits”
Rather, the authors seek to understand ethnicity, race, gender, and
class in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ service
peoples’ experiences, highlight the visibility of their presence in
defence forces, and gain the appropriate recognition
Battle of the Ages: Who Will Win?
VS
Vampire Cat
Werecat (like a werewolf, but a cat!)
 Dr Siobhan McDonnell (right) is a
Senior Lecturer at the Australian
National University. She is a legal
anthropologist and activist on land
rights in Australia as well as the
Pacific
 This is an optional listening, but if you
are interested in this week’s topic,
please give the podcast a listen.
 The word “mate” originated form the German
word "gemate“ (to share a meal at the table)
 The meaning of mates or mateship as friendship
and loyalty derived from white convicts in
Australia and has since took on different
meanings
Right: In Lord of the Rings movie, Sam helped his
friend, Frodo, to destroy an evil ring by carrying
Frodo = the standard definition of mateship?

“In 2000 Western Australian Vietnam veteran Phil Prosser told two stories about the contrasting
treatment he received in military and civilian life. The first is from early in his Army career, when a
mate invited him to have a drink:
Walking up to the canteen, as you walk through the front door, to the right was what we referred to as the
wet canteen, the bar, and to the left was the dry canteen. And of course, it was just an automatic reaction, as
I walked in I went to go left. This guy grabbed me by the arm, and he said, ‘Hey come on, in here.’ He says,
‘You’re allowed in here now.’ He says, ‘Those bastards can’t touch you anymore.’
In the second story Prosser was out of uniform at the Hotel Manly in Sydney with some Army mates:
And the steward came up to take orders … he turned to me and the guy said, ‘I’m sorry; I can’t serve this
gentleman because he’s Aboriginal.’ And of course they became pretty upset, the guys. They said, ‘But he’s
in the Army. You’ve got to serve him.’ He said, ‘I’m sorry but we can’t.’ So he refused to serve me.” (Riseman,
2018: 166)
You may ask, “Why would Indigenous people want to serve in the military, when they
have been so badly treated by the government?”
In the edited book, Serving Our Country : Indigenous Australians, War, Defence and
Citizenship, the answer is more complicated, and is tied to notions of citizenship,
patriotism, and structural inequality
Citizenship rights and “entitlements”: able to vote; enjoy the rights and protections
of being a citizenship; obey the law; defend Australia (i.e. join the military)
This also lends well to the concept of “mateship”, of loyalties and bonds formed (or
instances of exclusion from mateship)
“[One of the reasons] I joined
the army was it was the only way
I could learn … I would be
allowed to learn. And I thought,
after the war, if I am still alive I’ll
be able to take the ‘dimwits’
course and it was the only way
Aboriginals could learn extra
education at that time.”
“I joined the Australian
Women’s Army which really
opened my eyes to the
injustices suffered by
Aboriginals. I’d always known,
of course, but the war made
people more equal in a way,
and I got a taste of not being
just a maid in a white man’s
house.”
“[H]istorically, military service has been a core element in the contract between the
state and its citizens. From the time of the French Revolution on, it was the men that
took up arms in defence of the nation, either voluntarily or through being
conscripted, who thereby earned their right to be citizens. Women and minorities
exempted from this obligation were relegated to an inferior political status for many
centuries.” (Baumont and Cadzow 2018)
Fogarty et. al defined “deficit culture” as:
“‘Deficit discourse’ refers to discourse that represents people or
groups in terms of deficiency – absence, lack or failure. It particularly
denotes discourse that narrowly situates responsibility for problems
with the affected individuals or communities, overlooking the larger
socio-economic structures in which they are embedded. It is
implicated with race-based stereotypes.” (Fogarty et. Al 2018, vii)
“If an Aboriginal boy does really well at school, finishes year 12, goes on to enrol at
university or into full time employment and becomes the person he wants to be, the
reason given to that is because he’s had really supportive parents, a great education,
good teachers and he took his opportunities. Now if another Aboriginal boy drops
out of school in year 9, ends up in a cycle of destructive behaviour where he’s into
drugs and other stuff that’s not so good for him - the reason given for that is because
he’s Aboriginal.”
Scott Gorringe, Mithaka man and Director of MurriMatters Consulting
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/15/aboriginal-culture-is-not-a-problem-the-
way-we-talk-about-it-is
INDICATOR
CULTURE
 Sometimes also referred as “evaluation culture”,
in which it is thought that everything can be
measured and quantified by numbers
 One example is the Sustainable Development
Goals, in which progress on issues such as
poverty, education, health etc. can be measured
against a number
 Pros: indicators and numbers can hold policy
makers accountable, especially of failures on
improvements
 Cons: numbers can be used to frame racist
narrative or justify discriminatory policies and
programs. Numbers can also hide the individual
stories and experiences
 Veronica Gorrie, a proud
Gunai/Kurnai woman, wrote a
memoir about her life, Black and
Blue.
 The first part, Black, was about her
childhood and also enduring and
surviving immense violence from
some family members, strangers,
and abusive partner
 The second part, Blue, was about
Gorrie’s experience of being in the
Australian Police
“I joined the police for several reasons: first, to see if
I could get in, and more importantly, because I had
seen the way police mistreated my people and
naively thought that if I joined, I would be able to
stop this. I could help to eliminate or eradicate the
fear and mistrust my people have towards police.
After only a short time in the force, though, I realised
that those fears were well and truly justified.”
(Gorrie, 2021: 127)
Gorrie’s journey of training to become a police
officer – the momentary camaraderie and
mateship with other non-white police, but also
situated within an oppressive, systemic culture of
racism.
 White police would tell racist jokes and use
racist terms language near Gorrie, or to her
directly when referring to non-white suspects
and offenders.
 The expectation, and price for admission into
the mateship system of the police, was to
accept that racist culture.
 Much of the Blue part of the memoir was about
Gorrie standing up against the racist police
culture and white man’s mateship, as well as
the physical, psychological and career costs
that brought her, “but after a while I began
behaving the same as other police, just to fit
in.” (Gorrie, 2021: 223)
“You either conform to become one of them and allow yourself to be a part of the
racist system and their racist ideologies about your own people, or you are in a
constant battle, defending yourself.” (Gorrie, 2021: 224)
Although different institution as well as different time period from the WW2, Gorrie’s
story of joining the police, to want to make a difference in the world, especially for
the community, “people of all backgrounds – the needy, the vulnerable” (Gorrie,
2021: 127) is similar to the reasons why some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
joined the military back in the 1940s
 Telling one’s story, or the act of putting memories and feelings into words, are also
acts of defiance and survival
 Reading these accounts may be affirming or confronting, or confusing, but being
aware of how we feel, and understanding why we have such feelings is important
 Hopefully, this week will help you to look beyond cultural norms and constructs
such as mateship and nationalism, and to explore further how power and
inequalities operate social and cultural constructs, and how transformation can
occur
1. Research your nationality and what are the citizenship rights that you get to enjoy
or are excluded from.
2. Think about two or three reasons why you think it is important to have full access
of your citizenship rights? You can have a different opinion (i.e. you can also
disagree about the citizenship rights and criticise them)
3. Alternatively, check out Australia’s citizenship test and do them in class, see if
you can pass it at the first try ;-)
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/prepare-for-
test/practice-test-new
4. Class discussion (optional): is it possible to have a sense of nationalism and
national pride without excluding any groups of people?