cultural pride and cultural cringe

I feel rather strange today. And it's all got to do with cultural identity.
I'd say that I'm Australian but that's simply because none of my living blood relatives have a non-Australian accent. I have random dribs and drabs of convict blood, Italian blood, English and Irish blood as well as Scottish blood. But nothing that I could decisively hang my hat on and say, 'Well, I'm definitely part of this cultural group.' But today I felt like I identified a little bit more with my Scottish heritage. Today was the Kirkin' o' the Tartan. In 25 words or less (but probably more) - it commemorates the time in the 1746 where the English brought in a law to ban the Scottish Highland dress, music and language. That lasted for about 35 years until they repealed the Act. But the ban on Gaelic lasted until just 30 years ago. Imagine having to go without your culture for 35 years. That'd be like saying "Alright, no more Australia Day fireworks, no more national anthem, no more of those corny hats with corks on them, no more 'throw another prawn on the barbie' for 35 years". It's insane.

Anyway, I went to a service with Mum today to commemorate that. There was a sea of tartan and bagpipes and Scottish accents. I don't know what it was but when we were marching to the chapel, I felt a crazy amount of pride for my Scottish background. I felt like I could relate on some feeble level.

However, at lunch I had a bit of cultural cringe from the Australian part of me. Just before we had a choir sing some songs. At the end they chose to sing 'I am Australian' to link Scotland with Australia or something. But I was listening to the lyrics and how it talks about all these different people from different backgrounds being Australian. It just reminded how there are so many people who want to be Australian but they can't because the Government is being a bunch of tools about it all. Serious - we have a declining birth rate, an ageing population. That spells trouble. There are people desperate to come to Australia and have the same opportunities we have to live a normal life. And they'd do anything to get here. Yet we lock them up for an insane amount of time, tease them with the fact that they may just get out of their prison in the middle of the South Australian outback and then deport them to where they've tried to escape from. There's something wrong with this picture. We're so proud of being Australian and we flaunt the fact that we are so multicultural, yet we're so selfish and picky about who we let in to our little 'multicultural' clique.

And that makes me cringe like you wouldn't believe.

I'll now step off my high horse and say that 'Damn, I look good in a kilt!'