Essay Sample on Culture in Australia
Being one of the most multicultural countries, Australia is known to be diverse and understanding of different cultures and ethnicities. However, racism is constantly lurking in the background in Australian society today, with the ‘superior’ white Europeans looking down on those who come from other cultures. ‘The Castle’ is a 1997 Australian comedy film that incorporates aspects of multiculturalism. Characters in Rob Sitch’s ‘The Castle’ accurately portray culture in Australian society today, demonstrating acceptable interaction between different racial groups. However, other texts, such as ‘Summer Heights High’ and ‘Here Come the Habibs’, create juxtaposing representations, which should be considered derogatory and disrespectful. This essay primarily discusses how culture is portrayed positively or negatively in each of the three texts and connects and determines whether these representations of Australian society are accurate.
Rob Sitch has utilised multiple film techniques to explore the Australian representation of culture in ‘The Castle’. The first character who has a different cultural background is Con, Tracey’s husband. Con is stereotyped as an individual with Greek heritage, with his absurd last name and hair shown to be oiled back. During the wedding speech Darryl gives, he casually makes a racist joke. At first, Con’s parents are focused on the camera, not laughing but with diegetic laughing in the background, giving the audience the impression that they are not taking the joke well. However, the following scene juxtaposes this one completely, with Darryl acknowledging Con, despite coming from a different culture, causing the audience to realise that Darryl was only making jokes, but, in reality, he is welcoming and accepting. In modern Australian society, this representation is almost everywhere. Australians often make jokes that may sound racially offensive, but this is their way of interacting with others of a different culture. As the audience would understand that Darryl was trying to be friendly, people from other cultures living in Australia would also understand the Australian sense of humour. Thus, through characters in ‘The Castle’, Rob Sitch has positively painted a picture of culture in Australia to the audience.
Contrasting the representation portrayed in ‘The Castle’, ‘Summer Heights High’ presents a juxtaposing view of culture in Australia. Jonah Takalua has been stereotyped as a brownface in ‘Summer Heights High’ through his appearance and actions. In one such scene, Jonah is in trouble for bullying another student. Upon watching this scene unravel, the audience can instantly recognise that Jonah is represented as a bully. His size is juxtaposed to the victim; he is twice as big as him. In addition, many individuals may associate colour with Jonah, as people of his ethnicity are often stereotyped as discourteous. His use of inappropriate language causes one to believe he is uneducated, and the way he talks to the adult seems absolutely outrageous. These portrayals of Jonah ultimately represent him as an offender in Australian society. However, these representations have recently been criticised, with Netflix cancelling Summer Heights High ‘due to the use of blackface and brownface in the portrayal of characters’ (The Guardian). Thus, many individuals have acknowledged that these racial stereotypes are inappropriate by promoting cultural awareness; they are not accepting the immoral portrayal of coloured individuals. ‘Summer Heights High’ creates a juxtaposing representation of Australia’s culture upon comparison to ‘The Castle’, and hence, is not a fair portrayal of Australian society as a whole.
Another major series that focus on cultural diversity is Here Comes the Habibs, presenting a similar representation of Australian culture to Summer Heights High. The O’Neill family can be seen as racist and privileged individuals who think too highly of themselves as a result of their ethnicity and their social status. In the intro of this series, the audience can easily recognise that the O’Neills dislike the Habibs immensely. Olivia O’Neill starts by acknowledging Fou as the ‘pool boy’ rather than the owner of the house, which causes the audience to recognise Olivia’s toxicity towards those of another race. Furthermore, the juxtaposition between angles creates the sense that Olivia is superior to Fou. The disregard of Fou’s name further emphasises Olivia’s self-esteem and the stereotype of the superior white Australian. While many see this as an underdog situation for the Habibs, breaking the prejudiced stereotypes set by the white Australians, others believe the sitcom marginalises people. An article from SBS states, ‘Our screens should reflect the diversity on our streets, but they don’t.’, implicitly saying that Here Comes the Habibs utilises negative stereotypes and turns them into harmful jokes which aren’t funny. Here Come the Habibs has done a terrible job at portraying Australian multiculturalism by overlooking the Australian’s egalitarianism and creating humour at racial conflicts.
Ultimately, culture in Australian society has been accurately portrayed through characters in Rob Sitch’s The Castle but are not portrayed accurately in texts such as Summer Heights High and Here Come the Habibs. Culture in Australia seems to be represented poorly by the majority of texts, with the filmmakers not actually understanding Australian multiculturalism, but instead, blatantly jumping to their own conclusions, trying to create humour within racial jokes that are not appreciated.
