A Multicultural Celebration free essay sample

A Multicultural Celebration by Australian radio host, Paul Murray presents a meandering critique Australias multicultural history and our search for a national Identity. Whilst I agree with the picture that he paints of the constant cycle of opposition to the various waves of migrant types throughout our history, and how he shows that despite this, multiculturalism flourishes, I disagree with how Murray tries to tie this with our search for a national Identity.In this article the Australian citizen who searches for a national identity is silenced by Murals dismissal of the search as, navel-gazing. He goes on to say the search is futile. He seeks to supplant the values built up by generations of Australians of egalitarianism, metathesis and freedom with his own notion that we be defined by multiculturalism alone.Murray uses a photographic montage, a main body and a concluding statement to persuade us that for over a century we have been looking in the wrong place for our national identity, and that we should, like America, define ourselves by multiculturalism. We will write a custom essay sample on A Multicultural Celebration or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I think Murray fails to win the argument. What the article should have done Is show us how multiculturalism can define us. It should remit us one day of the year to navel-gaze, or reflect on who we are and why must It be either multiculturalism or the three values stated previously, egalitarianism, metathesis and freedom, why not all four?Murray, for the purpose of this article, uses a carefully constructed photographic montage to include proponents, Cough Whittle and Harold Holt, and opponents of multiculturalism, Sir Henry Parkers. He has pictured Australia and its place in the world overlaid on the Australian flag and tied it in with the emblem of American migration, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The crowd pictured on the right hand side being supervised by police may well be those crowds that gather for the Australia Day celebration services. The main body of Murray article on A Multicultural Celebration focuses largely on how Australians have resisted multiculturalism over the centuries, like today with the current waves of boat-people that we find difficult to accept- the characters have changed over time but the attitudes have remained the same. Murray also tries to enter the debate about a national identity by telling us to drop the notion of equality, freedom and metathesis cause they dont necessarily define Australians as a nation many societies aspire to them too.What Murray fails to do is to tie the two ideas together, multiculturalism and national identity. He just presents them at the conclusion without telling us how multiculturalism should define us, he Just tells us that it should. Murray tells us that our migration experience is more like Americas, but he fails to tell us how America defines herself through multiculturalism. The fact that the statement, Our migration experience is much more like Americas is written in much larger text and a different onto tells us that it Is very important to Murray argument.However, he fails to show how multiculturalism In any way defines the American experience. America Is defined quite clearly as the land of the brave and the home of the free. Murray concluding statement Is his final attempt to gain the readers support of his pollen that we are defined as a nation by out broadly multicultural society and the success to action is that we should be satisfied with having a national identity based on our ability to live together peacefully, being people of different races.