Australiana
Australiana includes the items, people, places, flora, fauna and events of Australian origins. Anything pertaining to Australian culture, society, geography and ecology can fall under the term Australiana, especially if it is endemic to Australia. Australiana often borrows from Australian Aboriginal culture, or the stereotypical Australian culture of the early 1900s.
Objects can be Australiana in their own right, such as boomerangs, Akubra hats, and didgeridoos, or can be common objects with Australian cultural images displayed on them. Such items might include two-man saws, snow globes or tea towels with Australian scenery or icons imprinted on them in the national colours of Australia (green and gold).
Australiana can also refer to art with an Australian style or subject. Paintings, ceramics, crafts and coins that depict Australian imagery would fall under this category. Australiana has also been called a style of kitsch art.[1]
Topics
People are sometimes depicted in the artwork, such as Australian explorers, drovers, bushranger, swagmen, Aboriginal Australians, diggers, Stockman, and the like.
Being on the beach in summer is also generally made out to be part of Australian, as well as Surf Life Savers, as Australia is a coastal culture, because of the nature of inland Australia (dry, harsh desert).
Some commercial brands have become part of Australiana due to their perceived "Australianness". Advertisements and posters depicting these brands often become part of Australiana as well. The following themes are examples of Australiana:[2]
Aboriginal culture
Animals
These images are often well-known Australian animals and birds, such as
Clothing
- Akubra hats
- budgie smugglers
- Driza-Bone coats
- R. M. Williams boots
- Speedos swim briefs
- Ugg boots
Food
- Anzac biscuits
- Arnott's Biscuits
- Chiko Roll
- Damper
- Fairy bread
- Four'N Twenty Pies
- Lamingtons
- Meat pie
- Milo (beverage)
- Pavlova (dessert)
- Peters Ice Cream
- Rosella soup
- Tim Tam
- Weet-Bix
- Victoria Bitter
- Vegemite
- XXXX beer
See also
- Culture of Australia
- William Dixson — a collector of early Australiana
- David Scott Mitchell — a collector of early Australiana
- Canadiana — a similar concept in Canada
- Americana — a similar concept in the United States
- Kiwiana — a similar concept in New Zealand
- Africana — a similar concept in South Africa
- Floridiana — a similar concept in Florida
- Hawaiiana — a similar concept in Hawaii
- Yugo-nostalgia — a similar concept in the former Yugoslav states
- Soviet nostalgia — a similar concept in the former Soviet Union
- Ostalgie — a similar concept in East Germany
- PRL nostalgia — a similar concept in Poland
- Communist nostalgia — a similar concept in former or currently communist countries
- Rhodesiana — a similar concept in Zimbabwe relating to items made in its colonial (Rhodesia) era
External links
- The Australiana Society publishes a quarterly magazine, Australiana, which features research on Australian art, decorative art, artifacts and history.