Mateship
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
that embodies equality
Social equality
Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
, loyalty
Loyalty
Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause There are many aspects to...
and friendship
Friendship
Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum...
. There are two types of mateship, the inclusive
Inclusive
Inclusive may refer to:* Inclusion * inclusive disjunction, A or B or both* inclusive fitness, in evolutionary theory, how many kin are supported including non-descendants* inclusive interval includes its endpoints...
and the exclusive
Exclusive
Exclusive typically means not with other things or not including other things.The terms inclusive and exclusive are contrasting terms, and often appear in the same context to describe contrasting things.Exclusive may refer to:...
; the inclusive is in relation to a shared situation (e.g., employment, sports, or hardship), whereas the exclusive type is toward a third party (e.g., a person that you have just met). Russel Ward, in The Australian Legend (1958), saw the concept as a central one to the Australian people. Mateship derives from mate
Mate (colloquialism)
Mate is a colloquialism used to refer to a friend and is commonly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It is or has been used interchangeably with many equivalent terms, such as buddy , pal or bro . It is sometimes abbreviated to M8..-Origin:Mate is a colloquialism...
, meaning friend, commonly used in Australia as an amicable form of address. Mateship can also be expressed in such qualities as loyalty to one's mates in preference to the law.
Origins
The genealogy of mateship has been inaccurately traced back to the early convicts by Australian literati. Mateship likely formed out of the working-class (predominantly Irish) egalitarianism present in British society; merely being reinforced by the experience of economic subordination typical of nineteenth-century Australia.Military context
Mateship is regarded as an Australian military virtue. For instance, the Australian Army Recruit Training Centre lists the "soldierly qualities" it seeks to instill as including "a will to win, dedication to duty, honour, compassion and honesty, mateship and teamwork, loyalty, and physical and moral courage."Australian Constitutional preamble
During the 1999 Australian constitutional referendumAustralian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had...
there was some consideration regarding the inclusion of the term "mateship" in the preamble
Preamble
A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subject of the statute...
of the Australian constitution. This proposed change was drafted by the Australian poet Les Murray
Les Murray (poet)
Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
, in consultation with the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
of the time, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
:
Australians are free to be proud of their country and heritage, free to realise themselves as individuals, and free to pursue their hopes and ideals. We value excellence as well as fairness, independence as dearly as mateship.
However, Murray was not supportive of the inclusion of "mateship" in the preamble, stating that it was "blokeish" and "not a real word", however the Prime Minister insisted it be included as the term, he said, had "a hallowed place in the Australian lexicon". Howard reluctantly dropped the term from the preamble, after the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
refused to allow it to be passed by the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
where they held the balance of power.
Since the referendum the Australian government has introduced the concept of mateship as a possible part of an Australian citizenship test, although it was unclear how endorsement of the values of mateship would be tested.
See also
- Page, James S. (2002) 'Is Mateship a Virtue?' Australian Journal of Social Issues. 37(2): 193-200; available on-line at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00003567/
- Culture of AustraliaCulture of AustraliaThe culture of Australia is essentially a Western culture influenced by the unique geography of the Australian continent and by the diverse input of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and various waves of multi-ethnic migration which followed the British colonisation of Australia...
- Russel Ward, (1958), The Australian Legend, Oxford University Press, Melbourne
- ANZAC spiritANZAC spiritThe Anzac spirit or Anzac legend is a concept which suggests that Australian and New Zealand soldiers possess shared characteristics, specifically the qualities those soldiers are believed to have shown on the battlefield in World War I. These qualities cluster around several ideas, including...