Culture of Australia

The original culture of Australia can only be surmised: cultural patterns among the remote descendants of the first Australians cannot be assumed to be unchanged after 53,000 (or more) years of human habitation of the continent. Much more is known about the richly diverse cultures of modern Aboriginal Australians, or at least of those few who survived the impact of European colonisation. (For more on this, see Australian Aborigine and related entries.) Although the effect of the arrival of Europeans on Aboriginal culture was profound ...

Including:

• Culture of Australia - Music
• Culture of Australia - Arts and literature
• Culture of Australia - Cinema
• Culture of Australia - Television and media
• Culture of Australia - Cuisine
• Culture of Australia - Sport
• Culture of Australia - Australian culture: schools of thought
• Culture of Australia - Diversity of influences
• Culture of Australia - Underdog attitude
• Culture of Australia - Myths and contradictions

Read more here: » Culture of Australia: Encyclopedia - Culture of Australia

As to culture in the narrow sense - culture as voluntary, often non-economic activity - there are several schools of thought. One maintains that Australia has no real culture outside of second-hand imports from Europe and the USA. Proponents of this view point to the predominance of foreign books, music, and art, and claim that home-grown products are largely derivative. For years, many Australians suffered from an inferiority complex, called the "cultural cringe", regarding other countries, particularly European ones, believing that ...

See also:

Culture of Australia, Culture of Australia - Music, Culture of Australia - Arts and literature, Culture of Australia - Cinema, Culture of Australia - Television and media, Culture of Australia - Cuisine, Culture of Australia - Sport, Culture of Australia - Australian culture: schools of thought, Culture of Australia - Diversity of influences, Culture of Australia - Underdog attitude, Culture of Australia - Myths and contradictions

Read more here: » Culture of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Culture of Australia - Australian culture: schools of thought

Leading up to World War I, the decorative arts, including miniature, watercolour painting, and functional objects such as vases, became more prominent in the Australian arts scene. Norman Lindsay's works caused considerable scandal around the turn of the century. One famous drawing, Politice verso, caused his first scandal, as it depicted a "writhing bacchanal of nude Romans" giving the thumbs-down to "a scrawny figure hung on a cross". By this time, women's artworks started to attract wider attention, such as the pastels of Florence Rodway, or the paintings of Grace Cossington Smith, who painted the S ...

See also:

Art of Australia, Art of Australia - Aboriginal art, Art of Australia - Early Colonial Art, Art of Australia - Early 19th Century, Art of Australia - Heidelberg School, Art of Australia - 20th Century, Art of Australia - List of Australian artists

Read more here: » Art of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Art of Australia - 20th Century

Main article: Australian rock Australia has produced a wide variety of popular and rock music. While many musicians and bands (some notable examples include the 1960s successes of The Easybeats and the folk-pop group The Seekers, through the heavy rock of AC/DC, and the slick pop of INXS and more recently Savage Garden) have had considerable international success, there remains some debate over whether Australian popular music really has a distinctive sound. Perhaps the most striking common feature of Australian music, like many other Australian art forms, is ...

See also:

Music of Australia, Music of Australia - Aboriginal music, Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music, Music of Australia - Jazz, Music of Australia - Country music, Music of Australia - Rock and popular music, Music of Australia - First wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Second wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Third wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - 1980s, Music of Australia - 1990s: indie rock, Music of Australia - 2000s and later

Read more here: » Music of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Music of Australia - Rock and popular music

Main article: Australian Aboriginal music Aboriginal music has become a vehicle for social protest, and has been linked, by both performers and outsiders, with similar forms from Native Americans; Jamaican singer Bob Marley is often credited with helping to revive traditional Aboriginal music, as did the movie Wrong Side of the Road, which depicted Aboriginal reggae bands struggling for recognition and linked it with land rights. Yothu Yindi's sudden pop success in the 1990s surprised many observers, and helped bring man ...

See also:

Music of Australia, Music of Australia - Aboriginal music, Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music, Music of Australia - Jazz, Music of Australia - Country music, Music of Australia - Rock and popular music, Music of Australia - First wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Second wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Third wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - 1980s, Music of Australia - 1990s: indie rock, Music of Australia - 2000s and later

Read more here: » Music of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Music of Australia - Aboriginal music

As well as natural history, there were some ethnographic portraiture of Aborigines, particularly in the 1830s. Some of the most notable artists include Augustus Earle in New South Wales and Thomas Bock in Tasmania. Conrad Martens worked from 1835 to 1878 as a professional artists, painting many landscapes. He was commercially successful. His work, though, is regarded as softening the landscape to fit European sensibilities. Another si ...

See also:

Art of Australia, Art of Australia - Aboriginal art, Art of Australia - Early Colonial Art, Art of Australia - Early 19th Century, Art of Australia - Heidelberg School, Art of Australia - 20th Century, Art of Australia - List of Australian artists

Read more here: » Art of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Art of Australia - Early 19th Century

The beginnings of Australian art are often popularly associated with the Heidelberg School in the 1880s. Some historians, including Sayers (2001), regard this as an exaggeration, noting earlier nineteeth century artists, as well as contemporary artists (particularly women) not recognised as part of this movement, as well as noting the strong connections between the art of the school and the wider Impressionist movement. However, even given these qualifications, Sayers states that "there remains something excitingly original and indusitably i ...

See also:

Art of Australia, Art of Australia - Aboriginal art, Art of Australia - Early Colonial Art, Art of Australia - Early 19th Century, Art of Australia - Heidelberg School, Art of Australia - 20th Century, Art of Australia - List of Australian artists

Read more here: » Art of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Art of Australia - Heidelberg School

Main article: Australian classical music Perhaps the first Australian musician to gain international recognition (at the end of the 19th Century) was soprano Dame Nellie Melba. She was followed half a century later by another prominent soprano, Dame Joan Sutherland. The first important composer of classical music in Australia is Alfred Hill, who was trained in Leipzig (Germany) but eve ...

See also:

Music of Australia, Music of Australia - Aboriginal music, Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music, Music of Australia - Jazz, Music of Australia - Country music, Music of Australia - Rock and popular music, Music of Australia - First wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Second wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Third wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - 1980s, Music of Australia - 1990s: indie rock, Music of Australia - 2000s and later

Read more here: » Music of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music

Main article: Australian country music Australia has a long tradition of country music, which has developed a style quite distinct from its U.S. counterpart. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential Australian country song, influenced more by Celtic folk ballads than by American Country and Western music. This strain of Australian country music, with lyrics focusing on strictly Australian subjects, is generally known as "bush music" or "bush band music." The most successful Australian bush band is Me ...

See also:

Music of Australia, Music of Australia - Aboriginal music, Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music, Music of Australia - Jazz, Music of Australia - Country music, Music of Australia - Rock and popular music, Music of Australia - First wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Second wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Third wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - 1980s, Music of Australia - 1990s: indie rock, Music of Australia - 2000s and later

Read more here: » Music of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Music of Australia - Country music

Main article: Australian jazz The history of jazz and related genres in Australia extends back into the 19th century. During the gold rush era of the 1850s American, British and locally formed 'blackface' (white actor-musicians in blackface) minstrel troupes began to tour Australia, touring not only the capital cities but also many of the booming regional towns like Ballarat and Bendigo. Minstrel orchestra music featured jazz-like musical characteristics including improvisatory embellishment and polyrhythm in the (pre-classic) ...

See also:

Music of Australia, Music of Australia - Aboriginal music, Music of Australia - Classical Music and Contemporary Classical Music, Music of Australia - Jazz, Music of Australia - Country music, Music of Australia - Rock and popular music, Music of Australia - First wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Second wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - Third wave of Australian rock, Music of Australia - 1980s, Music of Australia - 1990s: indie rock, Music of Australia - 2000s and later

Read more here: » Music of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Music of Australia - Jazz

The first depictions of Australia by European artists were mainly "natural-history art", depicting the distinctive flora and fauna for scientific purposes. Sydney Parkinson, the plant draftsperson on James Cook's 1770 voyage that first charted the eastern coastline of Australia, made a large number of such drawings under the direction of naturalist Joseph Banks. Despite Banks' suggestions, no professional natural-history artist sailed on the First Fleet in 1788, so until the turn of the century all drawings made in the colony were by ...

See also:

Art of Australia, Art of Australia - Aboriginal art, Art of Australia - Early Colonial Art, Art of Australia - Early 19th Century, Art of Australia - Heidelberg School, Art of Australia - 20th Century, Art of Australia - List of Australian artists

Read more here: » Art of Australia: Encyclopedia II - Art of Australia - Early Colonial Art

The name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning southern. Legends of an "unknown southern land" (terra australis incognita) date back to the Roman times and were commonplace in mediæval geography, but they were not based on any actual knowledge of the continent. The Dutch adjectival form Australische ("Australian," in the sense of "southern") was used by Dutch officials in Batavia to refer to the newly discovered land to the south as early as 1638. The first English language writer to use the word ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Origin and history of the name

Australia has a prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita GDP slightly higher than those of the UK, Germany and France. The country was ranked third in the United Nations' 2005 Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist worldwide quality-of-life index 2005. In recent years, the Australian economy has been resilient in the face of global economic downturn. Rising output in the domestic economy has been offsetting the global slump, and business and consumer confidence remains robust. Australia's emphasis on econ ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Economy

The primary basis of Australian culture up until the mid-20th century was Anglo-Celtic, although distinctive Australian features had been evolving from the environment and indigenous culture. Over the past 50 years, Australian culture has been strongly influenced by American popular culture (particularly television and cinema), large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking countries, and Australia's Asian neighbours. Australia has a long history of visual arts, starting with the cave and bark paintings of its indigenous peoples. F ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Culture

Although most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, it covers a diverse range of habitats, from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests. Because of the great age and consequent low levels of fertility of the continent, its extremely variable weather patterns, and its long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique and diverse. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic.[10]< ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Flora and fauna

Most of the estimated 20.4 million Australians are descended from 19th- and 20th-century immigrants, the majority from Britain and Ireland. Australia's population has quadrupled since the end of World War I [16], spurred by an ambitious immigration program. In 2001, the five largest groups of the 27.4% of Australians who were born overseas were from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam and China.[13]< ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Demographics

Australia's 7,686,850 km² (2,967,909 mi²) landmass is on the Indo-Australian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. Australia has a total 25,760 km (16,007 mi) of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 km² (3,146,057 mi²). This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Climate is highly influenced by ocean currents, including the El Niño southern oscillation, which is correlated ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Geography and climate

Australia's 7,686,850 km² (2,967,909 mi²) landmass is on the Indo-Australian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans, Australia is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas. Australia has a total 25,760 km (16,007 mi) of coastline and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8,148,250 km² (3,146,057 mi²). This exlusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Climate is highly influenced by ocean currents, including the El Niño southern oscillation, which is correlated ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture, Australia - Related topics

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Geography and climate

The first human habitation of Australia is estimated to have occurred between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago.[1] The first Australians were the ancestors of the current Indigenous Australians; they arrived via land bridges and short sea-crossings from present-day Southeast Asia. Most of these people were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait I ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - History

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy and has a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Queen is nominally represented by the Governor-General; although the Constitution gives extensive executive powers to the Governor-General, these are normally exercised only on the advice of the Prime Minister. The most notable exercise of the Governor-General's reserve powers outside the Prime Minister's dire ...

See also:

Australia, Australia - Origin and history of the name, Australia - History, Australia - Politics, Australia - States and territories, Australia - Foreign relations and military, Australia - Geography and climate, Australia - Flora and fauna, Australia - Economy, Australia - Demographics, Australia - Culture

Read more here: » Australia: Encyclopedia II - Australia - Politics