Bonzer Words!: Mateship
Paul Newbury reflects on the nature of Australian mateship.
The term 'mate', says historian, John Hirst, in The Australians: insiders and outsiders on the national character since 1770, is an English term that was first used for a man with whom one worked and then for a workmate who was a close friend.
From the late 19th century, 'mate' became part of a wider loyalty and 'being mates' was said to be particular to Australian culture. Australians say, 'G'day mate' because that form of address expresses the subtext of mateship: equality and solidarity.
The quintessential Australian writer on the national character, Henry Lawson (1867-1922), expresses in verse the meaning of mateship in terms of the brotherhood of workers in the trade union movement.
They tramp in mateship side by side —
The Protestant and the Roman —
They call no biped lord or sir,
And touch their hats to no man!
In Australian Legend, Lawson said: The greatest pleasure I have ever known is when my eyes meet the eyes of a mate over the top of two foaming glasses of beer.
Australian feminist writers like historian, Miriam Dixon, in her 1976 book, The Real Matilda, speak of mateship as a male-bonding tradition involving sublimated homosexuality and as such, it is antagonistic to women.
In the 1880s, the recently departed news journal, The Bulletin, was an influential publication that promoted a singular set of views—egalitarianism, unionism, mateship and nationalism. It was also white and male.
Lawson and Banjo Paterson were regular contributors and a reviewer of The Bulletin wrote in 1897 that Bulletin writers were caricatures of the Australian national type propagated by the journal: mateship and blokey bonding to the exclusion of family life; and a fondness for alcohol, pubs and gambling.
These are the characteristics of male mateship that have been described as being a strong thread in the Australian male tradition ever since. The notion of one's mates being important is long entrenched in Australian culture. In 1921, celebrated war historian, CEW Bean wrote in the Story of Anzac:
The typical Australian was seldom religious in the sense in which the word is generally used. So far as he held a prevailing creed, it was a romantic one inherited from the gold-miner and the bushman, of which the chief article was that a man should at all times and at any cost stand by his mate. That was and is the one law, which the good Australian must never break. It is bred in the child and stays with him through life ...
Former Prime Minister, John Howard, embraced the concept of mateship and in the debate about the language to be used in amendments to the preamble to the constitution in 1999; he announced he wanted to include the word mateship. Professor Marilyn Lake, Historian at La Trobe University, objected, saying:
It's a return to the spirit of the 1890s when what was quintessentially Australian was the relationship between men. National identity was grounded in the writings of people like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson and continued with Gallipoli and right through the Second World War to our social institutions such as surf lifesaving, racing and the pub.
On a memorable occasion in 1975, then Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, poured red sand into the hands of distinguished elder, Vincent Lingiari, as a symbolic gesture on the occasion the Federal Government handed over title to the land at Daguragu (Wave Hill) in the Northern Territory to the Gurindji people. In the event of the redress of dispossession, Lingiari said, in a spirit of reconciliation, 'we are all mates now'.
Channel 9 put a profile of cricketer, Adam Gilchrist, on the screen and under the heading 'best mate' he named his partner in marriage. Of course, 'mate' has always applied to a couple who co-habit, though in Gilchrist's case, I believe he means that his wife is his soul-mate.
In 2004, a number of young Australians defended mateship in the book, Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future. They say that in imagining a future Australia, they want to emphasize old values but to consciously expand the meaning to make them inclusive of all Australians.
They say Australian society should express the values of tolerance, compassion and diversity. Far from being something between men, mateship should be seen as the connection between all Australians regardless of background, ethnicity or circumstance. In such a community, mateship would reflect a relationship of responsibility to respect and care for each other and to celebrate Australia's Indigenous heritage.
© Paul Newbury
Paul Writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
