Class and Identity

Given their overwhelming presence in colonial Australia and Canada, the most pervasive impact on national cultural values appears to have come from the Anglo-Celtic Catholic and Protestant communities, whose impact on the evolution of national values, culture, and national character was profound. As the contribution of the Irish Catholic sensibility to Australian irreverence, rebelliousness, and egalitarianism—or desire for flatter hierarchies—is evident in such Australian practices as “knocking,” “cutting down tall poppies,” and even the social phenomenon of “mateship”—features of Australian culture absent in Canada—the significant number of Irish Catholics in Australia is the critical factor that guided Australian culture in a different direction compared to Canada where Irish Catholics, as a percentage of the Canadian population, did not possess the same cultural force.