guiding principles

Being Australian is about "being" -- that is, the experience of a moment in time that is palpable, alive and real, that suddenly has you sense and connect viscerally, spiritually or emotionally with the ‘Australianness’ of the moment.

"Being" also means someone is doing something or something is happening and we are involved in it -- even if only as observers.

Being Australian is about...

• what happened' and 'what happens' - not 'what it means'
• listening to people rather than telling them
• treasuring ordinary people as the 'experts' on Australian life
• providing people around the world with innovative ways of discovering and sharing 'Australian' life experiences
• promoting awareness, empathy, conversation and learning about life in Australian contexts anywhere in the world
• sharing knowledge from people's experiences so as to inform, entertain and inspire

Being Australian is not about

• Australian "values" and "national identity"
• Fixing, changing or forcing points of view
• Lecturing, advocating or lobbying

What Being Australian invites you to share:

• Your photos and stories about experiences you have that feel Australian
• Your feelings on Being Australian discussion forums
• Your videos highlighting experiences that feel Australian (like these)
• Your random thoughts about being Australian
• Original essays and articles about anything to do with 'Australian' experiences
  

Being Australian is focussed on:

• Helping people who have lived in Australia all their lives feel a sense of belonging
• Helping people with Australian citizenship understand and embrace the Australian life
• Making ordinary people, regardless of background, the subject-matter experts on what being 'Australian' feels like
• Democratising the conversation people have about themselves as a community and nation
• Promoting understanding, empathy and social cohesion that spans boundaries
• Rigorously sidesteps questions of national identity, cultural symbolism, and political futures
• Gives people a way to share something important to them immune from debate by treating people's experiences as fact not opinion
• Makes ordinary people teachers of others about how life is experienced in Australian contexts
• Attracts simple examples of Australian experience from Australians, visitors and travellers alike
• Presents snatches of life in ways that can inform, entertain and inspire conversation, learning and fun
• Gives people something to talk about when they may have nothing else in common with each other
• Promotes mutual awareness which can enhance empathy even among people who may never meet
• Champions gritty authenticity and unabashed self-expression
• Highlights the breath and universality of the 'Australian' experience among people of many backgrounds
• Cultivates a heightened sense of belonging among people of different backgrounds who are linked by a shared citizenship
• Provides people with a way of reclaiming a sense of something shared that adds value to life in Australia
• Helps to transform the relationship people have with each other as witnesses to and participants in the 'Australian' experience