‘G’day ya old bastard. Haven't seen ya for a while. Let me shout you one’. Very Australian, uniquely Australian. We are the only place in the world it seems where the word ‘bastard’ can be used as a term of endearment or an expression of friendship. Mind you it can also be used to express contempt or as an insult, which is the way it is accepted almost universally. Use it in some places and you will be lucky to escape with your life.
Why are we different? While I attempt unsuccessfully from time to time to find anything resembling an authoritative statement that answers the question I can present one or two possible ones. These go back to the earliest days of European settlement.
White Australia started out as a penal settlement. Of the eleven ships of the First Fleet one carried unmarried female convicts, some of whom were pregnant before leaving England and others fell pregnant on the voyage. A woman who struck a relationship with a crew member on the trip could have a more comfortable journey than her sisters. On arrival many early convict women were forced into prostitution in order to survive.
Esther Abrahams was seventeen when she was sentenced to deportation for stealing a piece of lace. On the way out she caught the attention of Lieutenant George Johnston and became his defacto wife soon after landing in Sydney. In 1808 Johnston, by then a Major and leader of the Rum Corps, became provisional Governor for almost six months following the forced resignation of Governor Bligh. Esther acted as the Governor's wife and they went on to become one of the wealthiest couples in the colony. In 1814 they married after being together for almost 25 years and having four children.
Early governors tried to control marriage in an attempt to engineer society according to their vision. Citizens needed Government permission to marriage. An application based on the desire to legitimise a pregnancy or because of love did not meet the requirements of Government. Many couples chose to go with their hearts.
In those early days there must have been a significant number of people born out of wedlock that contributed to the building of our nation and that helped to shape our national values. People who had been kicked in the guts by the English establishment, treated harshly in their new environment, and denied the right to marry whom they chose. It seems very likely a contempt for the norms of the ‘establishment’ and the number of bastards in the colony created the environment in which being born to unmarried parents was almost a badge of honour, not a matter of shame. A society in which some could call a bastard their mate.
I hate the term ‘illegitimate child’, and I don’t find the alternate ‘love child’ much better. Children don't get any say in who their parents are or in the circumstances of their conception. Regardless of what their parents may or may not have done, every child should have a right to be loved, supported, and given the same opportunities as all others. For too many that right has been denied because they are seen as ‘illegitimate’, or ‘bastards’. There is something appealing in the thought that a bastard could be celebrated in early Australia.
Those who accept as fact the Biblical account of Jesus of Nazareth recognise Him as history’s best-known bastard. Jesus chose to be born a bastard in a culture where such a birth brought great shame on both the parents and the child. He was born a social outcast. Perhaps this fact helped Him to better understand the struggles and the suffering of His fellow outcasts (see Hebrews 2:18). Many of these who had known the sneers and condemnation of the establishment felt comfortable in His presence. There is no reason to believe those early Australians would have found Him any different.
I wonder how many of those who claim to be Christian stop to think on the fact that we worship a bastard. Jesus took upon Himself the shame of HIs birth so that others of like status need feel no shame, no guilt, no condemnation. He gives the bastards of this world value as human beings regardless of how the society in which they live see them. That should shape the way we as Christians see them.
As Australians we talk about our Aussie values. I often wonder if we stop to think about what they really are, and what it means to live by those values. Perhaps, when we slap each other on the back with a hearty ‘G’day ya old bastard’ we are reflecting one of those values. Who cares about who or what your parents are. You and I are Aussies together, and as Aussies we will stand by one another.
For anyone interested, a bit of extra reading.
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