The Ethnicity of South Australia - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION Reading or listening to teachers’ lecture on the subject of South Australia’s ethnicity is not sufficiently enough to have a profound understanding and immense impact to the attention of students. For this reason, it is momentous to integrate first-hand experience to some of the prominent places in South Australia where social interactions among local citizens are present and offer unconventional means of conveying knowledge. Australian Rules Football match, South Australia’s Museum, Art Gallery, and Parliament House are considered excellent and exciting places having its distinctive South Australian experience of both learning and enjoyment. AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL MATCH Rules of the Match Australian Rules Football most popularly know as ‘Aussie Rules’ or ‘footy’ is a variety of football having certain characteristics derived from Rugby and Gaelic football in which it is considered a bodily contact activity. Nevertheless, footy, for the most part, is distinctive to Australian citizens given the fact that its rules were established prior to other contemporary footballs. The duration of a single match is divided into four parts with 20 minutes allowable time for every quarter. Three minutes max is allocated after the first set, five minutes max after the third set, and 20 minutes max for half-time break but participants must go back to the ground five minutes before the permitted break time (Harvey, 1998). In starting the match, the selection of goals for each team is resolved by means of a toss coin in which the prevailing team will have the opportunity to decide strategic location depending on the wind direction. Then, an adjudicator will lift the ball above his head signifying all set to start the match to the timekeepers and will swiftly bounce the ball in the middle making it to vertically rebound vertically while every participant in the center square is trying to get the ball. This is branded as ‘ball-up’ or ‘bouncedown’, however, if it is impossible sometimes because ground conditions, the adjudicator merely throw the ball like the ‘jump ball’ in basketball. Just four participants coming from every team are acceptable in the middle square and other participants are prohibited to go the middle circle or even pass through the line towards the rival’s space unless the ball has been bounced. Once the match started, respective coaches can not directly intervene with the participants and they usually hold themselves on box higher than the ground. The senior coach, however, has a telephone access relaying instructions to the participants through a runner who usually wears either neon green or yellow uniform. With regards to scoring, once an attacker, without being tapped, kicked the ball over the goal line flanked by the two bigger goal posts is considered a goal having a score of six points. Immediately after, the ball goes back to the middle circle called a ‘ball-up’ making it impossible to get "own goal" like in soccer game. In an event that the ball goes through the goal line flanked by the behind posts as a result of any other means, a behind score of one is made. After the behind score, regardless of where the ball set off, the ball can be kicked back from inside the goal square typically by the other team. However, once the ball strikes a behind post with no rebound, it is considered "out on the full" which means the other team has a free kick. In an instance where the ball both bounces and strikes the behind post, subsequently, the ball is again tossed into starting and restarting play with no points at all. At the end of the fourth quarter, the team who got the higher points wins the match and it will be judged as drawn in the event that both teams have given equal points (The Australian Football Association of North America, 1997 -2004). Port Adelaide Magpies versus Sturt Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club is perhaps, for the most part, flourishing higher football club in South Australia to be particular and even in the entire continent of Australia as a whole which can be proved way back of its first match in 1870 since it achieved 36 SANFL leadings plus six successive wins and hailed as Champions of Australia on four occurrences. After the first match in which the ground was labeled as ‘Buck Flats’, the South Australian Football Association formally systematized the footy match and gained its first flag in 1884 that carried on until 1914 making Port Adelaide Magpies’ history in demonstrating its power as Australia’s Champions. Four decades later, the club earned three flags, 13 premierships and six successive SANFL wins —entering its new epoch in football. This persisted through the years during the 90’s achieving seven flags qualifying it for the succeeding ANFL license in uniting with the AFL and was eventually granted in 1994. In doing so, the Port Adelaide Football Club Ltd (Power) was connected with AFL at the same time Magpies ongoing in the SANFL making it Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club Inc. With this affiliation, the club maintained its position gathering another three premierships in 2003. After two years, John Cahill coached the Magpies for one year which leads the Club to end in third place and truly put the Club for another thrilling and victorious opportunity. Jeremy Clayton, one of the most excellent participants of Magpies, conquered the match before an accident happened in which the Qualifying Final success above the Eagles finished his season. To circumvent what happened, the Club assigned Tim Ginever and Mark Clayton as senior coach and new Captain respectively in 2006. This, however, did not go well as the club ended fifth which makes the Club to be besieged in succeeding the 2007 Grand Final. In relation to the Sturt Cricket Club, on the other hand, its creation was three decades after the establishment of Port Adelaide among the citizens of Unley which and immediately after South Australian Football Association. It is considered ‘Double Blues’ upon using the two variations of color blue patterned from Oxford and Cambridge Universities since the Unley Oval is located on the intersection between terraces of Oxford and Cambridge. The Club’s fist and second premierships were in 1915 and 1919 respectively. In the succeeding five years, the Blues failed to join the finals and was only able to get premiership in 1926 after Frank Golding coached the club. The fourth and fifth premierships were respectively in 1932, with the help of Sid White and 1940, under captain-coach P.T ‘Bo’ Morton. During the World War II, however, upon the request of SANFL to momentarily combine various leagues because numerous players served as soldiers, Sturt teams up with South. As World War II ended, the Blues was not able to regain its position because of immense loss of significant members to the war and during the 50’s the club only landed as third despite the presence of Len Fitzgerald as captain-coach, who considered a champion with three Magarey Medallist. In 1965, the Blues enabled to get their very first Grand Final against Port Adelaide but lost in the match by only three points. After a year, Blues won over Port Adelaide by astounding 56 points in which the first premiership of Blues was attained and continuously gained four more premierships against Port, Glenelg, and Tiger marking its golden era. It, however, only lasted until 1971 because several champions retired. In 1976, Sturt made it to the Grand Final and won over Port Adelaide. In the next two decades, Sturt could no longer sustain its position and even in its financial aspect but still manage to solve the problem in 1996 and immediately made it to the Grand Final but failed to win over North Adelaide. At the dawn of the new millennium, Port started to gain momentum having four consecutive years as finalist and won over Port. In its centennial year, Blues, however, did not able to make an impression and even in the following years. This includes having catastrophic terrorist attack in 2002 and the retirement of a good number of excellent players and coaches of the team. The Match Upon critically observing the footy match, it undoubtedly displayed significant various form of violence. This has been manifested in an instance where some participants physically fight against their opponents even to the extent of breaking their legs and head injuries. In the event of capturing the ball, another participant’s head bled because of forceful moves from every participant of the two teams who continuously struggling to get the ball. In these cases the injured participants were not allowed to go back to the field and play unless they have been properly checked without any sign of bleeding. Every after a quarter period, the captain coach along with other corresponding coaches from both teams became intense in giving strategic instructions in winning the match at the same time extremely utilizing the time allotted for breaks including check ups done by medics. After this, one may immediately notice the boosted energy of participants in playing the game together with the upheaval of respective spectators of both teams. In this manner, Australian Rules Football truthfully exercises enormous energy in playing the game even if compared to soccer. In relation to the outcome of Port Adelaide versus Sturt match held at Alberton Oval dated May 15, 2009, Sturt victoriously won over Port Adelaide and has been able to have five winnings of the seven games. In the beginning of the match, Sturt was able to attain two goals after the first quarter with a score of 4.3 to 2.3. Afterwards, Port Adelaide was able to come up with draw score as they strike 3.2 as compared to Sturt’s 1.2 perhaps because of lengthy break time giving Port Adelaide an opportunity to reorganize their strategy. Having that score, Port Adelaide’s aficionados from approximately 1000 spectators present at that time became much enthusiastic. But not too long ago, Sturt stroked again making a lead score of as much as 35 points. As the match approached the last quarter, it turned out to be head-to-head in Sturt versus Port Adelaide with a score of 6.2 to 5.1 respectively. Sturt overall prevailed with seven goals and concluding Matt Jaensch as best a field for Sturt at the same time as Brad Murray standouts for Port Adelaide. While every member of Sturt club along with their club’s enthusiasts celebrates their victory, Port Adelaide’s captain coach, on the other hand, purpled to what happened to the match and as if its participants will be surely and literally be kicked after the match since this meant that Port Adelaide remained zero winning making them on the verge of becoming bottom in Australian Rules Football ranking. If this happens, they will no longer be able to achieve the season’s premiership while Sturt already gained competitive position in acquiring it. PERSONAL REFLECTION In various types of sports happenings across the word, violence are frequently present and which other concerned citizens normally objected in watching and patronizing such type of sports. In this sense, Australian Rules Football game is not exempted to this kind of protest since it is believed to generate impulsive behavior to its audience during and even after every match primarily because of perceived violence coming from the players. The demonstration can be in the form of destruction within the vicinity and derision. In some cases, supporters of the winning or losing team carry their feelings out into the street and commit acts of vandalism and violence This can also be manifested when respective spectators of opposing teams confront each other in which sometimes they being carried away by their emotions leading to physical force. It may also be intensified in the event when players, particularly the most significant one, are injured and in quandary over the scoring process and even extends at the end of the game in announcing the winning team of the match. All these notions of violence conveyance from the participants to their spectators, however, proved to be otherwise in the observation of Port Adelaide versus Sturt. South Australians’ Sportsmanship Indeed the participants from both teams displayed violence, but this does not mean that South Australian people would adopt that kind of behavior. They are intellectual enough to know the disparity between a game and their own personal lives. Perhaps they just derive excitement and enjoyment to the competition itself and in this manner the game conveys purpose to their lives. To further elucidate this idea, it is important to take into consideration of the fact that violence is one of the very basic instincts of human beings most particularly during the hunting and gathering period. The display of violence in sports like in Australian Rules Football excludes its spectators to do the same. In this sense, the violence that may be exercise by the spectators is passed to the players. Adding to this is that the players perceived their participation as part of the game and not entirely part of their personal life enabling the principle of sportsmanship to be exercised. For further reiteration, the existence of violence in Australian Rules Football cannot possibly view as the nature of South Australian citizens. Basketball which is extensively being played in almost every country in the world, for instance, also presents violence. However, this does not signify the characteristic of every citizen in the world who passionately admire basketball as violent people. In the same manner that the violence presented in Australian Rules Football is not the sole basis in understanding South Australia’s ethnicity but more importantly the apparent love of South Australian people to sports as well as in its basic principles—once again the principle of sportsmanship being put into practice. SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY South Australian Museum Another institution of South Australian administration that offers edification to students among its other local and foreign citizens is the South Australian Museum (SAM) which preserves cultural information, along with other fields of sciences, through its revolutionary studies of various collected works. The museum not only envisions to let somebody recognizes its collection, but most significantly encourages appreciation and passion to its viewer most specifically with regards to aboriginal culture since it acts as caretaker of South Australia’s prominent anthological pieces. This is very much evident in the way the institution outstandingly and continuously record, preserve and present accessible data in developing extensive awareness both in the natural and cultural sense. It also includes highly essential studies which are being published and circulated not only domestically but also globally; thereby, maintaining generally accepted standard in giving excellence service to all. Experiencing the Exquisiteness of the Museum Among the various collections in South Australian Museum which present significant information about South Australia’s ethnicity, the gallery comprising approximately 3000 pieces relating Australia’ s Aboriginal Culture appears to be remarkable the most. This has been globally acclaimed since it is considered the biggest demonstration of Aboriginal Culture. Upon viewing the ‘Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery’, one may easily discern the strong beliefs of Aboriginals to the interconnectivity of all physical environments to man which is determined both culturally and spiritually. After that, several memorabilia of renowned personas such as Australia’s discover Sir Dauglas Mawson and astronaut Andy Thomas can be observed by the audience. The former may be viewed his unrelenting effort in exploration through his expedition paraphernalia such as sleeping bag made of hair from camel, a hut specially made for the freezing temperature of Antarctic, boots, sled among others. Furthermore, South Australian Museum also show a wide array of remnants of extinct animals ranging from mega fauna to Edicaran varieties like plesiosaur’s skeleton which is almost six meters in height. In relation to Australia’s biodiversity, South Australian Museum offers different kinds of preserved rodents, insects among other animals which are truly distinct to the country. Australia’s biodiversity is also expressed and presented through assortments of astonishing pictures taken by well-known photographers such as ‘Leafy sea dragon portrait’, ‘Helix - opened pod of the scarlet bean’, ‘Fighting egrets’, ‘Female New Zealand falcon and chick in nest’, and the like which are really remarkable as proved by its corresponding and respected awards in ANZANG Nature and Landscape Photo contest. Art Gallery of South Australia Having a classical characteristic of the building structure, Art Gallery of South Australia, which was instituted in 1881, prides itself with supreme collected works of renowned Australian artists along with other international artists such as ‘Brett Whiteley’, ‘Fred Williams’, ‘Arthur Boyd’, ‘Utagawa Hiroshige’, ‘John Brack’, and ‘Pierre Auguste Renoir’. Its art collections range from painting in both oil and watercolors to sculpture, silver and furniture during colonial period, which are categorized, in general sense, under the approach of impressionism, up to the present. Some examples of various artistic expressions are ‘Aboriginal and Western Desert dot paintings’, ‘Rodin sculptures’, ‘British and Islamic art’, and an assortment of trade ceramics from South Asian’s countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Moreover, the museum also has bookstore for its visitors to engage themselves with some fascinating books and journals regarding arts and related literatures. Another is its theater where lectures with great emphasis on arts are being held. Lastly and in addition to all these interesting collections and functional areas, visitors can have relaxing and delightful experience to Art Gallery of South Australia’s restaurant immediately after sightseeing. Captivating Australia’s Ethnicity in Arts In relation to Australia’ ethnicity, several striking pieces was able to capture the richness and beauty of past and present culture. One is the painting of Isaac Whitehead named after the place itself ‘In the Sassafras Valley, Victoria’ (1895) revealing the magnificence of Australia’s virgin forest at that time. This can be proven by extremely large trees and ferns making it for sunlight difficult to penetrate the inner part of the forest. However, if one may take a closer look at the painting, it is quite noticeable the few people attempting to explore the wilderness and it may suggest that they might have intentions to exploit the forest. But perhaps because of early Australian settlers’ understanding of the importance of the forest, they somehow managed to maintain the richness of the forest as can be seen in the present landscape of Sassafras Valley. Another is the oil on canvas entitled ‘A Breakaway Away!’ created by Tom Roberts (1856-1931) in which he powerfully expressed the nature and landscape of Australia during the earlier period through his skillfulness as an impressionist. Furthermore, this image reflects the scenery of a man riding in a horse trying to control a herd of sheep implying the previous farming of animals of earlier Australian settlers. In support to this, Grace Cossington Smith’s oil on paper board named as the ‘Landscape at Pentecost’ (1929) also provides wide array of Australia’s farmlands by using elaborated and sumptuous colors that irresistibly entice every single visitor to take a view of the history of agriculture in Australia. In addition, the ‘A holiday at Mentone’ (1868-1909) by Charles Conder is a remarkable piece in which it demonstrates some affluent Australian citizens during that time wandering around the long beach of Mentone. Similar to other well off people in other countries, it also portrays the lesser social interactions among themselves as compared to ordinary citizens. They engaged themselves with great importance to their own respective leisurely activities. These are just some of the illustrations that exemplify the ethnicity of South Australia in particular as well as its entire country as a whole. Others can still analyze other collections in Art Gallery of South Australia depicting its foremost customs and traditions. SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S PARLIAMENT HOUSE Australia’s State Parliament Australia’s State Parliament or most commonly known as Commonwealth Parliament is composed of the Queen oftentimes embodied by a Governor-General, and both the higher and lower houses in relation to the country’s legislations. With this, it is also somehow recognized as constitutional monarchy. The higher house has 76 members from various political parties as well as independent ones. The voting mechanism for the higher house is through proportional voting making 12 of which come from every state and 2 from mainland territories. The lower house includes 150 representatives from different states of Australia but continuously changes depending on the customary electoral rearrangements. The election process in the lower house is done through preferential voting in which every division may vote for one member. These two houses convene on Capital Hill in Canberra upon deliberation of national issues and respective policies. Rationale for Federal System Under the federal form of government, the power is shared in the national level and respective states particularly in terms of creating constitutional laws depending on the needs of the public, but, still be overruled by the high court especially in times of political disagreements. The level of autonomy may vary from one country to another, however, it is equally ‘exclusive’ at he same time ‘shared’ through concurrence in Australia. In spite of continuing debate regarding which form of government is most appropriate for Australia, federal system conveys primary justifications for its realization. This is with regards to the expediency in recognizing and considering the interest of various sectors and at the same time maintaining the respective personality of every state. National Government The role of national government can be observed when there is a consider overlapping among inter state particularly in the stipulation of goods and services. This can be exemplified in the transportation systems involving inter states. Another is when it comes to central provisions such as national defense, societal welfare supports (as well as its maintenance) and international concerns since it is regarded as common and substantial economies of scale. Furthermore, when capital mobility is concern in which it greatly affect the fiscal power of the inter states. Lastly when the transaction cost in the creation of policies and directives is high and cannot possibly be compensated by its expected gains, the national is ought to do the task. Low Level Government In ‘subsidiarity’ principle, several directions in relation to the proper level of government for a specific purpose particularly in terms of tax collections, expenses and regulations are recommended. In this principle, it is practical to consider the government in the lowest level in performing specific task given the fact that it is much more aware of the essentials of its people as well as the policies needed by local enterprises. In addition, the decentralization of obligations and its corresponding judgment is much more efficient in limiting the capability of representing officials’ power. Furthermore, the movement of people within the government enables intergovernmental participation. This also results as a safeguard over unnecessary use of centralized authority. Advantages of Federal System In viewing the various advantages of a federal system, one significant benefit is that it recognizes the right of people to choose in terms of evaluating political organizations. The people also have the freedom in choosing which state is more convenient to their life. This can be proved by Australians’ substantial migration throughout the 80s and 90s from South Australia to Queensland simply because of the fact that the former has much more stringent federal laws. Another benefit from federal system is the opportunity of testing and comparing various strategies in governance either in political, social, or economical sense in which the most appropriate and feasible result is to be considered. This is quite significant especially in the modern age of globalization when a change in governmental structures is rapidly expected. In addition, federal system also offers support in relating state desires as well as its own multiplicity by means of its suppleness of decentralization in understanding disparity in both economic and cultural sense of every respective geographical state. Because of this notion, it was made possible for West Australia in adhering to the federal system thwarting the plausible Australia’s disintegration. In furtherance, exclusivity in government involvement is discouraged in a federal system given the fact that it provides voice of the public in even much more bureaucratic levels. Conversely, federal system also promotes the defense of Australia’s liberty upon the dispersion of political power and ultimately prevents the existence of authoritarianism unlike in other system of government. This can be exemplified in continuation of autonomous state courts across Australia in which it avoids biases from national parties since in other countries where federal system is not exercised; since, there is a tendency to serve the interest of the national government upon appointing court judges. In accounting the government’s supervision, federal system is much more efficient simply because of lesser cost to monitor different programs along with its respective designated members of staff which is considered fewer in number. Less is much better to be controlled and effectiveness is much highly to be accomplished. Federal system continuously encourages the government to become much more stable by means of the voting system in both the lower and higher house of parliament’s legislation. In this manner, it minimizes the influence of the national government in legislation process. In conveying the economic benefits of federal system, it proposes safety nets from too much government interventions. It is not necessarily mean that inclusive control of both macro and micro economy by the national government is preeminent in maintaining Australia’s economy. Through healthy competition within the government, economies of scale may be possibly achieved. In the federal system, the government has no liberty over public surplus with regards to public goods. Instead, it offers competitive markets with due consideration on people’s preference of combined public goods at low prices gaining its efficiency regardless of the variation of sizes of different states. With this, it will definitely have a ripple effect in the whole economy and may even extend in the global markets in achieving significant competitiveness. Drawbacks of Federal System In spite of the aforementioned advantages of federal system, there are still several drawbacks to be considered. One is that federal system can cause government’s duplication with regards to bureaucratic system which may even direct to ineffective or conflicting policies in various inter state. This can be viewed particularly during the 1980s when measurement of railways varies. This can also be seen in the educational systems of different states in Australia where program of study as well as its evaluation scheme differ from one state to another or simply absence of standardization with regards to rules and program. Another is the confusions in line of authority with the intricacies and complications of both national and low level of government. In some instances low level governments together with its respective constituents can possibly hinder and may even lead to the impediment in accomplishing certain policies from national government. Furthermore, legal borders in the national and low level governments are not easy to be identified and can be a root for legal quarrel in the real world in spite of guidelines and principles in addressing the functions of the two governments. Adding to this is the possible existence of disparity among Australian states’ resources and wealth or the existence of inequity which may be the source of detrimental oppositions or disagreements like in instances of having conflicting issues in sports occurrences of one state accusing anther state of stealing the event and also in the differentiation in terms of accessibility as well as with regards to the pricing of electric power. In furtherance, Australian people, in some cases, might possibly have double citizenship or individualities in different levels of government system primarily because of deficiency with regards to standards in the national sense. In addition, Australian federal system disregarded significant public provision like in the cases of Murrary River system and public transportation as well. In having 15 parliament houses together with states government, the 19 million Australians can not possibly come up with the money for its maintenance. Adding to this reason is the numerous elections along with the participations of various political parties which often results to voters’ indifference and low turnouts. CONCLUSION Evidently enough, South Australia’s ethnicity can be considered as entertaining, exciting, unique, sumptuous and somehow complicated in the political sense. The entertainment and excitement of Australian Football Rules is really unique to Australia. Its past and present cultures indicate the richness of Australian land. Although the system of governance is quite intricate, one can still savor and cannot possibly match up the distinctive South Australia’s ethnicity from other culture. References Art Gallery of South Australia, 2008, ‘History of Gallery’, viewed 28 May, 2009, . Harvey, D 1998, ‘Introduction to Australian Rules Football’, Footy Tipping Software, viewed 28 May, 2009, . Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club (PAMFC), 2009, ‘Port Adelaide Magpies Football Club’, viewed 28 May, 2009, . Singleton, Aitkin, Jinks, & Warhurst 1997, ‘The Federal System’ in Australian Political Institutions, 8th edn, Australia Pearson Education, Australia, pp.175-123. South Australian Museum, 2004, ‘A Potted History’ viewed 28 May, 2009, . Sturt Football Club, 2008, ‘History of the Blues’, viewed 28 May, 2009, . The Australian Football Association of North America, 1997 - 2004, ‘The Rules of Australian Football’, viewed 28 May, 2009, . Walker, G Q (2000-2001), ‘Ten Advantages of a Federal Constitution viewed 28 May, 2009, . Read More