Taking viewers on a journey through time, SBS’s new series, Australia: An Unofficial History, explores the seismic, social and political shifts that have shaped the nation from the 1970s through to today.
Airing now and narrated by screen legend Jacki Weaver, the series digs into themes of identity, belonging, change, time, power, feminism, racism and structural inequality within our nation’s history.
Journalist and media personality, Jan Fran was first drawn to partake in the series through her deep interest in Australian identity in all its complexities– where it comes from, where it is now and where it goes from here.
“We have an idea of Australia. And I think we love talking about the idea of Australia, but we don’t really want to go any further than the idea,” Fran tells the Women’s Agenda podcast, about the nation’s identity.
Fran gives the example of an “idyllic image of Australia at the beach”, full of “oiled up men looking like Tom Selleck” and “women in bikinis”, alongside “adorable toddlers playing in the water”.
“And then you realise it’s a video, it’s a tourism video that is meant to go out to other people who are not Australian, to the rest of the world”, she says.
“It’s very clearly this idea of Australia as this kind of liberal utopia- very open, kind of a bit sexual, there’s a lot of freedom, there’s mingling between the genders, all of this stuff, lots of fun, outdoorsy… That’s the idea of Australia.”
And yet, Fran says the details are fixated on a very specific “white Christian” culture.
“It is a selling of the idea of Australia to certain people.”
This analysis of the marketing of our national identity is laid out within the tv series’ framework of episodes.
In the first episode, the idea of sexism within Australian identity is explored, where Fran says it allows for conversations into “underlying sexisms” throughout our history that are still present today, as well as the way attitudes towards women have shifted within relationships and the workforce.
Sexist attitudes are “still very much there”, she says, “it’s just the way that we talk about them and the way that we, you know, sell them principally to ourselves that has changed.”
The series also highlights other significant moments in Australia’s history, including the timeline around Aboriginal land rights.
“In the 1970s there was a greater kind of groundswell and public support of First Nations issues and people,” says Fran. “Yet, today we face challenges like a failure to legislate a Voice to Parliament.”
When it comes to Australia’s history, broadly, Fran highlights Aboriginal land rights as being central to our past, noting that it deserves more attention in today’s public discourse.
“The conversation about land rights feels as though it’s entirely off the agenda, at least in a way that it wasn’t back then in the 1970s.”
Australia: An Unofficial History premieres March 5 on SBS and SBS On Demand.