Australia is a very multicultural society. Like America, we're a nation of immigrants, but we've had less time to settle down and stay in one place for many generations. Where I live, we have the largest community of Greek origin outside Greece itself, for instance. In recent years, Australia has gained lots of new citizens from Asian countries, along with the traditional settlers from places like the UK. To our north our nearest neighbours are Indonesia and New Guinea. I think it would be fair to say that most Australians don't know much about either of them or their people. Probably most of us are more familiar with Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Indian people. To the east is New Zealand, which is in many ways effectively an honourary Australian state (or couple of states), although New Zealanders might beg to differ. We have very close ties with New Zealand and travel back and forth is usually straightforward with little red tape. To our west there is the vast Indian Ocean. To out South there is only Antarctica. Culturally, our non-indigenous ties are strongest with the United Kingdom and the United States. Most of the non-locally-produced television we watch originates in those places, as does much of the popular music we consume. There's probably some bias in what I say about that, however, since there are many distinctive immigrant communities in Australia who proudly maintain their own cultural links in terms of art, music, television, film and so on. Our politics is independent, but necessarily influenced by the major world powers. Our historical alliances with Britain and the United States are strong, but China and Japan are major trading partners. As a relatively small nation, we have to navigate the waters of global politics rather carefully, bearing in mind our own geographical circumstances as well as our links to other nations. Australia, maybe more than many other countries, has always looked outwards, if for no other reason that to keep an eye on what other nations are doing and how their actions might impact us. We have also welcomed immigrants from all over the world. In the past 40 years or so, I'd say that Australia has begun to assert its own identity in the world more obviously and more confidently than before. More people than ever before know at least that Australia is not the same as Austria, and roughly where to find it on a map. Some of them even know a bit more about us than that we have kangaroos, sharks and some rather impressively venomous snakes.
