The indigenous Australians (Aborigines) have been here for at least 40 000 years. Since European settlement they have similar problems to indigenous people in other places—dispossession of land, alcohol, poverty, health problems, poor education, difficulty with assimilating into European culture. The most successful survivors are in the tropics and the inland, where they have kept their land and their law. When healthy and happy they are great artists and sports people. Their traditional painting, music and dance are certainly evolving with enthusiasm from Aborigines of all age groups. We love it and experience it whenever we can. Every art gallery in Australia now has an Aboriginal collection. Their best-known musical instrument, the didgeridoo, is widely played in USA, surprisingly. Our list of sporting heroes includes many Aborigines.
Australian settlers from 1788 to 1940 were mainly from the British Isles, starting with prisoners. Sydney was originally a prison! Since 1940 we have had settlers from Northern Europe and Mediterranean. More recently we have had many settlers from Asia and everywhere. This has all done wonders for our food and culture. Name any culture on Earth and you will find someone from it in Sydney or Melbourne. Our settlers include Brasilians, who are very valuable citizens for teaching people how to have fun.
Without this influx of people since 1940, Australia would be a cultural desert. We have a kind of pioneer culture with a strong Irish influence. It is not very refined and I find it very boring. It has given us some good ethics, however. One is the idea of 'mateship' or loyal friendship to members of your team. This combines with a good sportsmanship, where we honour and respect our opponents.
During the second world war, the Japanese treated Australian prisoners of war very badly. Even now we don't understand this and it hurt us very much. We now make good friends individually with Japanese people, old soldiers have had a good attempt at forgiveness, and we do business with Japan. However, the Japanese government still hides the truth from their school children and they have never apologised. I think now that Chinese people are protesting about the same issues.
We recently celebrated our war memorial day, ANZAC day (25 April). The main event that this commemorates is our (British, Irish, New Zealanders and Australians) invasion of Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915. There were heavy losses on both sides, but the Turks won. Bad management on our side resulted in a lot of deaths. These days we wonder why Australians were there, but we were really part of Britain then. We and the Turks have become very good friends since then. The soldiers on each side developed great respect for their opponents. Each year there is a ceremony at Gallipoli on 25 April. This year we have had a special celebration of our friendship with the Turks, with some TV documentaries made together. No Australian or Turk can read Mustapha Kemal's (Ataturk's) inscription on the memorial at Gallipoli without a lump in the throat: "You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and at peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they become our sons too."
We all hope that we have left the insanity of war behind us.
So we are a reasonably happy multicultural society, without many tensions between groups of people. If there are problems it is from settlers bringing their own conflicts with with them. We have to make them stop fighting each other. Some people here are racist and ignorant and intolerant, but they are a minority. Racist behaviour is illegal.
Within each cultural group here, there are young people who want to learn about the culture of their parents and perhaps develop it or blend it with other cultures of their friends. There are also people like me, from an Anglo and Scandinavian background who find themselves living in a delicious cultural supermarket and don't know what to taste first.
I guess Brasil is similar, with people from many cultures. There may be tensions and some racism but I get the idea that people in Brasil are generally peaceful with each other. You have a different mix of people but you are still a multicultural society that came from a colony.
This has become a very long letter. I don't really think about war very much. Everybody talks about it here around 25 April, so you caught me at that time.
Abração
David