The latest Census data is painting a picture of Australians' changing identity, especially around attachment to core values such as religious beliefs and those linked to British colonial heritage.
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Australians, especially younger Australians, are also becoming more mobile and more willing to move from place to place and job to job.
The move away from religion, the move to multiple work experiences and increasing geographical mobility all disrupt our traditional notion of identity.
Up until around the 1950s most Tasmanians would have identified themselves primarily by their surname and then by their local parish and local ward and finally their state or nation.
Ultimately the biggest recognition of the past 50 years is that our collective identity has to be developed rather than simply discovered or passed down from previous generations and, more recently, constantly invented and reinvented.
The surname traditionally identified both family connections and historical links to original trades such as Butcher and Baker, Stewart (after steward) or Smith (after blacksmith).
We see in these names the idea of a trade for life passed on through the generations.
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Thus the four key components of identity were family, work, religion and place.
For most people today the idea of identifying yourself by parish or ward would seem very odd even if you knew what they were.
With better transport and global digital communications, our sense of identity extends well beyond the very local.
The most common geographical reference point nowadays for most Tasmanians is either regional (such as East Coast or the North East) and cities.
The historical 400 parishes/district boundaries still in use on many maps, are rarely referred to.
Each of our Northern councils use iconic local images to promote a sense of local identity and now many people identify with their local council areas such as West Tamar and Meander Valley.
Launceston is constantly trying to reinvent its identity.
Most recently as a city of gastronomy.
Brands and logos of cities and towns are now much more than marketing tools they seek to shape our identity and sense of connection to place.
The search for new anchors for identity is well and truly in full swing as the census Illustrates, for example, with more Tasmanians identifying with Aboriginal heritage.
Community and place are still important to identity but for many people so are cultural and digital communities, spiritual communities, ethnic communities, Facebook communities.
So long as they support identity and a sense of belonging it doesn't really matter where members of these communities actually live.\
Some of the identity issues play out in novel ways, for example, the debate about a Tasmanian AFL team is best understood as Tasmania trying to be an equal in a big national sporting community. How can our identity be complete without an AFL team?
It plays out with the ongoing debates about how many and which flags represent our identity as a nation.
It plays out with Brand Tasmania trying to get at the essence of what it means to be Tasmanian which according to Brand Tasmania is quiet achievers.
It plays out in the North-South divide around Oatlands and historically this divide mattered as evidenced by the attempt to have a Northern parliament based at Woolmers.
Ultimately the biggest recognition of the past 50 years is that our collective identity has to be developed rather than simply discovered or passed down from previous generations and, more recently, constantly invented and reinvented. Rather than being fixed and solid identity is precarious and needs to be constantly nurtured.
This is illustrated by the changing values of each of the generations. For example, Australians under 35 identify sustainability as a core value whereas for the baby boomers and the silent generation (over 75) sustainability is not in the top five values.
Contemporary identity is no longer as simple as a name, a parish and a ward.
Identity matters because it is part of our essence as individuals and as a broader society.
Identity is fundamental to and the source of many of our values and behaviours and a foundation for a sense of belonging.
The loss of formal religious anchors to identity does not mean abandonment of our sense of spirituality or ethics, but rather a relocation of their source to more personal and social reference points.
Honesty and a fair go are steady values across the age groups.
The discovery in the 1960s of the Australian identity based on mateship, egalitarianism and a fair go fudged a series of unresolved issues for example gender, migrant and Aboriginal identity.
The shift in language from assimilation in the 1950s to diversity now is a reflection of this expansion of identities but there is still a way to go.
The Census shows that over 50 per cent of Australians are now either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas.
So as Australians and Tasmanians we are in the midst of reshaping our identity which is something to be celebrated rather than lamented.
- Professor David Adams, University of Tasmania.
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