Tough Guys examine 'The Duty of Australians'

At our Kiama Tough Guy Book Club, we read. This leads us to observations and the enjoyment of occasional pieces of really good literature. This, in turn, leads to some personal stuff and often very strongly stated opinions. We love discussion. We also enjoy a monthly challenge. This month we were challenged to read a poem out loud to our mates, and in our case, our partners as well. Mine will be one by Henry Lawson called The Duty of Australians.

Most folks expect Lawson to deliver the usual ingredients: bush life, hardship, mateship and perhaps a little nationalism. However, I found some fair dinkum wisdom. He calls on Australians "To forever praise their country, but to run no other down."

That feels like a message worth revisiting. We live in an age when patriotism is often confused with criticism of others. Running the other blokes’ place down. Lawson, however, saw no contradiction between loving Australia and respecting other nations.

The poet then turns our attention to newcomers. He argues that Australians have a duty to help the stranger, to offer information and assistance, and even to take them somewhere they can hear their own language spoken. Crikey!

His explanation is simple:

"He'll be a father of Australians, as our foreign fathers were."

Lawson understood most Australians descend from people who arrived here as strangers.  We know some came in chains, some under sail, some by steamship some by jet. They all arrived unsure of what they’d find.

Australia is far from perfect. We have our disagreements, our failures and our blind spots. Same as us Tough Guys. Yet when I look around our communities, I see people from different backgrounds generally living together in peace. There are, of course, political disputes but they are settled through debate and elections, rarely violence. Most of us are free to worship, speak, work and raise families without fear.

Perhaps we notice these things less because they are ordinary to us. Like good health, we only appreciate them when they are absent.

Lawson's poem also reflects on responsibility and duty. If we are fortunate enough to live in a stable and peaceful country, then we have an obligation to extend courtesy to those who arrive after us.

What impressed me most about that work was the humility. He wasn’t saying Australia is better than everywhere else, but in many respects, we’ve been fortunate, and that perhaps we ought to appreciate that fortune a little more.

I reckon there is also a lovely connection to Tough Guy Book Club, because I think the poem's message is that real strength is expressed through generosity and confidence. A weak nation fears strangers; a strong nation welcomes them. A weak man needs to prove himself; a tough man can afford courtesy.

That is a very "Tough Guy Book Club" idea.

The Poem

‘Tis the duty of Australians, in the bush and in the town,
To forever praise their country, but to run no other down…
When a man, or nation, visits in the heyday of his pride,
‘Tis the duty of Australians to be kind but dignified…

‘Tis our duty to the stranger—landed, maybe, but an hour
To give all the information and assistance in our power,
To give audience to the new chum and to let the old chums wait,
Lest his memory be embittered by his first days in the State.

‘Tis our duty, when he’s foreign, and his English very young,
To find out and take him somewhere where he’ll hear his native tongue.
To give him our spare moment, and our pleasure to defer—
He’ll be a father of Australians, as our foreign fathers were!

Learn more: The Henry Lawson Centre in Gulgong, western NSW is a museum of photos, paintings, prints and memorabilia dedicated to the Lawson's life and literary works.