I think one experience that will stick with me is a conversation I had with an Australian friend about the American news channel that is really popular in Australia that most people view and keep up to date on. We were discussing politics and she brought up some events I had no idea people abroad actually knew about, I think it was a recent shooting in America that maybe I had even missed. Before I left I knew, obviously, very little of Australian politics and really didn’t expect them to know much about American politics. This is due to the very real realization I had while there, that Americans are so self contained in their own little bubble, even when they do on the off chance begin to pay attention to world events unfolding. My Australian friend had a very real grasp on what was going on in my own country, probably more than I even do, and she was asking me about my own experiences being from America. It made me realize how Americanized I was and how people in America, despite what they might tell themselves, are too American for their own good. We really only pay attention to world events when they involve America, see the Israel/Palestine conflict. I mean there is another world crisis currently occurring in Sudan that is getting far less media coverage probably because America has no horses in the race. It makes me really sad to know that fact and to know that now I view Americans on social media’s reaction to stuff like this completely different and with that same air of sadness. Because, in my personal experience, Australians are able to pay attention and engage with their own politics and politics occurring oceans away from them at the same time and with the same level of seriousness.
The second revelation I had, has somewhat to do with the first one as in the American-centric worldview of the United States, but is on its own wholly different. Before coming to Australia, all I knew about their history was the fact that it was a British penal colony and I admittedly didn’t know anything about what happened to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples when the British landed on their shores. I know now after taking an Introduction to Aboriginal Studies class that their treatment does mirror the experience of Native Americans in many ways, but (not that it is in any way some sort of competition) arguably worse than the latter. I did know that it seemed like their healing process had actually begun and their struggles have been acknowledged, unlike America, their history was actually far darker. I just wish that America would pay more attention to their indigenous population instead of simply ignoring them. Even if Australia is by no means perfect, and is still making serious mistakes like the recent Voice referendum, they at least have begun the process a long time ago which is much more progress than America has made.