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Put on those red shoes and dance

By Megan Elliott - posted Friday, 3 September 2004


We forget that we didn't hear Australian voices on Australian television until the mid-70s. We don’t realise that we hear fewer Australian voices there today than we did ten years ago.

We don't notice words like hooroo and fair dinkum disappearing from our everyday language. They're being replaced, not with new Australian idioms, but with American ones.

I'm not parochial and I'm not nationalistic. Both things terrify me. So does the fact that it's 2004 and we're heading into an election with the collective memory of a 70s acid casualty, and no one's talking big picture outside of the alliance with the US.

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What political leader has a vision for a people who are not afraid of exploring new vistas, of poking the stick and causing trouble because they believe in a better future?

Who's inspiring young people, so they can think and dance outside the parameters of PowerPoint presentations and Playstation 2?

Not because it's good for the economy. Just because it's good.

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This article appears courtesy of www.newmatilda.com where it was first published and is an edited version of Megan's speech to the Women In Educational Leadership Conference on August 20 2004.



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About the Author

Megan Elliott is originally from the bush. She now lives in Sydney where she is the Executive Director of the Australian Writers' Guild. She has worked and studied in Ireland, Germany and Greece. Megan reckons that footwear should always be adventurous.

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