Traditional Culture

Language

English is the official language of Australia, and Australians are capable of speaking it just as properly as it is spoken in the Queen's court of London. But Australia also has a rich slang all its own. Click Here for some examples (optional).

Australia has a 98% literacy rate. In areas with a high percentage of Aborigines, courses in school are taught in both the Aboriginal language and English.

Religion

More than 84% of Australians belong to a religious denomination. The majority is Christian, either Protestant or Roman Catholic, reflecting the early settlers who arrived from Europe in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries. With the increasing number of immigrants from Southeast Asia, other religions, such as Islam and Buddhism, are now growing rapidly. Synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne attest to a strong Jewish presence.

Before any European influence, the Aboriginal people maintained a strong system of beliefs and worship. Everything they do has a religious significance. They believe in the Spirit Ancestors, mythical beings that told the first people how to live.

Aborigines say "The earth is our mother, the sky is our church".  They have a social closeness with the landscape. Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a sacred site, believed to be the place where everything began.

New Zealand

The earliest cultural tradition in New Zealand was that of the Maori. Hawaiian culture shares many common traits with the Maori culture (they are both considered part of Polynesia). Maori literature consists of history, tales, poems, and myths handed down by oral tradition. The indigenous art of New Zealand is also Maori. European settlers, particularly the English, brought with them their own traditions, which came to dominate the cultural life of the country. Since the 1950s, significant numbers of Pacific Islanders, particularly Polynesians, have contributed to a growing ethnic diversity in New Zealand. More recently, greater diversity has been fostered by increased immigration from Asia since the mid-1980s.