Straya Day

The video ‘Straya day’ by the Australian user CollegeBinary (who also makes the popular three minute philosophy videos) on the popular video sharing site YouTube has attracted a lot of attention. The video shows the views of the creator of how Australian’s are when it comes to pride in our country and the Australian day celebrations.

The video is full of things Australians can identify with such as Holden cars, VB alcohol, the Australian flag, having a time out with mates, and of course the barbeque. There is also a humorous side to the video, and it is easy for the humour to be not everyone’s type of humour. The video features very strong racism towards immigrants to Australia telling them to “get out of my country”. It may seem funny to many people in Australia, but an outside viewer may find this very offensive and it could negatively affect views on Australia in many different parts of the world.

This video was made by an Australian and can shows the way we see ourselves. The video has 1,385,000 views and 6000 likes. It depicts us as racist bogans who just get drunk all the time and get into fights over nothing. This is a view many Australians could agree that some of our population are like, especially after the cronulla riots which were fueled by alcohol and racism. Although racism is nothing to be proud of, many people are proud of it and although the author made the video as a joke people took him seriously and he narrowly avoided trouble in the media over it.

To a viewer outside of Australia this video is potentially very offensive and could be potentially off putting for people coming to visit Australia due to the fact that the author says in the video "Get out of my country" quite a lot.

CollegeBinary (Director). (2010). Straya Day [Motion Picture].