WHO WE ARE: Can the dingo lie down with the octopus?

Wednesday May 9, 2007 04:08 PM

Who We Are

To take the quiz on how well you understand Australia's tastes, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 25/1/2009
There is no law that compels a country to have native animals on its coat of arms. A lion and a unicorn support the shield of the United Kingdom, and at least one of those never roamed the forests of Albion, despite what Harry Potter might say.

The lion is also the emblem of Germany and India. Thailand and Indonesia display a creature called a garuda (half man, half eagle). America calls its coat of arms "a great seal", although it features a great eagle (also on Russia's). Canada, which you'd expect to feature a seal (clubbed), has simply copied Britain -- with even less historical claim on the lion and the unicorn.

So those who oppose the addition of a dingo to Australia's coat of arms are making no point at all when they argue that the "native dog" arrived here as a pet only a few thousand years ago.

Last week this column pointed out that the dingo has given Australia an international reputation, what with all the references in popular culture to the eating of babies. In return, I argued, we should honour it, perhaps curled up in front of our shield, at the feet of the roo and the emu.

(Digression: Such a configuration would permit this column's other campaign - to have an octopus sitting on top of the shield, with arms extended to cuddle both the roo and the emu. This would emphasise our dependence on the ocean, since 80 per cent of Australians live within 50 km of it, as well as recent changes in our eating habits, whereby a food source ignored by the English immigrants is now chilli-coated and char-grilled by pony-tailed chefs across the land. For the octopus case, go to Forewarned is eight-armed).

Some readers found the whole idea of dingo-recognition offensive. S. McCarthy wrote: "What a lot of rot. National icon, how about national pest? Do you realise how much damage dogs cause the agricultural industry? Get a grip."

And Oocy argued: "Dingos are Asian water dogs, brought here from South East Asian islands only 5 thousand years ago. They did not evolve here, like the platypus, echidna, kangaroo and other endemic species. So the dingo could be a wholly inappropriate icon for Australia. Of course, the dingo could also be the perfect icon for modern, multicultural Australia, where people from all over the world have moved to our country and are welcome to call it home."

And Nic Papalia made this point: "The dingo is the one animal that keeps everything balanced in the ecosystem. It is our top land predator. When the dingo is removed because of ignorance ... there is a massive problem with fox, cat, goat and pig numbers soaring out of control. Kangaroo numbers skyrocket and defoliation becomes a problem. Australians must become more aware and educated if we are to save this Iconic species, so our future generations will see the real live dingo and not just a stuffed relic in a museum next to the thylacine."

That suggests a different take on the coat of arms -- a Tasmanian tiger, as a warning to treat our wildlife better in future. What do you think should be there? Go to Comments.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

COMMENTS

How about the goanna.....long tongue; eats everyone's leftovers; amazing capacity to fly up trees vertically, reaching great heights?

by Pete on January 25, 2009 at 02:05 AM

Why do we need to change our coat of arms, we can suggest lots of things to be on it but there is no justification to change it?
Perhaps we should keep some things the same, what is wrong with the Kangaroo, emu and wattle. We also have two lions - no lions here either as well as two southern crosses, the black swan and a Magpie. These are representing the states - nothing for Northern Territory or ACT. Are you suggesting the dingo for NT?
Obviously people are bored if they are looking at changing the coat of arms - thing of the cost it would be to change this on buildings, documents, logo - not worth the cost.

by kah on January 25, 2009 at 07:33 AM

What about a Dingo, eating a Meat Pie? That would be very Australian! :-)

by Daniel on January 25, 2009 at 07:58 AM

The money would be better spend regenerating our 455,000,000 hectares of native grasslands that have been destroyed in the last 220 years since British occupation. This will give these animals and everything, including humans, a chance to avoid extinction. Soil is our most convenient carbon sink. Indigenous grasses put carbon into the ground in their first year and lock it in for up to 20,000 years. (Trees take up to 20 years to become carbon contributers).
W don't have time to waste. Forget the out of date icons and more forward.

by Shane Mortimer on January 25, 2009 at 08:08 AM

Well let's see then... If the suggestions for additions/alterations to a perfectly fine Coat of Arms are going to be the sort of flippant and inane examples already presented... I'll need to think of something that's about as likely to "get up" as a dead doggie's donger, whilst containing the merest semblance of a possibility that it could be "for real" - the sort of tenuous thread of seriousness that some mental defective will see as adding real gravity to the suggestion... so it'll be in keeping with the level and degree of seriousness that most Politically Correct proposals have.
In the light of such harsh criteria, I offer my favourite possible addition to our Coat of Arms - Copralites.
Copralites would appropriately summarise where our Nation has sprung from and where it's headed if it continues upon it's current path!
When the bell tolls it goes "Dung! Dung! Dung!" - so getting in early on the Coat of Arms would be profoundly clever of us...
Where's Symo' when you need him?! He'd back me on this one for sure!!

DD remarks: Readers may care to know that copralites are fossilised animal turds, which are useful sources of information for paleontologists.

by Steve C on January 25, 2009 at 09:24 AM

The Tasmanians have two Tazzy tigers on their coat of arms, they shouldn't mind if the federation took one of them away.

by Evan on January 25, 2009 at 09:58 AM

Slightly off track - why do Americans always say the line about 'a dingo ate my baby' in movies etc. as one of their Australian cliches? Obviously it comes from the Chamberlain case, but does anyone know why that line is so well known to the yanks?
I think there should be a bunyip on the coat of arms.

DD replies: Click here to see what was said last week on this very matter. The answer, I think, is that a dog eating a child is a very powerful image for all humans, since we thought we had made wolves our friends.

by Dan on January 25, 2009 at 12:08 PM

How about a coat of actual arms, arms with Southern Cross and "Aussie Pride" tattoos? This would serve as a warning to future generations about the dangers of watching A Current Affair and listening to Alan Jones.

by Hoobley Goobley on January 25, 2009 at 02:06 PM

The flag should not be forgotten in this debate!
Search GeenAndGoldEureka.com on the web or facebook for the movement starting Australia Day 2009.

by Green Gold on January 25, 2009 at 05:57 PM

I'm with Evan. All for a Tasmanian Tiger.

Why does Shane have to push his wheelbarrow full of rubbish here?

by John G on January 25, 2009 at 07:22 PM

How about a ban against actually eating (and packing as dog food) a beautiful animal that is a *National icon* and on the Coat of Arms? And then also seriously protecting the rest of the iconic (and endangered) precious Australian beasties. Or maybe we just re-name the "Best Country on Earth" as the "Most Clueless Country on Earth".

DD remarks: I agree, humans, not dogs, should be eating kangaroo meat. That would reduce our dependence on the environmentally damaging cattle industry.

by robyn on January 25, 2009 at 07:42 PM

Never mind all the cuddly and not so cuddly animals, lets have something truly australian... a coat of arms featuring a male beer gut, an australia day barbecue bum crack, crossed beer bottles, or perhaps crossed syringes or if we're trying for a younger audience, aerosol spray cans, and instead of a mate carrying a wounded colleague from the front, perhaps a teenager carrying his swag of stolen goods from the old couple's home. All this resplendent on a sea of vomit, for this is the TRUE Australia of 2009.

by Cobber on January 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM

Another dingo reference. Lyrics in the latest single by Australian band 'The Presets' called 'Yippiyo-Ay'.
Oooooooh pop
Take you from the 80s
Bimbos rock the latex
Dingos catch the babies
Oooooooh stop

by J Bar on January 26, 2009 at 02:09 PM

Ben Franklin proposed the Wild Turkey as the USA's national animal. He cosidered it a more noble creature than the Bald Eagle.

by canoli on January 26, 2009 at 02:36 PM

The emu and roo must stay on our coat of arms as they are in the landscape at Gundagai (the real Central Australia) and recorded by RHMathews for Gundagai as Mum and Dad. They are also recorded in Gundagai's famous song ("..where my Mummy and Daddy are waiting for me ..."), so what they were must have been known many years ago but that has been forgotten in more recent times but noted in the Coat of Arms, so it still all lives on. I have not seen an octopus here at Gundagai though there is a massive seven-mile-long dog like figure that the small Dog on the Tuckerbox (DonT) monument was copied off. However, there is a sting ray in the sky above Gundagai so I guess, above all of Australia.

by jjones on February 01, 2009 at 01:32 PM

The dingo should not be put on the Australian coat of arms. It is a pest; a dingo killed Azaria Chamberlain and here mother, Lindy was falsely convicted of her murder and spent a year in prison before being exhonerated.

by Tom Tobey on February 02, 2009 at 09:54 AM

You have to love the comparison of seeing the Dingo as a relic next to the Thylacine stuffed in a museum, given it was the introduction of the Dingo that caused the extinction of the Thylacine on mainland Australia....

by Claire on May 12, 2009 at 08:08 PM

The Sun-Herald

Who We Are

WHO WE ARE: Can the dingo lie down with the octopus?

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