The soul of mateship

Carlton Samarajiwa expounds on a quintessentially Australian word, which is an integral part of the Australian Ethos.

Mate: The most frequently used single word in Australian verbal communication has to be: "mate". From the friendly stereotypical greeting "G'day, mate!" to the courteous acknowledgement "Thanks, mate!", this word is heard and reheard throughout the day across all levels and among all groups: from brickies (bricklayers) and railees (railwaymen) to journos (journalists) and pollies (Politicians). This pleasant word is part of Australian culture and has been used from the beginnings of Australian history.

Henry Lawson (1867-1922) - Australia's most acclaimed writer and poet, and described as "an Australian legend" - wrote: "The greatest pleasure I have known is when my eyes meet the eyes of a mate over the top of two foaming glasses of beer". And the friendly egalitarian values of 'mateship' are an integral part of the Australian ethos. Prime Minister John Howard said in the Draft Constitutional Preamble, on 23 March 1999: "We value excellence as well as fairness, independence as dearly as mateship."

During the debate on the draft in parliament, however, there was disagreement on the use of mateship on the grounds of inappropriateness - owing to its sexist overtones - in a constitutional document. Foreign Minister Gareth Evans argued: "Mateship is a good and honourable word. It is a great Australian word. It is a quintessentially Australian word. Yes, it is all of those things.

But the trouble is, it just does strike, on all the available evidence, the overwhelming majority of Australian women as too blokey (masculine) and, accordingly, just not the right kind of word for this sort of document. The trouble is that our whole history has been too blokey, and women today and tomorrow just do not need language in the constitution reinforcing that kind of imagery."

'Mate' has an exclusively masculine ring to it. "For more than 50 years, Australia was almost entirely a masculine country, with the proportion of males to females being two to one. It was inevitable that men should be thrown together, that they should rely on one another, that a strong accent should be placed on companionship. This was the heritage passed on to men and youth long after the population balance between the sexes had been adjusted," writes Sidney Baker in his tome, The Australian Language.

Of course, Howard maintained: "Mate is one word in all of this which is so unarguably, distinctively and dramatically and proudly Australian. I don't find that exclusively blokey and I don't believe any fair-minded Australian understanding the history and the spirit of this country would, either".

On a previous occasion, in 1998, the Australian premier had asserted: "I would like to see those great Australian characteristics that have been the golden thread through successive generations still there.

I want us always to be seen as Australians, not as Americans or as Europeans or as Englishmen or as Asians....... as distinctive Australians having those great qualities of classlessness and mateship and fairness which have been the hallmark of Australians through all experiences and all generations." And more recently, in a speech delivered at Australia House in London on 10 November 2003, he reiterated his fondness for the concept of mateship.

"The two world wars exacted a terrible price from us - the full magnitude of that lost potential, of those unlived lives can never be measured. And yet, some of the most admirable aspects of Australia's national character were, if not conceived, then more fully ingrained within us by the searing experiences of those conflicts.

None more so than the concept of mateship - regarded as a particularly Australian virtue - a concept that encompasses unconditional acceptance, mutual and self-respect, sharing whatever is available no matter how meagre, a concept based on trust and selflessness and absolute interdependence.

In combat, men did live and die by its creed. 'Sticking by your mates' was sometimes the only reason for continuing when all seemed hopeless. I was moved by an account written by Hugh Clarke, who, like thousands of other Australian and British servicemen, endured years of senseless cruelty as a prisoner of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore. He couldn't recall a single Australian dying alone without someone being there to look after him in some way. That's mateship," he declared.

Mate roughly means 'friend', but friend is no substitute for mate. Something is lost when friend replaces mate, and friendship replaces mateship. "To say: 'He is my best friend' - rather than: 'He is my best mate' - sounds childish at best," observed an Aussie mate, with whom we fell into conversation on a Trans-Perth bus.

Somewhat paradoxically, the use of mate does not always mean that the speakers are friends. For example, Howard would not consider Saddam Hussein to be his mate, yet his advice to international media was: "If there is a faint hope of this thing being solved without military force, that faint hope is for the whole world saying the same thing and saying it very loudly to Iraq - and most particularly the Arab-states saying: 'Mate, the game is up".

(Courtesy LMD)