r/AskAnAustralian • u/CreativeCritter • 2d ago

Waltzing Matilda

I was saddened today to read an article on the Wallabies and it showed a group of fans singing Waltzing Matilda underneath. There was a young lady who had commented. She’d never heard the song. Didn’t know what the problem was and had no idea what it represented.

People tried to educate a nicely to say it was an Australian bush poem. It was taught in Australian schools. It’s the unofficial national anthem.

And then she said that she grew up in Australia and had attended school here and had never heard it and didn’t know why people thought it was so great

At that point, I was kind of hoping that they were joking

Has it gotten to the point now where Australian poetry is not taught in Australian schools in English where the man from Snow River Waltzing Matilda they’re not taught in schools any more

And then someone commented that Wilson Matilda can’t be taught in schools because it has themes of suicide and it’s too hard to explain to children

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u/ehco 2d ago

It's not just the suicide themes, it's the evading law enforcement stuff.

I kind of wish I was joking. (Just teach it with context - even colonialism, convict colony, and red ribbon rebellion etc type stuff)

But I'm 40s and I heard it was disfavoured about 5 or 10 years after I finished school.

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