The Notion of Mateship as Reflected in Production of Literary work in Australia

Every culture in this world has its own ideal towards the notion of mateship. Some of the exemplifications about mateship around the world can be found in Indonesian and American mateship. Indonesian embraces the value of collectivistic culture which treats everyone as a family, while American mateship is determined by the notion of equality. The saying “every man for himself” may be more than enough to explain this equality in America

Australia is another country which is famous with its mateship. Mateship derives from the word 'mate', which is utilized in Australian English as a synonym for 'cobber', which indicates a habitual companion, associate, friend or partner. 'Mate' has also been used as a style of address, which shows friendliness and equality, as in the famous ''ow yer goin' mate, orright? Mateship in this country is well-known to be really strong. It is even said that there is no country lionises mateship to the same degree as Australia does. The concept of mateship is deeply rooted in the heart of Australian people. It has been shown since Gold Rush until today.

As stated before, this idea of mateship has been shaped since the Gold Rush that happened in 1859. People all over the world swarmed to Australia. They came to Australia and made living there as gold miners. As immigrants, they felt that they shared the same feeling, the sentiment of being apart from their homelands. This sense, later on, formed a bound among the gold miners. This bound was the initial point of their mateship. This bound was formed be them socializing with other miners from other countries, shared their laaughter and problems, became close to one another and befriended them. This mateship became stronger as the days go by. It continued to happen during the gold rush and may be after the gold rush ended.

The spirits of mateship in the gold fields are reflected in Henry Lawson’s works, particularly in his short stories. Henry Lawson was the subject in the Gold Rush era. He experienced the feeling of being a member of Gold Rush families. He was insisted to include himself in that condition for his father who was driven mad by gold left the family in the most terrible condition. People who shared the same experienced were Lawson’s friends in that era. That is why he is able to talk a lot about mateship in any literary works which have relation to Gold Rush. The exemplifications of Lawson’s short stories about mateship are Mateship in Shakespeare’s Rome and A Sketch of Mateship.

Talking about Henry Lawson, he is the icon of Australian literary works which takes mateship as the theme. The book writers named J. le Gay Brereton states how Henry Lawson works are very influenced by mateship idea. In his book, Brereton says that Henry Lawson is one of the few who acclaims the idea of mateship. Most of his writings are talking about mateship such as His Father’s Mate, His Mother’s Mate, A Sketch of Mateship (as aforesaid), and many other Lawson’s works. Ironically, the idea of mateship brought by Henry Lawson is addressed to men. It seems that the word “mateship” belongs to only men. This issue becomes a debatable issue in Australia. Journalists and Feminists in particular raise critiques towards this issue. It may be considered as the dark side of mateship in Australia.

Another sense of mateship is also triggered by the history of Anzac soldiers. Anzac is a concept which explains that Australian and New Zealand soldiers own shared courage, specifically the qualities those soldiers are believed to have shown on the battlefield in World War I (Wikipedia, 2010). Their involvement in the battlefields of World War I may be due to their sense of belonging to the land. Besides, they did not want another country (Germany) to occupy them. The Anzac soldiers were respected for their bravery, endurance, and solidarity among one another. The mateship formed in Anzac originated from the fact that they fought together. They also have the same purposes. The only thing that was in the Anzac’s soldiers at that time was they did not want to let his friends die alone. They were trying so hard to make their friends died with companion. Friends were the only family they had at that moment. Almost similar with other soldiers around the world, the Anzac’s soldiers were very hard to survive. They did understand with this condition. That is why they were trying as hard as they could to make their friends died in the companion from other friends. The feeling of togetherness among them structures mateship, the strong one, afterwards.

Mateship in Anzac may have given inspirations to the writers to write the literary works. These literary works were made to scrutinize the strong mateship that the soldiers had during the World War I. They are mostly emphasized by a 1983 survey which showed that mateship is regarded by as the main reason for the higher survival rate of Australians in Japanese POW camps in 1942-45. The reflection of this mateship among the Anzac soldiers is depicted in C.E.W. Bean and others writing about Australian soldiers in the First World War, Leonard Mann's novel Flesh in Armour (q.v., 1932) and Alan Seymour's play The One Day of the Year (1962).

In a nutshell, there are two aspects, Gold Rush and Anzact, which turn out to be the underlying idea of mateship. These two events are highly influential for the growth of mateship idea in Australia. The sense being stranded in the land of nowhere and high expectation for a better lives are the idea which lay behind the Gold Rush, while, sense of belonging is the concept of Anzact. These ideas build up Australia as a country which is very famous with the word mateship. It is also reflected in a significant part of the production of Australian literature. Henry Lawson is considered as one of few “literary workers” who gives high influence into the growth of mateship in Australia. However, the idea that is popularized by Lawson becomes the debatable issue for the country. It is because the idea of mateship, in Henry Lawson’s sense, belongs only to men. This matter needs discussing further in Australia nowadays for the role of women has to be counted too as it does to men.\

Written by Mbak Ocha, Bangun and Me