Mateship In Australian Identity

An integral aspect of Australian identity is undeniably mateship..Honourable justice Michael Kirby described mateship as one of the four “ virtues of the peculiar egalitarian society which grew up (in Australia) in the wake of convict transportation.(Reardon Judith ,2003).
Word mate and mateship are used so inconsistently that they have made the concept of mateship very ambiguous and making it difficult to define mateship. Mateship became surrogate religion for many in Australia’s first century. National discourse of mateship can blend and influence each other even if they remain distinct and oppose one another.” So when patriarchal -based Christianity melded with mateship, it remained potentially inclusive but began to be describe in masculinist terms.( Reardon Judith ,2003).
The dominance of masculine meaning of matship was argued aided by the readings, practices which encouraged largely the men’s writings that developed such idea and ignored otherwise.
There is a pronounced difference in the way mateship is written in men and women’s writings. Mate stands for men and mateship associates with bravery and courageous risk taking
nature.