9781422278796

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

MY TEENAGE LIFE IN AUSTRALIA

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

My Teenage Life in AUSTRALIA My Teenage Life in BRAZIL My Teenage Life in CHINA My Teenage Life in EGYPT My Teenage Life in GREECE

My Teenage Life in INDIA My Teenage Life in JAPAN My Teenage Life in MEXICO My Teenage Life in NEPAL My Teenage Life in RUSSIA My Teenage Life in SOUTH AFRICA Our Teenage Life in the NAVAJO NATION

CUSTOMS AND CULTURES OF THE WORLD

MY TEENAGE LIFE IN

By Michael Burgan with Indya Campbell Series Foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani AUSTRALIA

MASON CREST

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2018 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3899-8 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3900-1 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7879-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Burgan, Michael. | Campbell, Indya, 2000- author. Title: My teenage life in Australia / by Michael Burgan, with Indya Campbell; series foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani. Description: Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, 2018. | Series: Customs and cultures of the world | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017003263| ISBN 9781422239001 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422278796 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Australia--Social life and customs--Juvenile literature. | Teenagers--Australia--Social life and customs--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC DU107 .W49 2018 | DDC 305.2350994--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003263 .

Developed and Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group. Editor: James Buckley, Jr. Design: Tom Carling, Carling Design Inc. Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

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A U S T R A L I A

C ontents

Series Foreword by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, UCSB..................... 6

Australian Customs............................ 34 Indya’S Free Time................................40 Australia’s Economy and Politics...... 42 Indya’S Country................................ 50 The Future of Australia. ..................... 52

Meet Indya!............................................ 8 Australia: An Introduction.................. 12 Indya’S School Life............................20 Time to Eat!.........................................22 Australian Culture ............................. 24 Indya’S Town.......................................32

Text-Dependent Questions..................................................... 60 Research Projects.................................................................. 61 Find Out More......................................................................... 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms................................................ 63 Index/Author........................................................................... 64

Key Icons to Look For

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills.

Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

A U S T R A L I A

S eries F oreword Culture: Parts =Whole C ulture makes us human. Many of us think of culture

Culture is also about how we live our lives. It is about our lived experiences of our societies and of all theworldswe inhabit. And in this series—CustomsandCulturesof the World—you will meet young people who will share their experiences of the cultures andworlds they inhabit. How does a teenager growing up in South Africa make sense of the history of apartheid, the 1994 democratic elections, and of what is happening now? That is as integral to ourworld’s culture as the ancient ruins in Greece, the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Himalayas above Nepal, and the Amazon rain forests in Brazil. But these examples are not enough. Greece is also known for its financial uncertainties, Egypt is

assomethingthatbelongstoaperson, a group, or even a country. We talk about the food of a region as being part of its culture (tacos, pupusas, tamales, and burritos all are part of ourunderstandingof food fromMex- ico, andSouthandCentralAmerica). We might also talk about the clothes asbeing important toculture (saris in India, kimonos in Japan, hijabs or gallibayas in Egypt, or beaded shirts in theNavajoNation). Imaginetryingtosumup“American” cultureusingjustexampleslikethese! Yet culture does not just belong to a personorevenacountry. It isnot only about food and clothes or music and art, because those things by them- selves cannot tell the whole story.

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known for the uprisings in Tahrir Square, China is known for its rapid developmentof megacities,Australia is known for its amazing animals, andBrazil isknown for theOlympics and its football [soccer] team. And there are many more examples for eachnation, region, andperson, and some of these examples are featured in these books. The question is: How do you, growing up in a particular country, view your own culture? What do you think of as culture? What is your lived experience of it? Howdo you come to understand and engage with cultures that are not familiar to you? And, perhaps most importantly, why do you/wewant to do this?Andhowdoes reading about andexperiencingother cultureshelp you understand your own? It is perhaps a cliché to say culture forms the central core of our humanity and our dignity. If that’s true, how do young adults talk about your own cultures? How do you simultaneously understand how people apparently “different” fromyou live their lives, and engage

with their cultures? One way is to read the stories in this series. The “authors” are just like you, even though they live in different places and in different cultures. We com- municatedwith these youngwriters over the Internet, whichhas become the greatest gathering of cultures ever. The Internet is now central to the culture of almost everyone, with youngpeople leading thewayonhow to use it to expand the horizons of all of us. From those of us born in earlier generations, thank you for opening that cultural avenue! Let me finish by saying that culture allows us to open ourminds, think about worlds different from the ones we live in, and to imagine how people very different from us live their lives. This series of books is just the start of the process, but a crucial start. I hope you enjoy them. —Kum-Kum Bhavnani Professor of sociology and feminist and global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an award-winning international filmmaker.

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A U S T R A L I A Meet Indya!

The Reader

About Me!

My name is Indya Meg Campbell. I was born on 12 April 2000 in a town called Wollongong. It’s located in the state of New South Wales, which is on the east coast of Australia. The capital city of New South Wales is Sydney and Wollongong is located approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Sydney. I was born and have lived in Wollongong my whole life.

Wollongong!

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My current hobbies are dancing, jazz and hip hop. I used to compete in dancing and cheerleading and was lucky enough to go to Florida in 2014 to compete in an international team competition.

I also like to go the beach in summer. The beach is only about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from my home so I am lucky to live so close. Wollongong has beautiful beaches.

Greetings from Wollongong

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A U S T R A L I A

Meet Indya

My dad is a storeman with the Steelworks.

I am an only child. My parents separated when I was six years old. They are both single parents and work full time. Both the University and the Steelworks are major industries in Wollongong and employ a large number of people in Wollongong.

My mum is the payroll manager at the University of Wollongong.

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The Reader

My Family

My mum is an only child like me. My Nan and Pop [grandparents] live very close to me in Wollongong and helped bring me up when I was younger. My Nan is from a large family of three brothers and two sisters and most of the extended family also live in Wollongong and surrounding suburbs. We try and all get together a few times during the year but always spend Christmas night together. There are about 30 of the extended family and we have lots of fun and laughs together and all get on very well. We are a nice family. My dad was born in Dunedin, which is in the South Island of New Zealand. Dad is one of five children and is the only one from his family that lives in Australia. His family has been to visit several times and we have also been to New Zealand for visits. I wouldn’t say I have a strong bond with my New Zealand family, but I do have a connection with them and we get along well when we see each other. I believe family is a big part of my life. They all have done things for me that make me the person I am at 16. My mum, dad, Nan, and Pop have played a big role in my life. They are always there for me through the good and bad times. Although I mightn’t see my extended family a lot I know that they are all close to me and will always be there for me. They are people I can reach out to for anything.

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A U S T R A L I A

Australia: An Introduction

T o many people around the world, Australia is the land of kangaroos and koala bears, where residents and tourists alike romp on any of thousands of beaches. But Australia is also one of the richest countries in the world, with vast deposits of natural resources that it sells over- seas. It’s also a diverse country. While once a British colony, today many “Aussies” trace their roots to nations around the world. The indigenous people of the continent, known as Aboriginal Australians, play a big part, too. The original Australians include a distinct group known as Torres Straits Islanders, who come from islands that lie between Australia and New Guinea to the north. Words to Understand contiguous  connected along a border or point indigenous  native to a particular region, especially referring to people marsupial  a type of mammal, such as kangaroos, that have a pouch in which mothers carry and feed their babies nomadic  referring to people that move often to find hunting grounds and places to live penal colony  an island or other isolated territory where large numbers of prisoners are kept

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Australia is divided into six states, plus two major territories, each of which has its own governing body, much like the United States.

Australia is the smallest of the world’s seven continents, though it is also Earth’s largest island. With an area of 2,969,907 square miles (7.6 million sq km), Australia is the world’s sixth-largest country—about the size of the 48 contiguous United States. Islands formpart of this territo- ry. The most important of these is Tasmania, which is one of Australia’s six states. The other states are New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia. The country also includes the Northern Territory and the Capital Territory of Canberra.

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A U S T R A L I A

Australia is the flattest continent, and the driest after Antarctica. Large parts of Australia’s interior are made up of desert, and just a small portion of the country is suitable for growing crops. Australia’s major cities ring its long coastline on the Indian, Southern, and South Pacific Oceans. About 80 percent of the country’s roughly 24 million people live within 60 miles (96 km) of the shore. Australia’s longest river, theMurray, is just over 1,500miles (2,414 km) long and flows through parts of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia.

The Murray River flows through southeastern Australia and includes several placid sections popular with boaters.

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