I have lived in Victoria now for almost seven years. Before then, as you may know, I lived in New South Wales. Recently I discovered my sister is contemplating a move down here; a possibility which caused this outburst from my father: “What? You’re going to become a Mexican too?”
(‘Mexican’ = living south of the border, I presume)
I mentioned this to a native Victorian friend of mine who asked,
“Do all New South Wales people have a kind of prejudice against us?”
I thought. I formed my sentence carefully.
“Yes, some do.”
Yes, I admit, growing up, us NSW-ers saw Victorians as slightly…odd. They worshipped a funny version of football (a version which has since grown in popularity in all states); they were all bizarrely defensive of their miserable weather-systems (four seasons in one day? Oh, whatever….); they drank crap beer (I can’t comment – I don’t drink beer); etc.etc. But as you can see in my parenthetical commentary, I have begun to take up the cause for my adopted state. I suppose I can’t help it.
Perhaps this is why I loved my friend’s rejoinder to the conversation:
“Do you Victorian’s have an opinion, then, “asked I, “about New South Welshmen?”
“What?!” she scoffed. “Like we could give a shit about them.”
well, touche’.
Do you – as a proud representative of any state – have any sort of deep seeded prejudice against another state which you’d like to exorcise here and now, for the good of social harmony?
Look, okay, here’s how I’ll start. Before I moved to Melbourne, my vision of what I was in for (on a good day) was of this kind of place:
The kind of indoorsy, cafe-centric, Parisian-inspired, conservative, snooty, narrow-minded culture, who wear their footy colours everywhere.
(Which is all a little bit true……..)
But now I’ve been here, I have a bit of perspective about Sydney:
Brash, loud, proud, fun-loving, free, and blinded by the waters of their beautiful harbour; too much so to have fully formulated any kind of wider comprehension of other places. It’s always “we’re so great” (which is true) but never, “and so are you.”
(Which is all a little bit true……..)
What do you reckon?
(I know I’ve left out three states and two territories in this analogy. Please, add your own in the comments, if you wish!)
