Celebrating Australia with a book thief and a red dog

Mark your calendars: January 26 is Australia Day and it will be celebrated in the Philippines with month-long festivities showcasing Australian cuisine and culture.

For bookworms and movie buffs, two things to remember: “The Book Thief,” a novel by Australian author Markus Zusak, and “The Red Dog,” an Australian box-office hit in 2011.

For two weeks starting January 24, Fully Booked will showcase Australian books, including “The Book Thief,” which is also an internationally-acclaimed feature film. The movie will open in Philippine cinemas on February 19.

“The Book Thief” is about Liesel, a young girl sent to live with foster parents in World War II Germany. Amid the tumultuous events surrounding her, Liesel learns to read, encouraged by her new family and Max, a Jewish refugee.

The Fully Booked branch at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig will hold a “read it before you see it” book club session on “The Book Thief” on February 1.

Meanwhile, to acquaint local movie enthusiasts with Australia’s laid-back outdoor lifestyle, the Australian embassy will be hosting an outdoor film screening of the movie “The Red Dog” at the Greenbelt Park on January 25.

“The Red Dog” is a heart-warming based on a true story about a dog that united a remote Australian mining community. Having taken more than $21 million at the box office, “The Red Dog” is one of Australia’s top 10 highest-grossing films.

It won seven awards at the Inside Film Awards, including best feature film.

Australian cuisine

During the month-long celebration of Australia Day in the Philippines, Aussie food and beverages will be featured in supermarkets and hotels including The Peninsula Manila.

A message on the Facebook page of the Australian Embassy in Manila said, “The Peninsula Manila's Australian-born Executive Chef Richard Green takes you to atrip down under for indulgent buffets, exotic barbecues and festive Aussie fare. Home-made Tim Tams are also available at The Peninsula Boutique.”

An article on CNN asked, in a land as diverse as Australia, what exactly could you label as traditional Australian food?

Being very multicultural, local Australians dine everyday on Chinese food, Thai curries, or Mediterranean cuisine.

However, the CNN article listed some uniquely Australian dishes, including:

• Macadamia nuts – these nuts are native to Eastern Australia;
• Damper – soda bread made from wheat flour, water, and salt and baked in coals;
• Lamingtons – called the “National Cake of Australia,” sponge cake with chocolate icing and topped with dessicated coconut;
• Iced Vo-vo – wheat-flour biscuit with a strip of pink fondant;
• Tim Tam – chocolate biscuit made up of two layers of chocolate-malted biscuit; Arnott’s produces around 35 million packs of Tim Tams a year.

In an interview with GMA News Online on Aussie Barbie (Australian Barbecue) Day last January 15, Australian embassy officer Jane Dickenson noted that “Australian food is very multi-cultured because we have so many nationalities in Australia.”

”We have fantastic food. We have Asian food, Vietnamese food, Greek, Italian, Mediterranean, we have a lot of different food types in Australia,” she added.

Dickenson explained that Australian food is “very much derived from English food but having said that we have so many different nationalities now that we have influence from all over the world. So we have a lot of fusion.”

She said barbecue is a very popular food in Australia because “we love to eat out with such beautiful weather as you have here in the Philippines. We love to eat outside.”

”We always cook outside on the barbecue and as you hopefully experienced tonight we have, everything can be cooked on the barbecue whether it be vegetables or meat,” she added.

Asked to compare Australian food with Filipino food, Dickenson said, “Filipino food is lovely. It’s a bit sweeter than what we’re used to and probably a little bit heavier.”

“We do a lot of salads and vegetables and I know you do too, but I think the Filipino food is a lot more meat-involved,” she noted.

”Normally we don’t have a lot of meat—just a bit of meat, a bit of vegetables. But Filipino food is delicious and of course, we all know lechon is delicious. I’ve not had a bad meal here. The Filipino food is absolutely delicious. You’re very fortunate to have such great food,” she added.

Australia Day

Australia Day is celebrated by Australians all over the world every January 26.

According to the Australian Embassy, the month-long “Celebrate Australia Festival” is meant to share with Filipinos the best of Australia.

According to the Australia Day website, the tradition of celebrating Australia Day as a national holiday began in 1935.

However, it was only in 1994 when Australians began to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday.

Australia Day commemorates the January 26, 1788 “First Landing Day” or “Foundation Day” when Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain and the first governor of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney Cove.

The raising of the Union Jack or flag of the United Kingdom at Sydney Cove on that day symbolized the British occupation of the eastern half of the continent, as claimed by Captain James Cook nearly two decades earlier on August 22, 1770.

For nearly 40,000 years before the British occupied Australia—the only country that is also a continent by itself—the land was occupied by indigenous Australians.

When the British discovered Australia in the 1700s, they thought of converting the entire area into a penal colony as their jails have become overcrowded with prisoners.  

The families of prisoners sent to Australia prospered and helped make the country into one of the wealthiest in the world. Globally, it has the 12th largest economy.

The Australia Day website said “Some immigrants who prospered in Sydney, especially those who had been convicts or the sons of convicts, began marking the colony's beginnings with an anniversary dinner—'an emancipist festival' to celebrate their love of the land they lived in.” — VC, GMA News