Australia: ‘The Southern Cross is becoming the new Swastika’: New documentary examines ‘hijacking’ of national icon

The Southern Cross is a star constellation visible only in the Southern hemisphere.  It is featured on the Australian flag.  In the form of the Eureka flag, the Southern cross has mostly in the past been a political symbol used by the far Left -- so maybe we should not get very bothered by who uses it

WARWICK Thornton was basking in the success of his award-winning feature film Samson and Delilah in 2010, when one simple remark prompted widespread national outrage. “I’m concerned the Southern Cross is becoming the new Swastika,” he said.

Like many Australians, the Alice Springs-raised Mr Thornton could see parallels between the hijacking of the two symbols for the extreme nationalist cause.

The Swastika, a Sanskrit symbol for good fortune, is now synonymous with death in the west, after being adopted as the symbol of Germany’s murderous Nazi Party in the 1930s.

Similarly, the Southern Cross has been adopted in Australia by the extreme right-wing as a symbol of bigotry, hatred and nationalist pride, though obviously not to the same, murderous extreme.

The Southern Cross, along with the Australian flag, is the favoured symbol of groups such the anti-Muslim Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front movements. Simply put, Mr Thornton said, the Southern Cross has been “hijacked by dickheads”.

Seven years on, the 2010 Australian of the Year nominee has made the symbolism of the Southern Cross the subject of a new documentary, We Don’t Need a Map, screening as part of the Sydney Film Festival.

Mr Thornton told ABC Radio National’s Awaye program the vehement reaction to his 2010 comparison of the Southern Cross and the Swastika took him by surprise. “People got very upset, and that scared the hell out of me,” he told the program. “I went and hid in the cupboard for a little while, and then over a couple of years, I got angry.”

The result was We Don’t Need a Map, a kind of Australian road trip that examines the spiritual importance of the five constellations to the country’s indigenous people and how, among nationalist groups, the Southern Cross morphed into a symbol bearing such potent power.

“This is the story of the hijacking of an Australian icon,” goes the promotional slogan.

Mr Thornton is hoping to prompt a national discussion about the symbol, though perhaps one a little more measured than the one that followed his comments seven years ago.

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