Southern Cross Term Analysis

A bright constellation visible in the Southern Hemisphere, which features on the Australian flag and has held a variety of meanings throughout Australian history: it is of deep religious importance for many of Australia’s Indigenous people, was frequently used as a symbol of the fight for Australian independence from the British Empire, and has more recently been used by Australian white nationalists. Accordingly, while standing for the Australian nation, it also shows how the concept of that nation has been built on the backs of Indigenous people and reconceived so as to exclude them. One of the first scenes in Black Diggers includes a patriotic war song called “Sons of the Southern Cross.”