Item HT 24761 Sticker - 'Either Love It Or Leave It!', Australia, 2009

Summary

Note: This object includes white superiority messaging. Such attitudes and beliefs are not condoned by Museums Victoria which considers them to be racist. Historical distance and context do not excuse or erase this fact.

Decal sticker sold by stickerart.com.au, one of a number of businesses selling similar nationalist and often racist ephemera referred to by the Australian Nationalist Resource.

The image on this sticker was used during the Cronulla riots in December 2005 and during Australia Day celebrations and disturbances, including that on Manly Beach on 26 January 2009. The image is an echo of the iconography of the former 'White Australia' policy.

Physical Description

White decal sticker with black lettering and a black outline map of Australia.

Significance

These stickers are significant because they have been used on people's vehicles to show an increasing pride in Australian national identity and opinions about migration, especially during the 2000s. This sticker is one of a series of decal stickers which are examples of racist and nationalist memorabilia. The slogans on these stickers are racist and seek to define Australian identity by excluding 'the other'. Placed in a historical context the stickers reflect anxieties about foreign invasions and a xenophobia that has characterised public discourse in Australian colonies since the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s.

The stickers displaying the outline map of Australia with "Piss Off We're Full!" and "Bugger Off We're Full" in the centre is a continuation of Australian fears of being 'swamped' by foreigners. The sticker with the white map of Australia and "Either Love It or Leave It!" is a slogan meant to counteract any criticism of Australian policy or actions and construes such criticisms as being un-Australian.

The image of a white map of Australia and its variations appear scrawled on white human skin and t-shirts at the Cronulla riots in December 2005 and on Australia Day celebrations and disturbances, including that on Manly Beach on 26 January 2009. The use of the white map of Australia iconography, formerly a common feature of medals, badges and stamps, is an echo of the 'White Australia' policy of the early 20th century.