Gender and Nation: A Feminist Reading of Banjo Paterson and Dorothea Mackellar

Abstract

This paper examines the gendered construction of Australian national identity through a feminist reading of Banjo Paterson’s ‘We’re All Australians Now’ and Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country.’ While Paterson’s poem envisions nationhood through masculine sacrifice, unity, and martial valor, Mackellar’s poem locates national identity in a feminine attachment to landscape, endurance, and affect. The analysis situates these poems in their cultural context, highlighting how they represent divergent yet complementary strands of early twentieth-century national discourse. Using feminist and ecofeminist theory, the paper argues that Paterson’s masculinist nationalism and Mackellar’s feminine nationalism together illuminate the complex interplay of gender in shaping cultural identity in Australia. This dialogue between masculine and feminine articulations provides insight into both the inclusions and exclusions of early Australian nation-making.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199392021.2025.80-85.