Cultural cheerleading (as distinct from cultural preservation) has always been somewhat embarrassing. Indeed, it is the mark of insecurity and provinciality. The condemnatory challenge not to pander to other cultures was, like most things Australian, based on the tribalisms of sport. You had to support the home team. The contradiction was that while philistinism produced natural loyalties and deep roots, the antinomian nature of art severed them.

The phrase ‘cultural cringe’ turned on a number of different psychological axes: the desire to find oneself wanting in equal proportion to finding oneself; an arrested adolescence obsessed with measurement (though now Australians are less certain about what they are measuring up against): the need to seek approval through isolationist agendas and self-wrought beleaguerment. This boisterous insecurity represented both a national pride and a national psychosis.