I agree Marnita and I think that may have been part of the intention of the ad, although the received subtext was “our table, our rules, our culture”, that of cultural assimilation rather than acceptance of the culture of the arriving migrants. It may also be a bit of an Australian colloquialism, setting a seat the table being a welcoming gesture.
Interestingly, earlier this week I attended an expo for First Nation businesses which echoes some of this. One young lady made the point that her seat at the table was well and truly at the foot of the table, ie. she didn’t necessarily feel empowered by it, while the subtext being “you’ve got a seat at the table, you can shut up now”. That is, “behave” within the accepted culture of power. The other point they made was they simply wanted cultural parity, an acknowledgment that their cultural was just as real as Anglo culture and that they should be safe to express that.
The study is pre-internet so it may be hard to find, although I believe it was conducted by Monash University. I’ll see what I can dig up.
This might lead somewhere…
