It's bad enough – sad enough – that Canberra bashing is a national sport. It's even more depressing when Australians conduct the bashing on an international stage.

Why? Because Canberra is our national capital. It's YOUR national capital. If Australians don't feel pride or at least a certain connection with this city, there's something wrong. Particularly if it's deemed OK for Canberra to be the butt of cheap, boring jokes.

Robyn Archer hit the nail on the head in a speech she gave to the National Press Club last week. She believes that the name "Canberra" has become synonymous with "Federal Government", usually in relation to bad news.

"Why would we be puzzled for even one second that there are some Australians who find it so easy to 'bash' their national capital if Canberra is so often portrayed as such a hateful entity; indeed described relentlessly as an enemy of the people," she told the gathered journalists, most of whom, obviously and perhaps ironically, make their lives in Canberra.

Poor old Downing Street suffers the same bad press. It's used by the media as an alternative to "the British Government". But it's not home to 360,000 people, most of whom, it's fair to say, don't view the place they choose to live in as a "hateful entity".

Robyn Archer is the creative director of next year's centenary of Canberra. I reckon few Australians know, or care, that on March 12, 1913 Lady Gertrude Denman, wife of the then Governor-General Sir Thomas Denman, announced, at a formal ceremony on Capital Hill where Parliament House now sits, the name of the yet-to-be-built city that was to be the new nation's capital.

You don't need to know the details. But this upcoming centenary is part of our shared history. Our capital is turning 100. It's party-time. And we're all being invited to recognise and celebrate the occasion.

As well as organising activities and commissioning works to commemorate this milestone in Australia's story, Archer and her team are passionate about changing Canberra's image. Just what a tough job Archer's embraced has been highlighted by what was presumably meant to be a bit of silly banter on a late night TV show in the United States. Would an American, though, make the same unfunny jokes about Washington?

Australian actor Guy Pearce, star of quintessential Aussie shows such as Neighbours and Home and Away and the iconic film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, was in the guest chair being quizzed by the host of CBS's The Late Late Show, Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, who's tipped to succeed David Letterman as the king of late night TV, had decided (why?) it would be fun to have a go at a city it's not clear he's visited.

"Even Australians, diehard patriots of the lucky country say Canberra is a [CENSORED] dump," he told his audience.

Pearce jumped in. "There's a lot wrong about Canberra," he said, though the most he could muster when pressed for detail was "it's like a series of circles" and "it's totally man-made and constructed for the government". He added that "people from Canberra usually deny they're from Canberra", and warned that Kylie Minogue "would hate you for saying" that she came from Canberra. How does he know? Kylie was happy to let her famous gold hot-pants go on display in her nation's capital.

Not so long ago I would have rolled my eyes and moved on. But there comes a time when you're just over it, so sick of turning the other cheek – even at the risk of being labelled (horror) precious or overly sensitive or defensive. (Canberrans – that's what we're called – are used to being described in these terms.)

Just like Robyn Archer I've endured airport conversations along the lines of (from a total stranger)... "Canberra! Yuk! Why would you want to live/go there?"

I've been patient (and, yes, at times, very defensive). "Because it's my home, because my kids grew up there, because I actually LIKE living in Canberra" (despite some issues with the cold winter months). Sometimes I've given up and just shrugged.

Archer is braver and more direct. "When did you last visit?" she asks these impertinent strangers, and then rattles off a long list of the city's attributes and attractions she believes her inquisitors have ignored, overlooked or never uncovered.

What's most irksome about Canberra bashing is how common it seems to be among those who've never visited the city, or who did, briefly, a long time ago. How would they feel if their home was constantly belittled and attacked by people who don't really know much about it? I worry some base their assumptions on outdated clichés – don't most cities have traffic roundabouts now? – and associations with the baser aspects of politics.

I can understand why many federal politicians bag the city – it draws them away from their families and no doubt it's at times politically profitable to cast Canberra in an unfavourable light compared to the electorates they represent.

As fellow Canberrans have pointed out, Guy Pearce's bagging of Canberra was as lame and as tired as cross-Tasman sheep jokes. And he missed a great opportunity to tell Americans how Australia's capital city was designed by a couple from Chicago.

Each year more than 160,000 children from around Australia visit Canberra on a school excursion. They're taken to Parliament House, the War Memorial, the National Gallery, the National Museum and other cultural institutions and, if they're lucky and it's winter, they also get a trip to the snowfields. (Or if they're kids from the desert, a trip to the coast – Canberra is only two hours from both).

My hope is that these kids are awed more than bored. Not 'awed' in the sense of feeling this place is beyond them, out of reach and out of touch – heaven forbid – but awed as in "this place is awesome" for the way it treasures the stories of Australia. For the way it tells and represents all our stories. If they don't feel that then something needs to change.

How do you think Canberra can do a better job of being a national capital you're proud of and not one you want to bag?

For those of us who live here it's first and foremost our home. We queue at supermarket check-outs and cheer on our kids playing sport. We whinge endlessly about the high cost of housing. And despite what you may think, most of us have a healthy sense of humour.

Canberra is not a perfect city. But it's ours and it's yours. The upcoming Centenary provides a great opportunity to freshen up knowledge of this city – and the jokes. It's easier to laugh when the jokes are funny. .

Louise Maher is the Drive presenter on 666 ABC Canberra. View her full profile here.