Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australians Ethnic identity'

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Australia became a destination for hundreds and thousands of Italians as a result of Italy's first modem diaspora. Those who immigrated between the 1850s and 1914 came from diverse backgrounds - socially, culturally, politically, economically, regionally and linguistically. For a minority group, their regional diversity was still quite vast. While in Australia this earlier group was numerically minute in terms of those received by other countries and in comparison with the second half of the twentieth century, these Italians represented a strongly visual and vocal presence in colonial and post-Federation society. Indeed, increasing demographically at a higher rate than any other migrant group after the British (Anglo-Celtic immigrants) at the tum of the twentieth century, Italian migrants offered a new social and economic component in Australia, becoming entwined into the fabric of a developing nation (Castles et al. 1992; Jupp 1988c; Templeton 1998). More than a century since, Australian society has undergone numerous transformations from its development as a nation and in response to world events. The lives of Italian migrants and their descendants bear witness to many of these changes. But, both historical and theoretical approaches fail to explain the significance of the inheritances from a migrant past. This research project takes up the task of examining the legacies of the Italo-Australian presence during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the impact these migrants made on, and their response to, the trajectories of Australian migration history since the 1870s until today. In the process, it reflects the evolution of Italian ethnicity.

"22nd November, 2006".
Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Dept. of Anthropology, 2007.
Bibliography: leaves 301-330.
Introduction -- Between ourselves -- Two (or three) for the price of one -- Community -- Bits and pieces -- Space painting or painting space -- Talkin' the talk. Bunda bunya miumba (Thundering kangaroos): dancing up a storm -- Welcome to Country: talkin' the talk -- Messing with ceremony -- 'Ethnogenesis' and the emergence of 'darug custodians' -- Conclusion.
The thesis concerns an Aboriginal community, members of which inhabit the western suburbs of Sydney at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This particular group of people has emerged as a cultural group over the last twenty-five years. In other words, the community did not exist before the advent of Aboriginal land rights in Australia. It might be right to suggest that without land rights, native title and state celebrations and inclusions of Aboriginal peoples as multicufturalism, this particular urban community would not and could not exist at all. That, however, would be a simplistic analysis of a complex phenomenon. Land rights and native title provide the beginning of this story. It becomes much more interesting when the people concerned take it up themselves. -- The main foci in the thesis are the cultural forms that this particular community overtly and intentionally produce as articulations of their identity, namely public speaking, dancing, painting and ceremony. I argue that it is only through these yery deliberate collective practices of identity-making that community identity can be produced. This is because the place that the group claims as its own - Sydney - is always already inhabited by 'us' (the dominant society). Analysis of these cultural forms reveals that even if the existence of the group depends on land rights and, attempts to attract the ultimate 'authenticity' bestowed by native title, members of this group are not conforming to native title rules pertinent to what constitutes 'genuine' 'Aboriginality' for the purposes of winning land claims. Their revived traditions are pot what the state prescribes as representative of 'authentic' urban Aboriginal culture. -- The thesis analyses the ways in which urban Aboriginal peoples are makipg themselves in the era and context of native title. It considers the consequences of being themselves.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 330, [8] leaves ill., maps

The ethnic identity and commitment of Heritage Language Learners play salient roles in Heritage Language learning process. The mutually constitutive effect amongst Heritage Language Learner's ethnic identity, commitment, and Heritage Language proficiency has been well documented in social psychological and poststructuralist literatures. Both social psychological and poststructural schools offer meaningful insights into particular contexts but receive critiques from other contexts. In addition, the two schools largely oppose each other. This study uses Bourdieu's sociological triad of habitus, capital, and field to reconcile the two schools through the examination of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in Australia, an idiosyncratic social, cultural, and historical context for these learners. Specifically, this study investigates how young Chinese Australian adults (18-35 in age) negotiate their 'Chineseness' and capitalise on resources through Chinese Heritage Language learning in the lived world. The study adopts an explanatory mixed methods design to combine the quantitative approach with the qualitative approach. The initial quantitative phase addresses the first research question: Is Chinese Heritage Language proficiency of young Chinese Australian adults influenced by their investment of capital, the strength of their habitus of 'Chineseness', or both? The subsequent qualitative phase addresses the second research question: How do young Chinese Australian adults understand their Chinese Heritage Language learning in relation to (potential) profits produced by this linguistic capital in given fields? The initial quantitative phase applies Structural Equation Modelling to analyse the data from an online survey with 230 respondents. Findings indicate the statistically significant positive contribution made by the habitus of 'Chineseness' and by investment of capital to Chinese Heritage Language proficiency (r = .71 and r = .86 respectively). Subsequent multiple regression analysis demonstrates that 62% of the variance of Chinese Heritage Language proficiency can be accounted for by the joint contribution of 'Chineseness' and 'capital'. The qualitative phase of the study uses multiple interviews with five participants. It reveals that Chinese Heritage Language offers meaningful benefits for participants in the forms of capital production and habitus capture or recapture. Findings from the two phases talk to each other in terms of the inherent entanglement amongst habitus of 'Chineseness', investment of capital, and Chinese Heritage Language proficiency. The study offers important contributions. Theoretically, by virtue of Bourdieu's signature concepts of habitus, capital, and field, the study provides answers to questions that both social psychological and poststructuralist theories have long been struggling to answer. Methodologically, the position of 'pluralism' talks back to Bourdieu's theory and forwards to the mixed methods design. Particularly, the study makes a methodological breakthrough: A set of instruments was developed and validated to quantify Bourdieu's key concepts of capital and habitus within certain social fields. Practically, understanding Chinese Australians' heterogeneity and the potential drivers behind Chinese Heritage Language learning contributes to the growing interest in Chinese Australians' contemporary life experiences and helps to better accommodate linguistically diverse Chinese Heritage Language Learners in Chinese language courses. In addition, this study is very timely. It resonates with the recently released Australia in the Asian Century White Paper: Chinese Australians, with sound knowledge of Chinese culture and language obtained through negotiating their 'Chineseness' and capitalising on diverse resources for learning, will help to serve Australia's economic, social, and political needs in unique ways.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006.
Bibliography: p. 257-276.
Introduction: coming to Wilcannia -- Wilcannia: plenty of Aborigines, but no culture -- Who you is? -- Cultural values: ambivalences and ambiguities -- Praise, success and opportunity -- "Art an' culture: the two main things, right?" -- Big Murray Butcher: "We still doin' it" -- Granny Moisey's baby: the art of Badger Bates -- Epilogue.
Dominant society discourses and images have long depicted the Aboriginal people of the town of Wilcannia in far Western New South Wales as having no 'culture'. In asking what this means and how this situation might have come about, the thesis seeks to respond through an ethnographic exploration of these discourses and images. The work explores problematic and polemic dominant society assumptions regarding 'culture' and 'Aboriginal culture', their synonyms and their effects. The work offers Aboriginal counter-discourses to the claim of most white locals and dominant culture that the Aboriginal people of Wilcannia have no culture. In so doing the work presents reflexive notions about 'culture' as verbalised and practiced, as well as providing an ethnography of how culture is more tacitly lived. -- Broadly, the thesis looks at what it is to be Aboriginal in Wilcannia from both white and black perspectives. The overarching concern of this thesis is a desire to unpack what it means to be black in Wilcannia. The thesis is primarily about the competing values and points of view within and between cultures, the ways in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people tacitly and reflexively express and interpret difference, and the ambivalence and ambiguity that come to bear in these interactions and experiences. This thesis demonstrates how ideas and actions pertaining to 'race' and 'culture' operate in tandem through an exploration of values and practices relating to 'work', 'productivity', 'success', 'opportunity' and the domain of 'art'. These themes are used as vehicles to understanding the 'on the ground' effects and affects of cultural perceptions and difference. They serve also to demonstrate the ambiguity and ambivalence that is experienced as well as being brought to bear upon relationships which implicitly and explicitly are concerned with, and concern themselves with difference.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xii, 276 p. ill

Refugees arriving in Australia undergo a number of settlement processes including adaptation and acculturation, social support and network development, and an exploration of their ethnic identity. This research examines the settlement processes of mixed marriage refugees from what was Yugoslavia who arrived in Perth, Western Australia in the early to mid 1990's. A mixed marriage is one where the couple are from different ethnic backgrounds. This research has two main aims. The first aim is to examine the processes of acculturation and adaptation, the development of social support networks, and ethnic identity, within the refugees. These processes provide a framework from which to understand the settlement process. The second aim is to investigate the initial settlement programs and supports provided by Australia's government and community groups, and to provide recommendations for future service provision. Throughout the research, the experiences of the refugees are located within the sociopolitical context of the conflict in what was Yugoslavia and their migration. The impact of the refugees' ethnicity and ethnic identity is also considered. The research was comprised of a study in two stages. The first stage involved scoping interviews with critical participants and refugees to identify key conceptual domains for the purpose of guiding subsequent interviews. The second stage consisted of multiple-case, conversational interviews with 12 mixed marriage refugees from what was Yugoslavia. Data was analysed thematically and the results indicated that the participants were moving towards an acculturation outcome of bi-culturalism. The majority have taken out Australian citizenship, were proud of and grateful for it and saw it as a security for the future. The results also indicated that ethnicity impacts on the development of social networks. The participants generally socialised with other mixed marriage refugees as they felt comfortable and emotionally supported by them. Mainstream Australians provided more instrumental support. The participants referred to a feeling of belonging to Australia increasing with participation in the community and have made substantial efforts to understand the Australian way of life. Feeling part of the Australian community was a process that was taking time. The participants described their ethnic identity as either Yugoslav or Bosnian, regardless of their ethnicity. Whilst maintaining this identity, being Australian was also important and did not conflict with feeling Yugoslav or Bosnian. The links between the various settlement processes are discussed as well as the validity of the research process and recommendations for future research and for settlement programs. The results illustrated the diversity of experiences of the participants as well as a commonality resulting from their being in a mixed marriage. With respect to the second aim, the initial settlement experience is characterised by stress, due in part to the nature of the refugee experience and exacerbated by a lack of English, receiving confusing and untimely information, difficulties in finding work and difficulties in meeting mainstream Australians. The refugees who went through the On-Arrival Accommodation program felt less supported than those who went through the Community Resettlement Support Scheme, which offered a chance to meet Australians and provided better material assistance.

This research focuses on the cultural identity of Chinese Australian adolescents in Canberra between the ages of 18 and 21. Adolescence is a developmental stage in which young people feel a need to define their cultural identity. According to social identity theory, being a member of the group provides individuals with a sense of belonging that contributes to a positive self-concept. In particular, young people belonging to ethnic minority groups need a firm sense of group identification in order to maintain a sense of wellbeing (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The purpose and significance of this study is to update our understanding of how adolescents from a specific ethnic minority group (Chinese Australian) adjust to the mainstream Australian culture. The information gathered will be significant to the wellbeing of these individuals in helping them to come to terms with their own identity. It will also provide useful information for effective cross-cultural interaction for a range of services such as education, law, health and social services. The quantitative and qualitative approaches employed in this study include a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The semi-structured interview complements the questionnaire in confirming the adjustments of these adolescents within an analytical framework that is a replica of Phinney's framework (1994). In her research on bicultural identity orientations of African American and Mexican American adolescents, Phinney categorised these adolescents under four distinct types of interaction with the mainstream culture. These are namely: separation (focus only on the ethnic culture), assimilation (identifying solely with the dominant culture), integration (relating well to both cultures) and marginality (relating to neither culture). In this dissertation the researcher also aims to determine the cultural identity of Chinese Australian adolescents in Canberra in the study using these four categories. The results of this study demonstrate that this framework is an appropriate analytical tool for the study of the cultural identity of Chinese Australian adolescents, most of whom classified themselves as integrated. Overall, Chinese Australian adolescents between the ages of 18 and 21 in the Canberra region were well adjusted and showed little tension or stress in relating to their ethnic culture or to the mainstream Australian culture.

Bibliography: l. 86-95. Reports on aspects of the notion of "Antikirinya" in the Western Desert Region of South and Central Australia, in both a formal and functional sense. Focusses on how this notion has been represented in available literature (orthography), its origin and meaning (etymology) and how it seems to function in speech acts among senior Antikirinya-Yankunytjatjara speakers nowadays (sociolinguistics). Fieldwork was conducted at Karu Tjiḻpi Tjuṯaku (Ten Mile Crrek Elders' Bush Camp) north of Coober Pedy.

Chineseness at the crossroads examines how Chineseness is negotiated by diasporic Chinese women in Australia. I question the essentialist notions of Chineseness by deploying Homi Bhabha's theory of liminality. This concept of being neither here nor there helped me examine the women's ambiguous experiences of acceptance and rejection, within and across marginal and dominant Australian circles. My position disrupts the binaric frames that divide the old from the new, and the eastern from the western practices for cultural appropriation. It recognises instead the past and the present in the creation of new but familiar versions of Chineseness. I argue that essentialist norms are commuilicated through cultural semantics to inform how Chineseness is rehearsed. I assert that liminality exposes the power structures that inform these cultural semantics by disrupting the naturalised norms. I posit that the diasporic women's awareness of these interdependent processes enables them to question their practices and ideologies. I used an autoethnographic technique to collapse the divide between the researcher and the researched. It created a liminal space between the researcher and the researched. This subverted norms of the researcher as the archaeologist of knowledge by enabling the other women's narratives to tell their stories alongside mine. This methodological frame also serves as a prism to examine the intersections of gender, sexuality, family, relationships, language, education, class, age, and religion with Chineseness in the lives of the 39 Malaysian and Singaporean women interviewed. My results indicate that Chineseness is precarious and indeterminate, and specific to the particular moments of articulation at the crossroads of geopolitical and socioeconomic factors. The versions of Chineseness rehearsed are complexly influenced by the various cultural semantics that impact on the women's negotiations of who they are as diasporic Chinese women in Australia. I conclude with a discussion of how these results challenge current curriculum and pedagogical practices in English classrooms. I argue that a re-examination of these practices will contribute to a more inclusive Australia.

The Anglo-Indian community and Anglo-Indian women in particular have been described as 'mixed-race' and 'hybrid'. This study seeks to explore the identity of Anglo-Indian women through the process of migration and settlement in Australia, by following the lives of twenty-six women. Twenty of these women emigrated from India between 1963 and 1977; one arrived in Australia significantly earlier in 1947 and another significantly later, in 1996. Four women were Australian-born. This study traces their identity through their memories of life in India and the process of migration and settlement for themselves and their children, some of whom were born in Australia. Gender and ethnicity have shaped the identities of these women, which are analysed using social identity theory and self-categorisation theory. This theoretical framework is applied to the changing context of the lives of Anglo-Indian women. This context includes the traditional and historical markers of Anglo-Indian identity, skin colour, interaction between ethnic groups and the idea of 'belonging' and 'home'. Feminist theories help to analyse the gendered nature of these women's lives, both historically and in the present. The context of Anglo-Indian women's lives was initially in their country of origin, India. This context changed when they migrated to Western Australia. Intercultural exchange and interaction within the colonial context resulted in the origin and development of the Anglo-Indian community in India. The migration of Anglo-Indian women to Western Australia has resulted in intercultural exchange and socialisation with a range of groups within a 'multicultural' context. This change has impacted on their identity and that of their children. The thesis investigates aspects of identity and how migration can impact on that identity. In the case of Anglo-Indian women, they moved from an environment where Anglo-Indian identity had meaning within the Indian ethnic landscape, to Australia, where these women find they have to redefine themselves. The changed context of their lives has meant that their 'hybrid' identity has lost relevance. Many have chosen to assimilate into mainstream society or to take on aspects of their partner's ethnicity rather than maintain a separate identity. This work considers this process of adaptation to the Australian environment. Feminist and social psychological theories of identity inform much of this thesis, which utilises a qualitative approach to explore the lives of Anglo-Indian women who live in Western Australia. Anglo-Indian women have demonstrated agency in shaping and redefining their identities in the Australian environment. This process has entailed a critical analysis on the part of participants of many aspects of Angie-Indian identities. Their redefinition and negotiation of identity indicates the dynamic and contextual nature of ethnic identity. The social relevance of Anglo-Indian identity in the Australian environment is brought into question in this study, and indicates the need for new directions in identity - a challenge that is taken up in various ways by women of Anglo-Indian descent in Western Australia.

This thesis is broadly concerned with how an ethnic group defines itself through the medium of the press. It contends that newspapers do more than simply 'reflect' the experience of ethnic groups, they in fact help to 'construct' ethnic identity.
The specific focus of this study is the Italian language press and its attempts to shape the ideals of italianita of Italian migrants in Canada and Australia in the immediate post-war period. This work is based on two newspapers, Montreal's Il Cittadino Canadese and La Fiamma published in Sydney, New South Wales. All available editions from the decade 1947 to 1957 are examined in order to determine which symbols and causes were used to promote Italian ethnic cohesiveness.
In the course of this thesis, it is argued that La Fiamma used religion as the basis of its ideal of italianita, while the Italo-Canadian paper Il Cittadino Canadese made the issue of Italian political representation in Canadian government structures the basis of its quest to unite Italian migrants into an ethnic 'community'. Some possible reasons for the difference in focus between the two newspapers are presented in the conclusion. Also, suggestions are made for future comparative research between Italian ethnic communities in Canada and Australia which may help to better explain the differences laid bare in this paper.

A body of critical legal scholarship argues that, by the time they have completed their studies, students who enter legal education holding social ideals and intending to use their legal education to achieve social change, have become cynical about the ability of the law to do so and no longer possess such ideals. This is explained by critical scholars to be the result of a process of ideological indoctrination, aimed at ensuring that graduates uphold the narrow and conservative interests of the legal profession and capitalist society, being exercised by law schools acting as adjuncts of the legal profession, and exercised upon the passive body of the law student. By using Foucault’s work on knowledge, power, and the subject to interrogate the assumptions upon which this narrative is based, this thesis intends to suggest a way of thinking differently to the approach taken by many critical legal scholars. It then uses an analytics of government (based on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’) to consider the construction of the legal identity differently. It examines the ways in which the governance of the legal identity is rationalised, programmed, and implemented, in three Queensland law schools. It also looks at the way that five prescriptive texts to ‘surviving’ law school suggest students establish and practise a relation to themselves in order to construct their own legal identities. Overall, this analysis shows that governance is not simply conducted in the profession’s interests, but occurs due to a complex arrangement of different practices, which can lead to the construction of skilled legal professional identities as well as ethical lawyer-citizens that hold an interest in justice. The implications of such an analytics provide the basis for original ways of understanding legal education, and legal education scholarship.

A body of critical legal scholarship argues that, by the time they have completed their studies, students who enter legal education holding social ideals and intending to use their legal education to achieve social change, have become cynical about the ability of the law to do so and no longer possess such ideals. This is explained by critical scholars to be the result of a process of ideological indoctrination, aimed at ensuring that graduates uphold the narrow and conservative interests of the legal profession and capitalist society, being exercised by law schools acting as adjuncts of the legal profession, and exercised upon the passive body of the law student. By using Foucault’s work on knowledge, power, and the subject to interrogate the assumptions upon which this narrative is based, this thesis intends to suggest a way of thinking differently to the approach taken by many critical legal scholars. It then uses an analytics of government (based on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’) to consider the construction of the legal identity differently. It examines the ways in which the governance of the legal identity is rationalised, programmed, and implemented, in three Queensland law schools. It also looks at the way that five prescriptive texts to ‘surviving’ law school suggest students establish and practise a relation to themselves in order to construct their own legal identities. Overall, this analysis shows that governance is not simply conducted in the profession’s interests, but occurs due to a complex arrangement of different practices, which can lead to the construction of skilled legal professional identities as well as ethical lawyer-citizens that hold an interest in justice. The implications of such an analytics provide the basis for original ways of understanding legal education, and legal education scholarship.

The basis for the construction of Australian identity and citizenship in the period 1919-1969 was a sense of 'Britishness', underpinned by the 'white Australia' policy. This study of ltalians and Croatians in the Western Australian south-west timber industry shows the extent to which 'ethnic otherness', the cultural distance from Britishness so powerfully evoked by terms such as 'alien' and 'foreign', legitimated a regime of discriminatory immigration and settlement policies, regulations and practices directed at these groups. This thesis demonstrates the importance of ltalian and Croatian timber workers to the south-west timber industry. It explores their experiences in the industry as they moved from immediate marginalisation in the 1920s to severely restricted work opportunities during the depression. Their interwar segregation, coupled with war measures underpinned their utilisation as a mobile rural workforce within the industry in the war years. This set the scene for the extension of discriminatory immigration and settlement practices in the postwar years when the 'right types' of ltalians and Croatians, 'sturdy and capable of heavy work', were grudgingly encouraged into the timber industry at a time of acute labour shortages. This work explores the process of the construction of identity and a sense of 'belongingness' within the host society. The 'building blocks' to identity were negotiated primarily through the experiences of these immigrants within the timber industry, often the point of entry into the workforce in Western Australia, in the first years of settlement. Naturalisation, when this option was exercised, was usually a means to overcome economic disadvantage or to bridge cultural distance. This work poses a challenge to the historiography of citizenship, which focuses primarily on substantive rights, to re­evaluate citizenship mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion and their impact on identity construction.

This thesis is an examination of the development of ethnic, cultural and national identity among the East Timor people reaching Australia after the East Timor civil war of August 1975 . In the introduction I argue that ethnic and national identity, or ethno-nationalism, is not a natural phenomenon and that it can emerge at any moment in time owing to specific historical, socio-economic or political circumstances. I argue that during the 1974-1975 period the Portuguese- Timorese mestieo (racially mixed) elite of East Timer, principally those of Dili, of which the refugees are representative, began developing specific ethnic and nationalist ideologies in response to new political circumstances offering the people the opportunity to assert an all-embracing East Timorese identity. The chapters which follow present data and analysis in support of the initial argument and are directed to show that a combination of theoretical approaches offer a better rationale for the understanding of identity creation and development. In Chapters 2 and 3 I describe the refugees' historical, socio-economic and political background and assert that history is important for an understanding of the selective representation of myths, symbols, ideologies and instrumental tactics. In Chapters 4, 5 and 6 I examine the development of III identity against the interplay of social order, power and conflict. I direct the analysis towards the notion of negotiation of an identity within global and local political and social parameters. I examine political issues, contextual problems, personal and group motives and the re-creation and presentation of symbols, myths, ideas and beliefs. Chapter 7 shows how the search for the legitimization of an identity and political claims by nationalist individuals and the group are directed by the intelligentsia 1 s manipulation through the artistic media of specific nationalist ideologies aimed at resolving the problems of the present. In Chapter 8 I discuss the role of the Catholic Church in the politics of identity building, its position in relation to the people's demands of historical and cultural obligations, the dilemmas experienced by the Church in the face of its own tenets and the institutionalized order, and the people's teleological use of religion as techniques of political resistance. I conclude by reasserting that refugee populations such as the East Timorese in having to re-stablish their lives in an alien context would normally strive to function socially according to their perceptions of priority needs, creating in the process new subjective understandings. I stress that this also demonstrates that it is paramount to direct the analysis of ethno-nationalism through a combination of diverse theoretical approaches and that in this form one can better understand the whole set of the people's strategies for identity survival.

This thesis explores the question of intercultural personhood in two 'mainstream' Australian cases within interpersonal, intercultural relations in Australian contexts in the second half of the twentieth century. The problem is viewed through three disciplinary lenses: those of communication, psychology and sociology. A qualitative, interdisciplinary approach integrates these through an inductive biographical research design. Within cross-cultural communication studies, a host culture such as that of the Anglo-Australian majority is seen in a monolithic and static way to which Australians of other cultural backgrounds are seen to adapt. These studies give no place to the changes which members of the majority undergo. 'Intercultural personhood', a term coined by Kim (1988, 2001), describes the kinds of 'ethnic' individuals who through negotiating their identities within personal, social and mass communication contexts, both host and ethnic, move beyond the bounds of their own cultural heritage to embrace both their former cultural identity and the new 'host' (viz Australian) identity. In this thesis, the elements of cross-cultural adaptation theory and of 'intercultural personhood' are applied to the intercultural experience of 'mainstream' Australians. From preliminary memory work workshops and focus groups, the cases of two mainstream individuals who show some evidence of 'intercultural personhood' and make identity claims comparable with 'ethnic' adapters are then developed through biographical method. Their life accounts are drawn on for the exploration of issues of identity and personhood within interpersonal, intercultural relations. Major focus is given to the social psychology of Harre (1983, 1993, 1998), whose work provided both a conceptualisation and a methodological tool for the problem. In Harre's work, three dimensions of personhood, namely consciousness, agency and biography are identified together with the psycho-social processes through which an individual's identity and orientation to their culture is appropriated, transformed and publicised. This publication is then rejected or incorporated into the culture through processes of conventionalisation. These four psycho-social processes are explored in my study through an adaptation of assisted biography method (De Waele & Harre, 1979). The strength of the psycho-social approach of Harre lies in its ability to get below the surface behaviours to an analysis of the theory of self which individuals, as 'singular' beings, bring into play in their interactions within themselves and with one another. While this approach draws on social contexts to support the transformations, it is not designed to explicate to a sufficient degree the conditions under which such theories of self are activated and within which changes in identity occur and are maintained. For this reason it is essential to incorporate a sociological framework to understand the influence of the conditions within which such experiences are played out. Bourdieu's (1984, 1987) cultural, relational sociology is coupled with Harre's (1983, 1993, 1998) theory of personal and social being in that it brings together the individual and the society in a way which proves fruitful for ongoing analysis of the biographical data collected within the communication and psycho-social framework of the earlier research. Bourdieu's critique of a methodology based on biography points to the 'illusion' that is created through a biographical interview process. Taking this critique of biography into the study of interpersonal, intercultural relations meant a shift from the communication interactions and psycho-social analysis undertaken to an analysis of the various social constructions evident within the elements of the life account and a search for the cognitive imprint of social structures as durable dispositions within the persons. These dispositions are evident from within a social trajectory of the life and they are applied to the intercultural encounters recounted by the participants in their autobiographies. The addition of Bourdieu's (1984, 1987) sociology strengthens the ability to view the individual and the society through a single lens and to position the individual life course as secondary within a broader and primary analysis of social structure and social structuring as a means of interpreting lives. Its weakness lies in the degree of 'voluntariness' brought into effect as individuals both chart their course through life and are pushed and pulled by the various social forces at work within their trajectories. Within the scope of this thesis, these two approaches, that is, a psychological and a sociological one, are illustrated and incorporated into an interdisciplinary model for the study of interpersonal, intercultural relations. Further rigorous research to validate the components and the relationships of the model and to investigate these strengths and weaknesses more thoroughly is foreshadowed. This interdisciplinary model of interpersonal, intercultural relations is the major contribution of this work to the field of intercultural communication. Advances which are achieved through use of psychology, sociology and biographical research method as a tool through this study are also identified. The thesis concludes with a review of the contributions of the thesis and a discussion of the implications for future research on interpersonal, intercultural relations.

In 2007 the Curriculum Council of Western Australia (CCWA) introduced a new Visual Arts Course of Study (2007), which contains a postmodern perspective and is inclusive of social criticism, multiculturalism, feminism and non-Western art forms. In keeping with the new Visual Arts Course of Study in this Creative Visual Arts Project, I have used the CCWA course outcomes as a framework to develop a visual arts program that is a vehicle for exploring individual personal identity, and has the potential to increase self-esteem in students in Western Australian secondary schools. The research stems from my personal view that students can benefit significantly from investigating their identity, enabling them to situate their self in a stronger position in their present day life-world when they have a more definite sense of who they are and where they come from. I have placed myself in the position of ‘the subject’ in order to transfer the process into a visual art program that can be utilised within the classroom. The visual arts program is underpinned by Efland’s expressive psychoanalytic model for aesthetic learning, which posits that art is self-expression, a form of learning that contributes to emotional growth. Visual art awakens intellectual inquiry in an individual, increases cognitive potential through enabling personal liberation, and is an adjunct to informing society and culture. The research project culminates in an exegesis and an exhibition of artworks that communicate personal memories and significant historical events exclusive to my whakapapa (Maori genealogy). The artworks are a vehicle for exploring my individual self-identity, enabling me to connect more deeply with my Maori cultural roots. The research paradigm utilised is narrative inquiry, a process of collecting and structuring stories that is characteristic of the traditional Maori practice of storytelling. This project has resulted in a reinterpretation of the perception of myself within my personal life-world. I have a deeper understanding of my cross-cultural roots, a stronger sense of who I am, and a sense of empowerment. I believe Year 11 students can also achieve this outcome through the visual arts program, using it as a tool for investigating their own identity, challenging cultural, social and gender limitations that impact on them, and ultimately empowering their personal life-world.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-270) Based on 18-months fieldwork, 1997-1999, in various organisations, social clubs and radio programs that were constructed by participants and 'outsiders' as an expression of a local migrant community. Attempts to answer and challenge what it means to be a Latin American in Adelaide and in what sense Latin American migrants and refugees in Adelaide can be spoken about as members of an 'ethnic/migrant community' in relation to the official multiculturalism discourse and popular representations of migrants in Australia.

There is an abundance of books available on the topic of motherhood and mothering; the majority of these books focus on the vulnerability of babies and young children and the motherwork such vulnerability demands. In particular they focus on what it is right to do in the interests of the child, and particularly his or her growth and development. Such a focus is consistent in Western culture with modern moral frameworks where understandings of goodness have been assimilated to dimensions of human action rather than dimensions of human being, selfhood, or specific forms of life. As Charles Taylor has observed, much modern moral philosophy has focused =on what it is right to do rather than the nature of the good life‘ (1989, 13). The master narratives of motherhood and the prevailing social discourses of intensive1 and sacrificial2 mothering exemplify this view as such narratives and discourses depict =what mothers are expected to do [and] how mothers are supposed to be‘ (Nelson 2001, 140). From such infant/child-focused accounts a canonical maternal identity can be discerned; arguably, it is a restricted one. The majority of these books fail to address questions related to what it means be a mother in particular situated, existing, living realities. For instance, ask a mother with young children what being a mother means to her and she may speak of the challenges she faces balancing paid employment and her role as a mother, or the impact of the demands being made on her time and energy. However, ask a mother with young adult-children3 what being a mother means to her and she may speak in similar tones, but she may also speak in differing tones. For example, a "mature" mother may speak of the "empty nest", the "crowded house" and/or "its revolving front door". She may speak of issues related to the vulnerability of the long term marriage, elder care, or grandparenting, or even disillusionment and disenchantment. The purpose of this research is to explore the identity challenges and prospects of some mothers with young adult-children aged between 18 and 30 years of age in twenty-first century Australia. In interpreting the identity challenges and prospects this particular cohort of mothers encounter in their ordinary, everyday living, a diverse and particular range of maternal experiences.my own included5.have been traced, along with the social and ethical meanings ascribed in them. With an understanding and appreciation of voice as the medium which connects one's inner and outer worlds, this research illuminates the plurality of voices and the multiple layers of meaning in each of these mother's particular living and existing realities. Specifically, this research addresses the narrowly constructed, canonical maternal identity through a critical exploration and reflection on stories, shared in a research context, of the living realities of a group of self-identified "mature", middle-class, Australian mothers with children aged between 18 and 30 years of age6. By appraising the broader familial, historical, social, cultural, institutional, and, importantly, moral contexts in which these mothers are situated, 'thick descriptions' (Geertz 1973, 27)7 of maternal identities, and the challenges and prospects these mothers are negotiating, are provided. In terms of its ethical orientation, the frameworks which support and frame this research reject, repudiate and contest (Nelson 2001) the reduction of ethical concerns to individual or intellectual problems or dilemmas to be solved through the application of a theory derived from reasoned thinking. In dismissing deductive and =theoretical-juridical‘8 approaches, the individualistic orientation entrenched in contemporary Western moral thinking, expressed in the notion of '"what ought I to do" when faced with a problem, issue or dilemma of practical urgency' (Isaacs & Massey 1994, 1), is simultaneously rejected, repudiated and contested (Nelson 2001). In countering such understandings, this research reorients us to the illumination and articulation of who it is good to be, for each of these mothers, in allegiance with those goods which guide and inspire her orientations towards living a good life—a life which embraces and enhances the flourishing of herself and her significant others. With an understanding and appreciation that 'mind is never free of precommitment[—t]here is no innocent eye, nor is there one that penetrates aboriginal reality' (Bruner 1987, 32), this thesis is written with the voices of other interlocutors9. These interlocutors include the voices of my research participants whom I refer to as "research interlocutors", my textual "friends" — those scholars whose work resonates strongly with my orientations—as well as the myriad other voices that speak to mothers, for mothers and about mothers, such as those found in popular and mainstream press and culture. Sometimes these voices resonate; other times dissonance may be heard. In situating this research within these complementary frameworks, this research invites readers to join with me in considering, appreciating and appraising the narrow construction of maternal identity. I seek for this engagement, like the engagements with my research interlocutors, to be 'a meeting of voices, an authentic dialogue that is inclusive of the voices of all concerned participants' (Isaacs 2001, 6). I hope that the voices in this thesis resonate with yours (although, at times, you may feel some dissonance) and that together we can draw closer to the accounting, re-counting and re-stor(y)ing of maternal identities; like concentric circles of witness, the dialogue, ...will thus be expanded rippling into corners where one might both imagine, and least expect. Possibilities, then, are vast; the future exciting (Smith 2007, 397). This research is also shaped and guided by maternal scholarship, a relatively new field of inquiry known as 'motherhood studies' (O'Reilly 2011, xvii) which has its origins within the broader terrain of feminist scholarship. As a work of maternal scholarship, this thesis draws upon and continues the tradition of examining motherhood as it is experienced 'in a social context, as embedded in a political institution: in feminist terms' (Rich 1995, ix). It values mothers, their experiences, their stories, their lives. As such, this research is oriented towards 'matricentric feminism', a particular form of feminist inquiry, politics and theory which is consistent with and receptive to feminist frameworks of care and equal rights (O‘Reilly 2011, 25). A number of complementary conceptual frameworks have been engaged in this research with the thesis presented in three parts: the pre-figurative, configurative and re-configurative. As my particular living experiences provided the initial motivation for this research, an account of the challenges I experienced as a mother with young adult-children are outlined as a Prelude to this thesis. Attention then turns to Part One – Pre-figuring Maternal Identities in which the contextual, conceptual and methodological foundations underpinning this research are explored and outlined. In Chapter One, the prevailing cultural narratives and social discourses supporting and shaping the construction of the canonical maternal identity are outlined. Next, in setting the scholarly context, the critiques — arising from feminist and maternal scholarship — of motherhood as a patriarchal institution, mothering as experience, and mothering as work, are explored. As this research engaged with participants who are embedded in particular middle-class, heterosexual, familial and cultural structures, an exploration of family life cycle theory and main stream media accounts are also incorporated. The terrain in which "mature" mothering within an Australian context is experienced is also outlined, including the notions of "empty nests" and "crowded houses", grandparenting, elder care and women's midlife transition. Chapter Two gives an account of the conceptual ontological, ethical, identity and narrative frameworks underpinning this research. In setting the context for rich interpretations, the characteristics of being human10 are outlined before attention turns to our embodiment and embeddedness in our shared human condition11. From this point, attention then turns to understanding the moral form of human living12. In appreciating the vulnerability inherent in our shared human condition, the ways in which we may experience trouble in our lives is noted. The framing of identity constitution13 as complex, multi-faceted, relationally negotiated and composed is then outlined, followed by an understanding of why narrative is a valuable interpretive tool for interpreting and understanding human experiences. This chapter concludes with an appreciation of the ethical significance of storytelling. The research methodology is then outlined in Chapter Three. The rationale underpinning the adoption of the narrative interviewing technique of in-depth interviewing is explored. In exploring these methodological frameworks, the recruitment and interview processes involved in gathering and interpreting the recorded transcripts of ten Australian mothers with young adult-children are outlined. The method of analysis known as the Listening Guide14 best complements the multi-layered, pluri-vocal nature of narrative accounting. The final section of Chapter Three outlines The Guide, with one mother's recorded transcript used to illustrate this method's step-by-step process. Having gathered an understanding and appreciation of the pluri-vocal, multi-layered nature of narrative and identity constitution, the tone of this thesis changes in Part Two . Configuring Maternal Identities. This section consists of Chapters Four and Five and seeks to find meaning in, and make sense of, the differences and commonalities across these particular accounts. Chapter Four explores the living realities of four Australian mothers with young adult-children: Poppy, Honey, Lily and Heather. In presenting a thick description of these mothers' situated realities, the frameworks.the familial, social, cultural, historical and institutional backgrounds.which have supported and shaped each mother's experiences are illuminated. Simultaneously revealed through these particular accounts are the plurality of goods focusing and moving each mother to the moral form of life, a life of meaning and purpose. The harms challenging some mothers' moral motivations are also revealed in this chapter. Specifically illustrated in Chapter Four are the unique and qualitative differences of particular maternal identity configurations. Chapter Five reveals the commonalities amongst all of the research interlocutors' accounts. This chapter contests the individualistic orientation of many contemporary accounts of motherhood which are aimed at defining or contesting what a "good" mother ought to do. By turning away from such individualistic orientations, the chapter does not seek to define 'the content of obligation' (Taylor 1989, 3) but rather seeks to illuminate and articulate a richer, deeper understanding and appreciation of maternal be-ing and be-coming - that is, who it is good to be, for each of these mothers - in allegiance with those goods that focus and inspire her moral motivations. Part Three - Re-Configuring Maternal Identities, which is comprised of Chapter Six, draws this thesis to a close. In this final chapter, the preconceptions, conditions and aspirations for this mother-centred account of the living realities of a small, local cohort of mothers are reiterated. The insights gathered from the rich, descriptive accounts are illuminated and articulated, and the chapter closes with some suggestions for future research. In a Postlude, I reflect on how this research has been a transformative learning experience in my own life.an experience in which I have been able to not only deeply understand and appreciate the challenges and disorientation I was experiencing but also to identify and reorient my stance in relation to the good. In a practical sense, by offering thick descriptions of the living realities of this cohort of "mature" mothers, this research challenges the canonical maternal identity and questions its relevance for, and effect on, "mature" mothers' identity constitution. By bringing to light the complex existing realities of these particular mothers, this research critiques the canonical maternal identity by illustrating that each mother's life and her identity constitutions are complex, relationally negotiated and composed and that motherhood is an enduring way of being. Through these illustrations, this research engages with and extends understandings of difference feminism. This research, however, not only rejects, repudiates and contests (Nelson 2001) the narrowly defined canonical maternal identity. By illuminating and articulating the goods which shape and inspire these "mature" mothers' motherwork, this research offers a matricentric account which is consistent with and respectful of the particular, situated realities—the broader familial, social, institutional, but most importantly, moral values and frameworks—in which each mother‘s life is embedded and her motherwork oriented. By understanding and appreciating the complex and multiple webs of relationships in which each mother exists, this matricentric re-stor(y)ing of maternal experiences not only understands and appreciates the unique nature of each mother‘s existing realities, it is oriented to the continuing enhancing of the shared pursuit of the good which underpins particular maternal practices and particular maternal ways of being.

This thesis examines the construction of ?Chineseness? by Australian-born Chinese through their interactions with mainstream ?white? society and Chinese diasporic communities in Australia. It represents an interdisciplinary study based on qualitative research and critical analysis of forty-three in-depth interviews with Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia for three generations or more. Diasporic narratives, fraught with contentions over belonging and difference, often lead to ambiguous ramifications of identity formation. While the notion of hybridity problematises the unsettling boundaries of identities, there is still a continuing perception that ethnic identification decreases over successive generations, resulting in assimilation. However, contrary to this assumption, this study shows that subsequent generations also encounter complicated experiences involving both feelings of cultural ambivalence and enrichment. While the rewriting of identity takes place against the varying circumstances of resettlement, the experiences and transitions across the respondents? life course concurrently inscribes Chineseness onto their lives in diverse ways. Furthermore, Chineseness is continually (re)constructed through decentered connections with an imaginary homeland. Consequently, despite generational longevity, strong affinities with Australian society and longstanding national identities grounded in Australian culture, Chineseness is still a significant part of their identity, whether they willingly choose to associate with it or not. The focus on revaluating the concept of Chineseness and elucidating the sense of identity of sequential generations has important ramifications for the development of a more informed theoretical model for understanding the long-term effects of migration, especially on the process of identity formation and feelings of home and belonging.

Bibliography: leaves 337-354.
ix, 354, 123 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Critically reviews the many and varied representations of Aboriginal Dreaming narratives that have appeared in print since Australia's colonisation. A special focus is the writings of Ngarrindjeri man, David Unaipon. Dreaming narratives contain knowledge, and all knowledge systems are influenced by the circumstances in which they emerge. Challenges those with an interest in representing indigenous knowledge in print to respect the rights of the indigenous owners, and to strive to maintain the integrity of their texts.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Adelaide University, Dept. of European Studies, 2001

Bibliography: leaves 337-354.
ix, 354, 123 leaves ; 30 cm.
Critically reviews the many and varied representations of Aboriginal Dreaming narratives that have appeared in print since Australia's colonisation. A special focus is the writings of Ngarrindjeri man, David Unaipon. Dreaming narratives contain knowledge, and all knowledge systems are influenced by the circumstances in which they emerge. Challenges those with an interest in representing indigenous knowledge in print to respect the rights of the indigenous owners, and to strive to maintain the integrity of their texts.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Adelaide University, Dept. of European Studies, 2001

Australian historicity is built on the absence of the Aboriginal subjective experience. The Right to Dream explores the temporal consequence of the imposition of the homogenous Aborigine, a social and political construction that effectively annihilated the right to exist as individual bodies within the earth space and its consequence on the well being of Indigenous peoples upon whom it was imposed. The Right to Dream is especially an attempt to understand my own subjective experience as an Aborigine in the land now known as Australia, and process that would in the words of Dr. Aileen Moreton-Robinson, propel me from being the known to the knower. The assimilation of the Indigenous body by western language has had devastating affects on the body as well as the land, and it is in this context that this thesis explores the notion of destruction of Indigenous peoples, their cultures and physical, spiritual, and emotional well being as being synonymous to the consequent destruction of their lands, marked by the loss of Indigenous languages throughout the country now known as Australia.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This is a study of urban Aboriginal ideology, conducted in Adelaide, South Australia. It addresses the issue of Aboriginal identity and argues that in order to understand the Aboriginal sense of self it is necessary to examine the tension between history, ideas, dispositions and social practice in the context of the objective conditions of daily life. The thesis is that there exists among Aborigines in Adelaide an ideational system they refer to as the "Blackfella Way". An overview of the structure and content of the Blackfella Way in terms of its two distinct and complementary dimensions, essence and style, is presented. It is argued that this system is an historical, cognitive and social construction which synthesizes the tone, texture, style, and mood of life and provides a conceptual and practical framework through which individuals formulate, think about &mi act in the world. The process whereby the ideational system is translated into ideology and the structural position of Aborigines in Adelaide reproducer :s also examined. Consideration is given to the ways in which social and ideological formations mediate the influence of external events and forces and shape human practice are explored. It is argued that through the process of symbolic violence, the limitations of the objective conditions become internalized and appropriated. Objective conditions thus inform and frame the ideological system which Aboriginal actors produce, reproduce and which ultimately reproduces the existing imbalance of power.

Since the early days of the colonization of Australia, governments have established commissions and committes of inquiry to investigate and to provide them with advice about solutions to the Aboriginal 'problem'.' These inquiries, as Woenne notes, have also had an educative aspect, informing the general public of the 'true state of affairs' of the Aboriginal situation, (woenne 1979:324-56) The passing of the 1967 referendum and the establishment of Aboriginals as an issue of public interest has seen an increasing reliance by governments on the advisory and educative functions of such inquiries. Current policies of self-determination and self-management have contributed to this trend as governments have established inquiries to consult with Aborigines and provide them with advice that ostensibly reflects Aboriginal needs and desires. Despite this trend there are few studies of such inquiries. (Woenne 1979 and Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies 1984) This thesis is about one of these inquiries, that of the House of Representatives Standing Committed on Aboriginal Affairs into fringe-dwelling Aboriginal communities.

This thesis examines the counseiUng needs of ethnic migrant groups, in particular the counselling needs of Maltese-Australian females and their female descendants. Research indicates that some Maltese migrants in Australia have experienced acculturation difficulties. Maltese- Australian women record a high prevalence of depression. Reports indicate that children of Maltese- Australian migrants experience lower self- esteem and more parent-child conflict than their Anglo- Australian peers. Research indicates that some members of the Maltese- Australian community, in particular Maltese -Australian females experience more mental illness than other groups and that this may be attached to experiences of unresolved acculturation stress. Children of Maltese- Australian females are at risk of being affected by trans-generational acculturation stress Theraputic interventions for Maltese-Australian females need to target specific cultural needs, identity confusion and experiences of unresolved acculturation stress. An integrated trans- theoretical model of counselling was recommended and included a culturally focused Narrative, Existential and Family therapeutic model for Maltese- Australian females and their female descendants.

For 35 years, Aboriginal self-determination policy privileged local autonomy in the autonomy-relatedness dynamic central to Aboriginal sociality. This privileging brought a major change to Aboriginal sociality and collective identity. The self in self-determination policy had a strongly local focus through which it was thought community development would thrive. Key connected factors in the privileging of local autonomy are socio-cultural reification, juridification and entification. The reification is with respect to identity associated with land-based tradition. All three of these factors are contrary to the profound processes of relatedness in the Australian Aboriginal domain. The so-called intervention by the Commonwealth into Northern Territory Aboriginal affairs in 2007 dramatically changed the policy settings in the NT at least. But local autonomy remains privileged over relatedness. As such, this thesis argues, the foundation for an Aboriginal civil society able to negotiate the now very fluid policy environment and make the most of the opportunities presented in community development projects like the thesis case studies in fact remains generally weak. The thesis argues that recognition of relatedness is the basis of civil society in the Aboriginal domain and a key to improvements in Australian Aboriginal communities, without dismissing local autonomy. The common good inherent in community development is limited without this recognition. So is cultural match, said to be important in development project governance in the Indigenous domain. The thesis examines these matters through three case studies, community development projects that use moneys paid to Aboriginal people from the use of Aboriginal land for mining and a national park. An important finding is that autonomy-relatedness balance reflected in the governance arrangements of community development projects is needed for Aboriginal people to properly identify with the projects and thus participate meaningfully in them in order to realise tangible and sustainable community benefits from them. Meanwhile, commercial development like mining continues to favour the certainty afforded in the localising factors of reification, juridification and entification. Aboriginal self-determination has been characterised as a policy of disengagement of wider society from Aboriginal people. Consistent with this, and again contrary to relatedness, an underlying theme in the thesis is that of separation. As well as the disengagement of the policy, this separation includes the separation of some Aboriginal people from other Aboriginal people arising from locally emplaced identity, tradition from modernity and community development from economic development and the market economy. At this level, the thesis points to the importance of an intercultural approach to development entertaining the notion of hybridity including that of the hybrid economy. This is not to deny the benefits of self-determination policy over its policy predecessors, much less to suggest a return to assimilation policy in particular, but to suggest some ways to help resolve the serious problems still facing remote Aboriginal communities as well as to flag the limitations of community development in this context.

The study uses racialisation as a lens to understand the racist experiences of ordinary Asian Australians. It examines the racialisation processes underlying these experiences and explores the strategies employed to respond to and mitigate the impact of being racialised. It addresses the need to develop the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of racialisation and anti-racism in light of the dearth of research work on these especially in Australia. Different elements from various theories were drawn to frame the empirical investigation since no single theory was adequate as anchor for this qualitative study. In-depth interviews and focus groups with 64 Asian Australians generated rich narratives that provided interesting insights on the personal, political, and spiritual dimensions of human experience that connect the lives of racialised subjects. Deconstructing stories of racialised subjects laid bare the essence of racist experiences by revealing insights into when and how race becomes a salient signifier of difference. Racialisation provides a productive way of understanding racist experiences since it allows for the unpacking of the multi-layered linked processes of racial categorisation, racial differentiation and problematisation, marginalisation and exclusion, inferiorisation and devaluation. These processes are ordinarily part of the experiences of minority people. They constitute what can be called 'everyday racialisation'. The study uses stress-coping theory to examine the long-term and cumulative impact of being part of a racialised group. It shows how exposure to racism stressors has multifarious effects on the health and well-being of racialised subjects. The everyday racialisation of minority groups affects their socio-psychological functioning and limits the life chances and economic opportunities available to them. In addition, the study demonstrates how Asian Australians cope with the stress of their everyday racialisation by drawing from their personal repertoire of discursive, cognitive and behavioural strategies. These, in combination with outside support mechanisms, make up what can be termed ?everyday anti-racism? strategies. Racialisation provides valuable insights into when, how and why racialised subjects deploy these different strategies to negotiate, contest and bridge the constraints and boundaries imposed on them. The study offers an integrated model for understanding racialisation experience and lays the foundation for developing further the concepts of 'everyday racialisation' and 'everyday antiracism'.

B.A. Santamaria is perhaps Australia's best-known thinker who happens to be of an Italian descent and culture. While much has been written about this important thinker, very little of this writing has focused on his background and the Italian descent and culture from which he originated. This doctorate is an historical exploration into the person of B.A. Santamaria, with a strong focus on his Italian descent and culture. This thesis looks at the question of Social Exclusion that applied to Italians in general, and in particular to B.A. Santamaria. While mentioning the Australian Labor Party split of 1954-1955, this doctorate is more concerned with episodes pertaining to Santamaria's background: Italian migrants, the Aeolian Community, fascism, anti-fascism, the internment of Italian migrants, the land settlement schemes of the National Catholic Rural Movement and Santamaria's own admission later in life that his ideas were a product of his Italian background. When looking at the ideas and organizations in Australia started by B.A. Santamaria, this doctorate looks closely at this connection to his Italian background. Finally the question is asked if B.A. Santamaria was our Italian-Australian hero. Overall, this doctorate hopes to portray a more complete picture of B.A. Santamaria by including and emphasizing his Italian background and the problems he may have encountered in his work because of this background. It also highlights the social exclusion of Italians in Australia by focusing on B.A. Santamaria.

In this thesis I describe two key symbols of Vietnamese ethnic identity in Canberra, namely flag and family where flag represents the Vietnamese love of homeland and commitment to continue the struggle for freedom, and family relations between kin based on generosity and reciprocity coupled with unquestioned authority and respect for elders. These are markers of ethnic distinctiveness deployed by Vietnamese to distinguish themselves from the Anglo-Celtic majority and other minority groups arriving in Australia from Indochina. I examine how the collective and particularistic aspects of both are worked out through the commercial production and presentation of food - an "authentic" cultural product - marketed by Vietnamese restauranteurs in an Australian context.

A ‘quintessentially Australian’ feature of English (Rendle-Short, 2009: 245), vocative 'mate' has commonly been said to carry a special connection with Australian identity and culture (e.g. Wierzbicka, 1997). However, precisely how this can be measured within a population is yet to be established. This paper analyses the reported use of the address term 'mate' by Australians of a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) and its relation to self-perceived ethnic identity. Data was collected from 101 participants of varying ethnic backgrounds using a written questionnaire observing self-reported use of 'mate' and attitudes towards its use. Results demonstrate that, overall, usage patterns for NESB Australians are similar to those found for Australians of an English speaking background (Rendle-Short, 2009), with significant variation in use across gender groups. Though they reported using the term less overall, females using 'mate' claimed to do so with a greater range of addressees than male respondents, reporting a use pertaining less to the ‘traditional’ masculine and Anglo-Celtic associations of 'mate' (Rendle-Short, 2009; Wierzbicka, 1997; Wilkes, 1985) and suggesting a more innovative use of the vocative. This would follow the widely accepted notion that young females are the most innovative within a community in situations of ongoing language change (Labov, 1990; Trudgill, 1972). The influence of identity in language use is widely accepted in sociolinguistic work and it has been proposed that ‘individuals whose ethnic identity is important to them will show more ethnic marking in their language than those who have chosen to assimilate within the dominant group’ (Clyne, Eisikovits & Tollfree, 2001: 226). This claim has however been made without a means for measuring ethnic identity. Such has been developed by Hoffman and Walker (2010) with an ‘Ethnic Orientation (EO) Survey’. As applied in the present study, the survey featured questions relating to ethnicity and community language use. Based on answers to 33 questions, respondents were assigned an overall EO score along a continuum and sorted into ‘low’, ‘mid’ and ‘high’ EO groups, with those scoring highly said to identify strongly with their ethnic heritage, those scoring lower identifying with it less, and so, presumably relating more to an Australian identity. EO was found to correlate with reported use of vocative 'mate', and actually offered a better account than groupings based on time spent in Australia. Respondents in the high EO group claimed to use the vocative less often than those in the low EO group, where the term was also used across a broader range of addressees, including females and other members of the same ethnic group. This would suggest a more widespread and innovative use for some participants, stepping away from the term’s traditional sense of masculine and Anglo-Celtic exclusivity. Results indicate that for the NESB Australians studied here perceived use of vocative 'mate' is associated with affiliation to Australian society, many seeing it as a tool of assimilation. As one participant wrote: ‘['mate'] gives a sense of an Australian identity despite my skin colour’ (female, 24, second generation, low EO)

As argued in this thesis, a Macedonian-Australian identity is an elusive and evolving category. Nonetheless, the various Macedonian-Australian institutions and organisations, as well as the activities that they perform, described in this thesis, give definition and shape to a distinctive Macedonian identity. The thesis argues that Macedonian identity is not fixed, but is the product of lived experience and engagement with the issues that confront them in the modern context. This identity is not a static fusion of discrete 'traditional' and 'modern' identities, which come together to constitute another (composite) self-contained identity. Rather, the Macedonian-Australian identity is viewed as representing dynamic processes of 'negotiation' between various cross-cutting trajectories, that are constructed in response to changing social and cultural circumstances. The thesis describes these processes as they are enacted in the Australian context, including the contestation Macedonian identity that was part of what has come to be known as 'the Greek- Macedonian debate'. The thesis argues that Macedonians draw on their historic heritage and culture, as well as on elements that are part of their lives in Australia, in order to construct an evolving identity unlike any other. The thesis also poses some important questions about the future development of a tolerant and democratic multicultural policy for Australia.

This thesis is an exploration of the ethnic identity negotiation of a group of second generation Vietnamese young persons in Perth, and aims to uncover the content of ethnic identity; in other words, “what it means” and “what it looks like” to be Vietnamese or Australian. Adopting an interpretive narrative approach as research methodology, this research focuses on the familial and social experiences of this group of participants in uncovering dimensions of their ethnic identification and ethnic identity formation. Twenty second generation Vietnamese youth were invited to share their stories of growing up in Australia; this included ten male and ten female young persons. Using unstructured narrative interviews, this research explores the socio-cultural dimensions of their life experience as they navigate their transition into adulthood.Findings from this research suggest that the participants identify concomitantly as Vietnamese and Australian, giving strength to the notion that ethnic identity is but one of a multitude of social identities. The participants’ narratives also reveal that country of birth; cultural values and practices; ethnic socialization; and language spoken are dimensions salient to their ethnic identity formation process. In exploring their familial experiences, it was revealed that a disparity in values existed between the participants and their parents. This disparity often resulted in parent-child conflict during the participants’ adolescent years, in turn affecting their ethnic identity negotiation.Whilst it is acknowledged that the participants’ stories are not representative of all second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth, I argue that the Vietnamese in Perth are on an upward trajectory and have successfully integrated into the Australian mainstream culture. More importantly, their stories demonstrate that these young persons are skilful navigators as they negotiate between the two cultures. That is, rather than being caught “between” two cultures, these young persons are active members of both.