Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Italians Race identity Australia'

Although the ‘White Australia policy’ was officially rejected over 40 years ago, this thesis argues that it continues to influence notions of belonging in Australia today. While racial exclusion from the national community was once achieved through discretionary mechanisms embedded in migration laws and policy, today, it is achieved through Australian citizenship laws and policy. This thesis critically examines the package of law reforms introduced in 2007, which subsequently became the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) (‘ACA’). It explores the extent to which Australian citizenship law enables or limits culturally diverse expressions of belonging in a liberal, multicultural and democratic nation. The thesis is underpinned by a critical race theory approach, which understands the relationship between law and culture as mutually constitutive. That is, it sees the law as not only reflecting social norms but participating in their production and reinforcement. The thesis draws out ways that Australian citizenship laws mobilise narratives of belonging which construct a racialised Australian national imaginary. Using a range of interdisciplinary approaches (including legal analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis and critical legal geography), the thesis identifies and analyses narratives about belonging circulating in three significant fields of public discourse; legal, political and media discourse. It argues that these public discourses articulate the meaning of the legal status of citizenship through racially exclusionary narratives about Australian values and an ‘Australian way of life’. The thesis argues that Australian citizenship law is an increasingly important site used to produce and sustain a racially exclusionary national imaginary. It analyses how narratives about Australian citizenship status are increasingly articulated in opposition to migrants generally, but the Muslim Other in particular. These racialised narratives of belonging are conveyed through decisions made under the ACA. Having identified how the law mobilises narratives which produce and sustain a White national imaginary, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity is used to identify some possible citizenship counter-narratives. It concludes that, contrary to official statements, Australian citizenship status does not facilitate an inclusive notion of national belonging. Instead, it is a mechanism that produces and sustains a White national imaginary.

This PhD presentation comprises two pieces of work: I The Italian Diaspora in Australia and Representations of Italy and Italians in Australian Narrative (Research thesis) II An Olive Branch for Sante (A novel) ................... In the Introduction of my research titled: Diaspora: A Theoretical Review, I look at the evolution of diasporic Studies and how the great movements of people that have occurred in the past one hundred and fifty years have altered our perception of what is undoubtedly a global phenomenon. In Chapter One, which I have titled: In Search of an Italian Diaspora in Australia, I consider the kinds of socio-cultural nuclei that have evolved among the Italian population of Australia, out of the mass migration which occurred largely in the post war years. I discuss Italian migration as a whole, the historical and political conditions which brought about mass migration and the subsequent dispersion of Italian nationals, their regrouping into various clusters and how these fit into the patchwork that is the contemporary Australian society. Finally I review the conditions in the host country which facilitated or hindered particular socio-cultural formations and how these may differ from those occurring in other countries. Chapter Two deals with, The Narrative of Non-Italian Writers. The chapter looks at the images and myths of Italy perpetrated in the literature written by English-speaking authors over the centuries. I begin with the legacy left by British writers such as E.M. Forster, then move on to Australian writers of non-Italian background, such as Judah Waten, Nino Culotta (John O' Grady) and Helen Garner. In Chapter Three: Italo-Australian Writers, I focus on two writers: Venero Armanno and Melina Marchetta, both born in Australia of Italian parents. This section ties in with the earlier discourse on the continuity of the Italian Diaspora in Australia, into the second and subsequent generations. In Chapter Four, titled: Literature of Nostalgia: The Long Journey, I will reflect upon my own journey as a writer, beginning with my earlier work, including the short stories and the plays, and concluding with a close look at the present novel, which is a companion piece to the research. The novel complements the research in that it deals with the eternal issues of migration: displacement, change and identity. The protagonists are two young people: Ira-Jane and Sante. The first is not a migrant, but she is touched by migration, insofar as an old Italian couple play grandparents to her, in the early years of her life. When they return to Sicily the child is left with her neglectful and unstable mother. At age twenty-four Ira-Jane goes to Sicily on an assignment, and there she tries to get in touch with her 'grandparents'. She meets up with eighteen-year-old Sante who turns out to be her half brother. The novel's structure juxtaposes two countries, two cultures, two way of looking at the world. It sets up a series of contrasts: the old society and the new, past and present, tradition and innovation, stability and change, repression and freedom. The end of the novel proposes a symbolic bridging between two countries, which are similar in some ways, very different in others. It offers not a solution but a different approach to the eternal dilemma of people living in a diaspora, inhabiting an indefinite space between two countries and for whom home will always be somewhere else.

This PhD presentation comprises two pieces of work: I The Italian Diaspora in Australia and Representations of Italy and Italians in Australian Narrative (Research thesis) II An Olive Branch for Sante (A novel) ................... In the Introduction of my research titled: Diaspora: A Theoretical Review, I look at the evolution of diasporic Studies and how the great movements of people that have occurred in the past one hundred and fifty years have altered our perception of what is undoubtedly a global phenomenon. In Chapter One, which I have titled: In Search of an Italian Diaspora in Australia, I consider the kinds of socio-cultural nuclei that have evolved among the Italian population of Australia, out of the mass migration which occurred largely in the post war years. I discuss Italian migration as a whole, the historical and political conditions which brought about mass migration and the subsequent dispersion of Italian nationals, their regrouping into various clusters and how these fit into the patchwork that is the contemporary Australian society. Finally I review the conditions in the host country which facilitated or hindered particular socio-cultural formations and how these may differ from those occurring in other countries. Chapter Two deals with, The Narrative of Non-Italian Writers. The chapter looks at the images and myths of Italy perpetrated in the literature written by English-speaking authors over the centuries. I begin with the legacy left by British writers such as E.M. Forster, then move on to Australian writers of non-Italian background, such as Judah Waten, Nino Culotta (John O' Grady) and Helen Garner. In Chapter Three: Italo-Australian Writers, I focus on two writers: Venero Armanno and Melina Marchetta, both born in Australia of Italian parents. This section ties in with the earlier discourse on the continuity of the Italian Diaspora in Australia, into the second and subsequent generations. In Chapter Four, titled: Literature of Nostalgia: The Long Journey, I will reflect upon my own journey as a writer, beginning with my earlier work, including the short stories and the plays, and concluding with a close look at the present novel, which is a companion piece to the research. The novel complements the research in that it deals with the eternal issues of migration: displacement, change and identity. The protagonists are two young people: Ira-Jane and Sante. The first is not a migrant, but she is touched by migration, insofar as an old Italian couple play grandparents to her, in the early years of her life. When they return to Sicily the child is left with her neglectful and unstable mother. At age twenty-four Ira-Jane goes to Sicily on an assignment, and there she tries to get in touch with her 'grandparents'. She meets up with eighteen-year-old Sante who turns out to be her half brother. The novel's structure juxtaposes two countries, two cultures, two way of looking at the world. It sets up a series of contrasts: the old society and the new, past and present, tradition and innovation, stability and change, repression and freedom. The end of the novel proposes a symbolic bridging between two countries, which are similar in some ways, very different in others. It offers not a solution but a different approach to the eternal dilemma of people living in a diaspora, inhabiting an indefinite space between two countries and for whom home will always be somewhere else.

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.

The formation of ethnic and racial identity is important psychologically. Mainstream psychological theory and research on identity has been criticised for its failure to adequately address the lived experiences of historically marginalised groups in society. The purpose of my research was to centre the experience of one such group, through an exploration of how coloured South African women living in Western Australia construct their identities focusing on the dimensions of race and ethnicity. There is a dearth of research in Australia with migrants of mixed racial backgrounds. This work was seen as an important contribution to expanding the diversity of research on processes of racial and ethnic identity construction. My interest was in examining not only the labels by which these women elected to identify, but also the socio-political, historical and cultural resources they drew on in constructing their identities in the context of emigration from a historically oppressive and disempowering context, to one with different socio-historical and political structures. Drawing on a feminist framework and with the aim of giving voice to the women and examining their processes of meaning-making, I utilised a qualitative research design. I conducted unstructured conversational interviews with 22 expatriate coloured South African women residing in Western Australia. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was the technique adopted to analyse the interviews and explore how the women made meaning of their subjective experiences. In relation to colouredness, there was diversity in the ways the women negotiated, managed and positioned their identities. The narratives showed that they drew on a range of historical, political and social resources in making meaning of and situating coloured in the process of constructing their identities. What the women knew and understood of our country of origin's history of slavery and colonialism, along with their awareness and life experiences under apartheid, were significant influences on their construction of ancestry. In turn, these understandings of our history and ancestral origins were important in how they made sense of culture as it related to our community of origin, with the narratives on culture illustrating multiplicity, ambivalence and contradictions. The narratives also showed that the women drew on multiple categories for identification aside from coloured, including black, mixed race, South African, South African born-Australian, woman and person. There are complex historical, sociopolitical and contextual dynamics around the negotiation and construction of these multiple identities. While the women have increased freedoms for identity construction in the Australian context, there are also external constraints on these freedoms, which impact on the identity choices they have available to them. These limitations on the women's freedoms for self-determination need to be viewed within the wider context of social relations of power and privilege, and notions of race as they operate in the Australian context. Despite these constraints however, the women evidence agency and resilience in managing and re-negotiating their multiple identities, and forging a sense of belongingness. I position my findings within the broader context of literature and frameworks on identity. I argue for the relevance and importance of a historically, political1y and contextually grounded conceptualisation of identity construction. To conclude, I draw implications from the findings for psychological theory and research on identity construction and outline my hopes for future research.

This paper explores Psychological Sense of Community (PSC) in the Jewish adolescent population of Perth. The main aim was to investigate the differences between student attending the private Jewish School (Carmel) or another school within the metropolitan area. Participants were recruited from Carmel School, W A Maccabi (Jewish sport club) and by using a snowball sampling technique. The total sample included 167 students (60 males and 107 females) in years 10, II and 12. Participants' PSC was assessed by the modified Sense of Community Index (SCI). Results showed significantly higher PSC in Carmel students (ᵽ< .05), males (ᵽ< .01) and Somewhat observant individuals (ᵽ< .0 I). No relationship was found between PSC and whether one lived in the central Jewish suburbs. The relationship between PSC and length of time lived in the community was not a positive, linear one as expected. Results that were contrary to those in the literature may be effected by the community's traditional gender stereotypes and high numbers of migrants. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Dans les années 1990, l’Australie met en place une politique de réconciliation s’étalant sur dix ans et visant à développer une meilleure relation entre Australiens aborigènes et non-aborigènes. Cette politique est fondée sur la reconnaissance de l’existence continue de tensions entre les deux communautés, et ce malgré une plus grande reconnaissance de la place des Aborigènes en Australie depuis les années 1970. La relation complexe entre Australiens aborigènes et non-aborigènes – en particulier "blancs" et dont les origines sont anglo-celtes – est le résultat du processus de colonisation, des politiques ultérieures conçues pour contrôler la population aborigène, et de la domination des Aborigènes par l’Australie "blanche" au cours de l’histoire. Du fait des politiques discriminatoires, de nombreuses familles aborigènes décidèrent de cacher leurs origines et de se faire passer pour blanches. De nombreux enfants métisses à la peau claire furent enlevés à leurs familles et perdirent leurs liens avec leurs familles aborigènes. Aujourd’hui, un nombre grandissant d’Australiens choisissent de revendiquer leur identité Aborigène et de reprendre possession d’un héritage dont ils ont été privés. Mais si avoir des origines aborigènes n’est plus source de honte, en revanche, le chemin à parcourir pour retrouver son identité aborigène peut être difficile. Cette étude analyse les parcours identitaires de onze Australiens élevés dans une culture "blanche" anglo-celte et qui ont des origines aborigènes. L’analyse de leurs perceptions de l’identité aborigène révèle la prédominance des discours "blancs" sur les Aborigènes en Australie aujourd’hui, mais aussi la présence de discours essentialistes restreignant la définition de l’identité aborigène, et maintenant utilisés par la communauté aborigène afin de contrôler cette définition. L’analyse de la relation d’opposition entre Aborigènes et Australiens "blancs" dans l’Australie contemporaine révèle la difficulté à revendiquer à la fois des origines "blanches" et "noires", ainsi que des identités multiples
In the 1990s, Australia set up a ten-year policy of reconciliation aiming at developing a better relationship between Indigenous people and the wider Australian community. This policy was based on the recognition of the enduring dichotomy between both communities despite an increasing acknowledgement of the place of Indigenous people in Australia since the 1970s. The complex relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – and especially ‘white’ Anglo-Celtic Australians – is the result of the process of colonisation, of the subsequent policies designed to control Indigenous people, and of the historical domination of ‘white’ Australia over Indigenous people. As a result of discriminatory policies, many Indigenous families decided to hide their heritage and ‘passed’ into ‘white’ society. Many mixed-race and fair-skinned children were taken from their families and lost their connection with their Indigenous relatives. Today, an increasing number of Australians choose to identify as Indigenous and to reclaim a heritage they were deprived of. But although having Indigenous heritage is no longer regarded as shameful, the road back to Indigeneity can be a difficult one. This study is the analysis of the identity journeys of eleven Australians who were raised in a ‘white’, Anglo-Celtic Australian culture and who have Indigenous heritage. Their perceptions of Indigeneity are analysed to reveal the dominance of ‘white’ discourses about Indigeneity in today’s Australia, but also the presence of restricting essentialist discourses now used by the Indigenous community to keep control over the definition of Indigenous identity. The analysis of the oppositional relationship between Indigenous and ‘white’ Australians in contemporary Australia reveals the difficulty of embracing both ‘white’ and ‘black’ heritages and of claiming multiple identities

"Warriors and Wanderers: Making Race in the Tasman World, 1769-1840" is an exploration of the development of racial thought in Australia and New Zealand from the period of first contact between British and the respective indigenous peoples to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. It analyses four groups of primary documents: the journals and published manuscripts of James Cook's Pacific voyages; An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales by David Collins published in 1798; documents written by and about Samuel Marsden, colonial chaplain in New South Wales and the father of the first mission to New Zealand; and the Reports from the British House of Commons Select Committee into the Treatment of Aborigines in the British Empire from 1835 to 1837. This study employs a transnational methodology and explores the early imperial history of the two countries as a Tasman world of imperial activity. It argues that ideas of human difference and racial thought had important material effects for the indigenous peoples of the region, and were critical to the design of colonial projects and ongoing relationships with both Maori and Aboriginal people, influencing the countries; and their national historiographies, right up to the present day. Part 1 examines the journals of James Cook's three Pacific voyages, and the ideas about Maori and Aboriginal people which were developed out them. The journals and published books of Cook's Pacific voyages depicted Maori as a warrior race living in hierarchical communities, people who were physically akin to Europeans and keen to interact with the voyagers, and who were understood to change their landscape as well as to defend their land, people who, I argue, were depicted as sovereign owners of their land. In Australia encounter was completely different, characterised by Aboriginal people's strategic use of withdrawal and observation, and British descriptions can be characterised as an ethnology of absence, with skin colour dominating documentation of Aboriginal people in the Endeavour voyage journals. Aboriginal withdrawal from encounter with the British signified to Banks that Aboriginal people had no defensive capability. Assumptions of low population numbers and that Aboriginal people did not change their landscape exacerbated this idea, and culminated in the concept that Aboriginal people were not sovereign owners of their country. Part 2 examines debates informing the decision to colonise the east coast of Australia through the evidence of Joseph Banks and James Matra to the British Government Committee on Transportation. The idea that Aboriginal people would not resist settlement was a feature not only of this expert evidence but dominated representation of the Sydney Eora community in David Collins's An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, such that Aboriginal attacks on the settlement were not said to be resistance. A report of the kidnapping of two Muriwhenua Maori men by Norfolk Island colonial authorities was also included in Collins Account, relaying to a British audience a Maori view of their own communities while also opening up further British knowledge of the resources New Zealand offered the empire. The connection with Maori communities facilitated by British kidnapping and subsequent visits by Maori chiefs to New South Wales encouraged the New South Wales colonial chaplain Samuel Marsden to lobby for a New Zealand mission, which was established in 1814, as discussed in Part 3. Marsden was a tireless advocate for Maori civilisation and religious instruction, while he argued that Aboriginal people could not be converted to Christianity. Part 3 explores Marsden's colonial career in the Tasman world, arguing that his divergent actions in the two communities shaped racial thought about the two communities of the two countries. It explores the crucial role of the chaplain's connection to the Australian colony, especially through his significant holdings of land and his relationships with individual Aboriginal children who he raised in his home, to his depiction of Aboriginal people and his assessment of their capacity as human beings. Evidence from missionary experience in New Zealand was central to the divergent depictions of Tasman world indigenous people in the Buxton Committee Reports produced in 1836 and 1837, which are analysed in Part 4. The Buxton Committee placed their conclusions about Maori and Aboriginal people within the context of British imperial activity around the globe. While the Buxton Committee stressed that all peoples were owners of their land, in the Tasman world evidence suggested that Aboriginal people did not use land in a way that would confer practical ownership rights. And while the Buxton Committee believed that Australia's race relations were a failure of British benevolent imperialism, they did not feel that colonial expansion could, or should be, halted. Evidence from New Zealand stressed that Maori independence was threatened by those seen to be "inappropriate" British imperial agents who came via Australia, reinforcing a discourse of separation between Australia and New Zealand that Marsden had first initiated. While the Buxton Committee had not advocated the negotiation of treaties, the idea that Maori sovereignty was too fragile to be sustained justified the British decision to negotiate a treaty with Maori just three years after the Select Committee delivered its final Report.

This study investigated the language exchanged in classroom dialogue between primary students about issues of 'Australianness' and 'Asianness' within the field of curriculum referred to as Studies of Asia, a curriculum project designed to problematize both Australia's colonial past and its recent history as a nation-state that must address its dynamic role in the Asian region. Its aim was to examine how this language embodied discourses, or ways of using language that represent particular values and viewpoints about 'being Australian' and 'being Asian'. A review of the current and relevant literature showed that key texts define Studies of Asia as a postcolonial enterprise that aims to raise students' awareness, through dialogue, of how discourses have created and maintained powerful divisions between people. Aligning with other similar definitions of postcolonial education, Studies of Asia so conceived, is informed by theories of discourse and power and pedagogical approaches that centralize students' critique and transformation of discourses. However, these theories present a relatively static and absolute perspective on discourse and power, at some odds with discourse-change. Moreover, they do not foreground the role of the individual in struggling to make meaning from the many and varied social discourses available to them. Accordingly, this study was designed from a perspective on discourse that accounts for the pedagogic role of ongoing dialogue, acknowledges an individual student's struggle for meaning and emphasizes the importance of selfreflection. The study's theoretical framing drew upon Bakhtin's (1981, 1986a,b) conceptualization of language as dialogue. This view of language describes the mutual relationship between the individual and society, between the language she speaks and larger social discourses, and between ongoing dialogue and discourse-change. This concept of language as dialogue provided the theoretical and conceptual framework for the methodology of the study which included the design of a curriculum project and smaller, intimate contexts that centralized dialogue and self-reflection; of research contexts that allowed for a portrait of students' ongoing struggle with discourses to emerge; and of a multi-dimensional framework for the micro-linguistic analysis of the discourses cued in the participants' language. A critical, qualitative case study of the language generated by three particular students was created from the application of dialogue as both a pedagogic and research strategy. In creating interrelated contexts that allowed different discourses of 'Australia' and 'Asia' to 'meet' within and beyond the Studies of Asia curriculum project, it was possible to establish a profile of the ensuing struggle for each case study participant. A method of critical discourse analysis - created from a synthesis of Bakhtin's theory of dialogic relations and the dimensions, tools and techniques which form the basis of Fairclough's (1992a,b, 1995) model of Textually Oriented Discourse Analysis - allowed for a systematic linguistic analysis of the discourses that were both cued in each participant's spoken language and embodied in her body language and gestures. Some sense of each participant's internal and public struggle, and her ongoing engagement with issues of 'Australianness' and 'Asianness,' was thus revealed. The main findings of the study relate to the complexity of the students' dialogic interactions, the contrastive discourses of 'Australia' and 'Asia' revealed in their spoken and embodied language and the various ways that students resisted and appropriated discourses of multiculturalism and racial tolerance that underpinned the Studies of Asia curriculum project. The findings suggest that there was not a wholesale transformation of discourses as proposed in the literature, but rather a more incomplete and 'messy' process of struggle. The findings also point to different degrees of personal investment in the issues raised in the curriculum project and suggest that it is not possible to separate the discursive content of an individual student's language from the manner in which she expresses this content. Consequently, the individualization of such struggle needs to be taken into account in considering the desirability and efficacy of discourse-change. The study's significance is demonstrated by its capacity to show the micro-linguistic elements of ongoing discursive struggle and its presentation of a textured portrait of the complexities and tensions inherent within dialogic interactions. The model of dialectic predagogy consequent on these findings has substantial implications for policy, curriculum design and classroom practice. Dialogue, as central to an individual's 'becoming' as a human being, is demonstrated as an ongoing and unfinished process that has implications not only for for Studies of Asia but more broadly across the primary school and other contexts.

Intercountry adoption is a globally politicised institution that triggers strong discourses about whether transplantation to a markedly different country and culture, often into families with racially different parents, negatively affects the children ' s well-being and identity. Although empirical intercountry adoption research has increased elsewhere, Australian-based research has lagged behind. This thesis presents a body of evidence about the well-being and identity of over half the population of 14- to 26-year-old intercountry adoptees in Western Australia, how their well-being changed from 1994 to 2004, how they compare with non-adopted migrant peers and the influence of risk and threat factors. In 2004, participants consisted of 110 intercountry adoptees, three partners, 120 adoptive parents of 160 adoptees, 80 migrant peers and 44 parents of 56 peers. Data were collected by mail survey. From theoretical perspectives in subjective well-being, identity processes and transracial adoption, well-being was examined in terms of physical health, happiness, satisfaction with life and adoption/migration, self-esteem, self-efficacy, competence and adaptive and problem behaviours. Identity was examined in terms of adoptive/migrant status, heritage, community membership, ethnicity, culture, race and place.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2007.
"Including the plays Positive expectations and Waiting for ships." Title from web document (viewed 7/4/08). Includes bibliographical references: leaf 249-267.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0650. Adviser: Janet Dixon Keller. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 420-453) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The impetus for this enquiry came from two experiences with an Aboriginal Other, which prompted the initial research questions: “Why does the existence of an Aboriginal Other threaten a white sense of belonging?” and; “What are the mechanisms and purposes of aggression towards, or exclusion of, that which represents otherness in the Australian context?” In the introductory chapters, the author’s experiences at Lake Mungo and Legend Rock are presented as case studies to illustrate Wittgenstein’s (1953/1968) concept of the ways that subject positions are constructed through language games and hegemonic discourses. Psychodynamic theories of identity formation have been applied to the analysis of these cases to argue that the unconscious construction of Australia as a good, white and Christian nation has acted to overwrite Aboriginal perspectives and to position Aboriginal people at the margins of society. In Chapter One the case of Lake Mungo was presented to illustrate the ways that language games function as cultural frames, through which all experience is filtered. As well, Buhler’s (1934/1990) conception of the deictic and symbolic fields, and the role of the proper noun in allowing or disallowing individuals to occupy a position in the symbolic order as subjective agents was discussed. Here, a relationship between cultural framing and the construction of hegemonic discourses which act to position all that is Other outside positions of enunciation was posited. This was followed by a brief exploration of the concept that the lives of Aboriginal people are organized according to an ontological position that differs in fundamental ways from the world view of the white mainstream. Specifically, it was argued that the social realities of Aboriginal people are embedded within their relation to land and the kinship obligations associated with belonging to a particular community in a particular place. A series of hypothetical indices of difference, based on Margaret Bain’s (1992) research into a semi-remote Aboriginal community at Finke, in Central Australia, was presented. The centrality of whiteness as an organizing principle in Australia was illustrated by Barton’s (1901) “A White Australia” speech, made at the time of Federation. In the ensuing investigation of the way that the dominant culture has constructed an ideal image of the typical Australian, it was suggested that white Australians identify with a mythical Good Australia though white discourses of enlightened nation building and Empire, in which Aboriginal culture has been “mapped and managed” into a museum context and Aboriginal people have been rendered as “metonymically frozen into an extinct past” (Hemming, 2003, pp. 1-3). In Chapter Two, a case study approach, based on Freud’s model of analysis as an archaeology of the present, was used to explore the mechanisms behind the occlusion of Aboriginality as a presence in the case of Legend Rock. The Freudian (1919) concept of the uncanny was critical to the investigation of the particular anxieties around belonging that are evoked for white Australians when confronted with the unfamiliar Aboriginal presence in familiar spaces. In this section of the thesis, Gelder and Jacob’s (1999) characterization of the overturning of the legal fiction of terra nullius after Mabo as the return of the repressed was discussed. In Chapter Three, the rationale for using a case study approach to address the guiding hypothesis and the propositions to be investigated in the current study are outlined. Chapter Four introduces Lacan’s (1949/2002) conceptualization of the mirror stage, during which identifications are formed and the ego, or “I” is first recognized, as well as Klein’s (1937/1964) theory of primitive defence mechanisms. The ideas of these clinicians were used to explore the function of the Other in both normal development and in pathological states. This literature was then applied to an investigation of the process of othering as it has manifested in the Australian context in more general terms. Rutherford’s (2000) thesis: that an Australian ego-ideal has been based on the identification with a mythical being-without-lack, provided a starting point for analysis of the ways that white Australia has constructed a veil around cultural difference in order to defend against acknowledging the fact that Aboriginal peoples have been profoundly damaged by the practices and processes of colonization, and that these practices and processes continue to damage current generations of Aboriginal people. In Chapter Five, it was argued that, after Mabo, white Australians have had no choice but to adopt one of two defensive positions with respect to Aboriginal Australia. Following Money-Kyrle’s (1951) reading of Klein, these positions were nominated as being characterized by either persecutory or depressive guilt. The rejection of the Aboriginal story of Legend Rock was posited as representing the persecutory position, which was discussed in terms of the phenomenon of the rise of Pauline Hanson and One Nation. It was argued that the denial of Aboriginal rights, and attacks on Aboriginal people as the recipients of special treatment, could be explained as representing the manic defence of a large minority of the white mainstream in response to perceived threats to identifications with the Good Australia evoked by the recognition of Native Title. As Klein has explained, the manic defence is driven by anxiety and functions through the primitive psychological process of splitting, whereby internalized good (ego syntonic) objects are retained and internalized bad (ego dystonic) objects are projected onto the scapegoated Other. In the case of One Nation, Aboriginal people were represented as “greedy” people who wanted to take away “our backyards”. By contrast, it was argued that many white Australians had adopted the more difficult depressive position, which was best exemplified by Paul Keating’s (1993) Redfern Park Speech. The processes of splitting and projection that characterize the persecutory position enable us to repress the knowledge that we have inflicted harm, and thereby escape feelings of guilt. Depressive guilt, on the other hand, is associated with the painful awareness that harm has been done and a desire to make reparation to the damaged psychic object. This desire was manifest in the emergence of grass roots movements, such as Australians for Reconciliation, comprised mainly of white Australians, who organized their own responses to the stance taken by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party. Australians who wished to amend past wrongs were frustrated by the inertia of the Wik debate, the failed referendum for a republic, the Treaty debate, and the dismantling of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. Ordinary citizens walked over bridges and contributed to the Sea of Hands in their tens of thousands to show their solidarity with Aboriginal people. The “Sorry” books were in answer to the Howard administration’s steadfast refusal to make an apology and offer compensation to the Stolen Generations, as had been recommended by Wilson and Dodson’s (1997) Bringing them Home Report. Chapter Six outlined the epistemological and methodological framework within which the research was conducted. In this section, the ethics of conducting research with indigenous communities has been presented, and the reasons for adopting a critical approach to psychological research are explained. The primary data from the interviews was presented in Chapters Seven, Eight and Nine. Data was organized into sections according to the main themes that were raised by the indigenous participants, accompanied by relevant commentary from the non-indigenous contributors. The analysis of the emergent themes has been presented alongside the data within each section. In Chapter Seven, the guiding hypothesis that Bain’s (1992) indices of difference would be salient for a cohort of Aboriginal people living in urban and regional environments was partially supported. The Aboriginal participants’ subjective experience of their Aboriginal identity was explored In Chapter Eight. In Chapter Nine, Lacan’s concept that the unconscious is structured like a language, together with his emphasis on the role of metaphor in creating the illusion of fixed meanings, was used to investigate how Aboriginal narratives of identity have been influenced by representations of Aboriginality in both mainstream and indigenous communities. In Chapter Ten, a summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations has been presented.

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'.

Bibliography: leaves 369-398.
xiv, 398, [19] leaves : ill., maps, ports ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
A comparative study of a selection of South Australian secondary schools during the period 1880-1919. The ideals of gender and national identity of the various schools are investigated through an analysis of archival records relating to their rhetoric, organisation and curricula.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 369-398.
xiv, 398, [19] leaves : ill., maps, ports ; 30 cm.
A comparative study of a selection of South Australian secondary schools during the period 1880-1919. The ideals of gender and national identity of the various schools are investigated through an analysis of archival records relating to their rhetoric, organisation and curricula.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 2000

In Australia people of African heritage are subjected to racialised structural exclusion grounded in ideologies of white supremacy. However, resistance can be enacted through the creation of alternative settings that through self-determination foster greater control over symbolic and material resources and to imagine more just ways of knowing, being and doing. Next in Colour (NiC) is a self-determined initiative in Naarm (Melbourne) led by Colour Between the Lines, a collective of creative artists of African heritage. The initiative developed networks of support, opportunities and vocational pathways to the creative industries for people of African heritage; and engaged community arts approaches to foster critical conversations about identity, belonging and community and surface counter- narratives about the African diaspora in Australia. This study documented how self- determination came to be understood and enacted through the alternative setting of the NiC initiative and how self-determined outcomes were constrained and facilitated through the organisations CBTL sought support from. Informed by decolonial and critical race frameworks data from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and archival research was collected drawing on community-engaged approaches and analysed through a frame of critical narrative analysis. The findings show that NiC served as a homeplace for healing and deconstruction, and a site to reimagine relationships and ways of working that supported decolonial actions of counter-storytelling, authentic visibility and building of solidarities. However, whilst CBTL looked to key organisations to support the initiative and build capacity, forms of racialised structural exclusion NiC was responding to were reproduced in these organisational relationships, constraining self-determination and contributing to hidden labour as CBTL navigated and resisted these dynamics of control and exclusion. The findings of this study show the importance of self-determination and community arts practice within the creation of alternative settings towards liberation and structural inclusion for racialised communities. Further, it highlights the necessity of a contextualised analysis of power and ideology to understand how such settings can best be supported.