Australia in the World: Perceptions and Possibilities

By Don Grant And Graham Seal Eds, Perth: Black Swan Press, 1994, 385 pages, paperback, $37.00. Reviewed by Lorella Di Pietro in the issue.

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The edition of Australia in the World: Perceptions and Possibilities is a selected collection of papers presented at the 1992 Perth conference 'Outside Images of Australia How Others See Us'. These very titles preempt some of the problems of the edition. Much of the discussion of Australia or Australianness is depoliticising in that it focuses on perceptions rather than relations of power which underpin representations of this nation. Thus instead of attempting to problematise categories like Australia and Australianness, some of the essays make recommendations that we need to change our facade and attempt to be more tolerant of cultural differences especially of 'Asian' cultures. The assumption underpinning many of these essays, from those dealing with white Australia to those dealing with Aboriginals, is that Australia has come a long way. These narratives, couched in teleological renditions of history are highly problematic in that they rewrite histories of oppression as a legacy of the past (i.e., the migrant 'question') or as a legacy we are somehow in the process of resolving (i.e., the Aboriginal 'question'). Given Australia's need to constantly raise the spectre of 'boat people', illegal migrants and Mabo and its anxieties in the face of differences it cannot assimilate it is impossible to appreciate the claims made by Richard Woolcott in his essay 'Advance Australia Where?'.

The ingredients are all here. What we need is the will and the effort and some rediscovery of that drive, energy and innovation which the pioneers who built this country showed last century. We need to ensure that Australia's qualities of tolerance, openness and fairness continue to develop in a society which is multi-cultural, but which is first and foremost Australian and in which feuds and enmities are set aside and subsumed into an increasingly clear Australia. (p.20)

Citation

• Lorella Di Pietro. 'Review: Australia in the World: Perceptions and Possibilities by Don Grant and Graham Seal eds' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), . Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 24 May 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• Over 60 contributions from foremost Australianists, eminent international scholars, diplomats and others. The papers address questions of Australia's international image and the future of Australian identity, at home and abroad.

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