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Inside Australian Culture

Inside Australian Culture

Baden Offord | Erika Kerruish | Rob Garbutt | Adele Wessell | Kirsten Pavlovic | Ashis Nandy | Vinay Lal

(2014)

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Book Details

Abstract

“Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values” offers a critical intervention in the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.


‘Inside Australian Culture digs into Australia’s past to provide an open scrutiny of the values that shape a culture and a nation. I commend this book for encouraging lively debates on how to foster an inclusive, equal Australia.’ —Elisabeth Porter, University of South Australia


‘Through powerful analysis, the five voices in this book propose a new normative rationale to counteract the modern fundamentalisation of Enlightenment underpinning Australian public culture.’ —Susan Ballyn, University of Barcelona


‘This book is a bold statement on issues of deep importance in Australian life: our cultural history, our racial politics, and the shape of our public culture. The authors have produced a highly readable and also disturbing book, most relevant to our disturbing times.’ —Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney


Given Australia’s status as an (unfinished) colonial project of the British Empire, the basic institutions that were installed in its so-called ‘empty’ landscape derive from a value-laden framework borne out of industrialization, colonialism, the consolidation of the national statist system and democracy – all entities imbued with British Enlightenment principles and thinking. Modernity in Australia has thus been constituted by the importation, assumption and triumph of the Western mind – materially, psychologically, culturally, socio-legally and cartographically. ‘Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values’ offers a critical intervention into the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.


‘This book is a bold statement on issues of deep importance in Australian life: our cultural history, our racial politics, and the shape of our public culture. The authors have produced a highly readable and also disturbing book, most relevant to our disturbing times.’ —Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney


‘Inside Australian Culture digs into Australia’s past to provide an open scrutiny of the values that shape a culture and a nation. I commend this book for encouraging lively debates on how to foster an inclusive, equal Australia.’ —Elisabeth Porter, University of South Australia


“Inside Australian Culture: Legacies of Enlightenment Values” offers a critical intervention in the continuing effects of colonization in Australia and the structures it brought, which still inform and dominate its public culture. Through a careful analysis of three disparate but significant moments in Australian history, the authors investigate the way the British Enlightenment continues to dominate contemporary Australian thinking and values. Employing the lens of Indian cultural theorist Ashis Nandy, the authors argue for an Australian public culture that is profoundly conscious of its assumptions, history and limitations.


‘Through powerful analysis, the five voices in this book propose a new normative rationale to counteract the modern fundamentalisation of Enlightenment underpinning Australian public culture.’ —Susan Ballyn, University of Barcelona

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Inside Australian Culture i
Title iii
Copyright iv
CONTENTS v
Foreword IS AUSTRALIA A VICTIM OF THE ETHICAL LIMITS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT? A MODEST FOREWORD FOR AN IMMODEST VENTURE vii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii
Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1
Overview 1
As Others See Us 3
Towards a Reflective Culture 8
Structure and Style of the Book 10
Part One GETTING INSIDE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC CULTURE 13
Chapter Two THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND TRADITION IN EARLY COLONIAL SOCIETY 15
Born Modern: Securing an Enlightenment Social Order 16
Support and Resistance: The Persistence of Tradition 22
Colonisation: Shaping an Enlightenment Tradition 28
Conclusion 31
Chapter Three AUSTRALIAN VALUES AND THEIR PUBLIC CULTURE(S) 33
The Public Sphere and Its Architecture 34
The Arena of Public Culture 37
Public Culture and Contemporary Australian Values 37
Constructing or Negotiating Citizenship 40
Conversations in the Public Culture 41
Part Two THREE MOMENTS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT 45
Chapter Four MOMENT ONE. AN ACT TO REGULATE CHINESE IMMIGRATION (1858): CELESTIAL MIGRATIONS 47
Golden Hordes 48
New South Wales and the Bill 50
The Select Committee 53
The Report of the Select Committee 59
Chapter Five MOMENT TWO. CUBILLO V. THE COMONWEALTH (2000): THE ‘HISTORY DEFENCE’ – STANDARDS OF THE TIME 63
Cubillo v. the Commonwealth 66
Lorna Cubillo, née Nelson 68
Peter Gunner 69
The Judgement on History 73
History and Colonisation 75
Chapter Six MOMENT THREE. AUSTRALIAN LOCALISM AND THE CRONULLA RIOT (2005): THE ‘BARBARIC LAW’ OF ‘HE WHO WAS THERE FIRST 79
Introduction 79
The Local Context: Cronulla Beach, Sunday, 11 December 2005 81
A Description of the Cronulla Riot as an Eruption of Localism in Sydney Print Media 83
Australian Localism and the Cronulla Riot 89
Conclusion 94
Part Three WORKING WITH THE NECESARY OTHER 95
Chapter Seven THE CLOSING OF PUBLIC CULTURE TO COMMUNAL DIFFERENCE\r 97
The 1858 Bill: Traditions of Tolerance and Exclusions of Enlightenment 99
Cubillo v. the Commonwealth (2000): History, Civilisation and Accountability 103
The Cronulla Riot (2005): The Psychology of Exile 108
Conclusion 111
Afterword THE EMPTINES WITHIN AND WITHOUT: ENLIGHTENMENT AUSTRALIA AND ITS DEMONS 115
NOTES 123
Preface and Acknowledgements 123
Chapter One. Introduction 123
Chapter Two. The Enlightenment and Tradition in Early Colonial Society 125
Chapter Three. Australian Values and Their Public Culture(s) 128
Chapter Four. Moment One. An Act to Regulate Chinese Immigration (1858): Celestial Migrations 128
Chapter Five. Moment Two. Cubillo v. the Commonwealth (2000): The ‘History Defence’ – Standards of the Time 130
Chapter Six. Moment Three. Australian Localism and the Cronulla Riot (2005): The ‘Barbaric Law’ of ‘He Who Was There First’ 134
Chapter Seven. The Closing of Public Culture to Communal Difference 137
Afterword. The Emptiness Within and Without: Enlightenment Australia and Its Demons 140
INDEX 143