Event
Date
by Ms Terri-Ann White.
Presented at the Perth Day of Ideas, Holmes a Court Gallery, 2 Aug 2003
Thanks to Rob Donovan and welcome to the first of the panel discussions for today's Day of Ideas and just to say it's a pleasure to be able to follow the eloquent words and ideas of the Governor of the State last night. My name is Terri-ann White. I'm not an historian, I'm a fiction writer with an interest in history, but I'm joined on this panel by two historians. I want to offer just some brief comments as context for this panel which is entitled Australian History: keeping fear in perspective before I introduce Anna Clark and Andrea Gaynor.
This generalised and seemingly heightened fear that we're discussing today - be it fear of governments, of invasion, of uncertainty - is a global phenomenon but I think there is much to be gained by us looking specifically at our own past for a guide and a context to the way fear operates in Australia and to look for answers and, dare I say, solutions, and both of our historians will address this with very practical examples.
I'd like to focus briefly by just reminding people about the 1901 Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act and the Pacific Island Labourers Act, two of the first acts of the Commonwealth Parliament, two pieces of legislation that made a lasting impact, I believe, on the social organization but particularly the psyche of Australia well beyond their life span. The legislation restricted migration to those of British and European descent and there were other exclusions such as suffering from infections or contagious diseases, restriction of prostitutes or their children, contract labourers or any "idiot" or "insane person". The legislation formalized discussion and protocols that had been in circulation in Australia since 1888. The White Australia Policy, as it was and is still known, was rescinded in 1973 and I think we quite often forget how recently it moved out of the legislation of this country. In 1901 it received close to unanimous support across Australia. The cultural anxiety associated with its development and its ongoing results is palpable. It is deeply entrenched in our communities and shows its face, it seems, at times when our space is threatened-when people we have not invited arrive at our porous borders, or when it begins to look as though Australia is becoming an Asian country in the Asian region far away from an original Mother land. It also contains a fascinating paradox or two that in the stated administration of intent the policy does not account for the colonialism that dispossessed the original Indigenous inhabitants, the custodians and owners of the land, and it also does not account for the long occupation in Australia of many Asian peoples before 1901.
I'm mentioning the White Australia Policy here because it appears to me to be one of those foundational documents that we need to understand to be able to move forward into a new and productive space of nation. It isn't about being fixated about mistakes of the past, but knowing where we've come from so that we can attempt to reconfigure this country productively. Swirling movements of nationalism, radicalism of undemocratic actions of inequity can be understood better by referring to our history. So can our dependency, that the Governor referred to this morning, firstly with England and then with the USA that is still current. We hear people generally speaking of goodwill with good intentions, open and inquiring. I think we have to keep reminding ourselves of that but we must be aware of where we have been and where we stand now and, as an example which isn't meant to embarrass anybody, of the powerful legacies of our white history just look at the line up of speakers today and the audience today and its diversity. In a very enlightened gathering such as this, there are still many exclusions.
So these are my introductory notes. I'm wanting to introduce the two speakers and then even though we are running slightly over time we'll still have time for questions and what I 'd like to do is to invite the two speakers to speak for the allotted time which is a nice short time to be followed by questions from the floor and as we've already been told these are going to be recorded I'm going to ask people to stand and I'd be very pleased if people could also identify themselves and ask their concise question so we can have a good discussion.
I'd first of all like to welcome and introduce Anna Clark. Anna Clark is currently doing her PhD in history at Melbourne University. She's looking at debates about teaching Australian history in schools and, with Stuart Macintyre, is the co-author of a forthcoming book, The History Wars, to be published by Melbourne University Press in August.
Our second speaker is Dr Andrea Gaynor. Andrea lectures in Australian History at UWA; she was attracted to history as a discipline that looked to the past for engaging and explanatory stories about people. She is particularly fascinated by the interaction of society, technology and environment and has active research interests in environmental history and the history of science and technology, heritage and history, and gender and history. She's the co-editor of Country: Visions of Land and People in Western Australia which was published this year, and she is currently completing a book on the environmental history on food production in Australian cities.
I'm going to ask Anna to speak first, followed by Andrea and following from that a general discussion. Please welcome Anna Clark.