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Nathan Ganley BA (Hons)

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Nathan Ganley BA (Hons) The construction of whiteness in Australia: discourses of immigration and national identity from the White Australia Policy to Multiculturalism (Toby) Nathan Ganley BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Political Science and International Studies University of Queensland September 2006 1 of 1 2 of 2 Declaration: I declare that the work presented in this thesis, is to the best of my knowledge and belief, original, except as acknowledged in the text, and that the material has not been submitted, either in whole or in part, for a degree at this or any other university. Signed (Toby) Nathan Ganley 3 of 3 Table of Contents List of tables, charts, graphs .................................................................... 8 List of Acronyms ..................................................................................... 8 Introduction...................................................................................... 10 ii. Methodology ..................................................................................... 15 iii. Overall thesis argument .................................................................... 20 iv. Outline............................................................................................. 21 Part 1: Literature & Method.............................................................. 24 Chapter 1: Literature Review .................................................................... 25 1.1 The anti-racist tradition.................................................................... 27 1.1.1 White anti-racist literature .......................................................... 28 1.1.2 Black critiques of racism ............................................................. 30 1.2 The emergence of whiteness studies ................................................ 37 1.2.1 The failure of identity politics...................................................... 37 1.3 The problematic of whiteness........................................................... 40 1.3.1 Three approaches in whiteness studies ....................................... 42 The critical approach to problematising whiteness ............................. 43 The relational approach to problematising whiteness ......................... 44 The contextual approach to problematising whiteness........................ 47 1.3.2 ‘New Abolitionism’ – The strategy of abolishing whiteness ............ 50 1.3.3 The strategy of re-articulating whiteness..................................... 52 1.4 Australian whiteness literature.......................................................... 54 1.4.1 Key texts in Australian whiteness studies..................................... 56 1.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 61 Chapter 2: Methodology ........................................................................... 64 2.1 Genealogy....................................................................................... 65 2.1.1 Power and discourse .................................................................. 66 2.1.2 The past and the present ........................................................... 67 2.1.3 Genealogy and History ............................................................... 68 2.1.4 Strategy and interpretation......................................................... 69 2.1.5 Examining events....................................................................... 70 2.1.6 The goal of genealogy................................................................ 73 2.1.7 Suitability of the genealogical method ......................................... 74 2.2 Application ...................................................................................... 76 2.2.1 A relational approach ................................................................. 76 2.2.2 Regimes of truth – the White Australia Policy............................... 78 2.2.3 Regimes of truth – Multiculturalism ............................................. 80 2.2.4 Selection of textual sources ........................................................ 84 Official discourses............................................................................ 86 Popular discourses........................................................................... 87 2.2.5 Discourse analysis...................................................................... 89 Particular techniques of discourse analysis: metaphor analysis ........... 93 2.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 98 Part 2: The White Australia Policy .................................................. 100 Chapter 3: Official discourse of the White Australia Policy......................... 101 3.1 Background to the White Australia Policy ........................................ 104 3.2 The Act and the Test ..................................................................... 111 4 of 4 3.2.1 The intent of the legislation and the Test .................................. 113 3.2.2 Instructions on implementing the Act ........................................ 119 3.2.3 The Act in action...................................................................... 122 Different constraints for different ‘types’ of migrants........................ 125 3.3 Conclusion .................................................................................... 132 Chapter 4: Popular discourse of the White Australia Policy – Australia the show-dog .............................................................................................. 134 4.1 Metaphor analysis and the Mongrel Metaphor.................................. 135 4.1.1 Introduction to the Mongrel Metaphor ....................................... 138 4.1.2 Evidence of the Mongrel Metaphor ............................................ 141 4.2 Political implications of the Mongrel Metaphor ................................. 147 4.3 Conclusion .................................................................................... 158 Part 3: Australian Multiculturalism................................................. 160 Chapter 5: Official discourse of Multiculturalism - the centring of whiteness through the proliferation of difference ..................................................... 161 5.1 Background to Australian Multiculturalism ....................................... 163 5.2 Key texts....................................................................................... 170 5.2.1 The Galbally Report.................................................................. 170 5.2.2 The AIMA Evaluation................................................................ 173 5.2.3 The Jupp Report ...................................................................... 174 5.3 The re-centring of whiteness.......................................................... 175 5.3.1 The proliferation of difference................................................... 176 5.3.2 Discursive oppositions .............................................................. 182 5.3.3 Details of the centre................................................................. 184 5.4 The abnormal as needy: supporting the privilege of whiteness ......... 185 5.5 Conclusion .................................................................................... 189 Chapter 6: Popular discourse of Multiculturalism – fair dinkum Aussies and Multicultural Australia............................................................................. 192 6.1 Selection of Texts .......................................................................... 194 6.2 Whiteness as a necessary condition of Australianness...................... 197 6.3 The conflation of ‘white’ with ‘Australian’......................................... 202 6.4 Ethnicity marks difference .............................................................. 210 6.5 The visual landscape of the Australian population............................ 215 6.6 Conclusions................................................................................... 218 Conclusion....................................................................................... 222 Conclusion: the construction of Australian whiteness................................ 223 7.1 The discursive construction of whiteness in the White Australia Policy and Multiculturalism ............................................................................ 223 7.2 Brief final remarks: What to do about whiteness? ............................ 230 Appendix ............................................................................................... 233 References………………………………………………………………………………………….244 5 of 5 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I thank my supervisory team, Roland Bleiker and Barbara Sullivan. Special thanks, also, go to my loving and supportive partner, Melanie. With out the help of these people I would not have completed this project. However, only I can take responsibility for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies that remain in the text. Thanks also go to the rest of my family and friends for their support, and ability to take my focus away from this thesis from time to time. I must also acknowledge the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington, which provided me access to the university library when I moved to Wellington. Finally, peace to the ‘revolutionaries who act with beats and raps’, who are ‘done keeping it real
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