The Vatic -Edmund Campion on the Australia What price Australian naway and An r ami I r fugees, 'illegals' AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW SEPTEMBER: Humphrey McQueen on Chris wattace~-Gra th e Chinese connecti on Dorothy Porter, Michael Hofmann, Fay Zwicky, Anthony Lawrence, Rolling Column by Mark Davis Anita Heiss, Merlinda Bobis, Tien Hoang Nguyen, Deb Westbury, Kerryn Goldsworthy on Thea Astley' s MTC Cronin, Dry lands Geoff Goodfellow and many mo re Marilyn Lake on Beryl Beaurepajre I melbourne Mari on Halli gan on Andrew Riemer's new memoir festival of Subscribers $55 for ten issues plus a free book Ph (03) 9429 6700 or Fax (03) 9429 2288 poetry september Art Monthly 1999 AUSTRALIA IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE chapel off Peter Hill interYiews Liz Ann Macgregor, new Director of the Museum of chapel Contemporary Art • prahran Daniel Thomas talks about being a curator 9522 3382 ArtRage - Mat Gallois on r;"t.,~;:;:;::::;-;;;;;::rn!l:;n~..r.w,,.,;::;;=rr-""""IIPII Off Chapel being an emerging artist in Sydney inHiative supported by Arts The Immigration Museum and the Victoria Millionth Migrant exhibition Out now _ S-1.9.'i, .fimn good boohlwps and ncii'Sagcnls. Or plu111c ()] 62-19 3986 jin· your mbsaiption Volume 9 Number 7 September 1999 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology CoNTENTS 4 COMMENT With Mark McKenna and 32 Francis Sullivan. AFTER THE BIG WAVE Photographic essay by Peter Davis. 'He loved to 7 speculate, CAPITAL LETTER 34 INDONESIAN WITNESS sometimes almost 8 Peter Mares interviews Ibu Sulami, dangerously, LETTERS activist, feminist and political survivor. from every 10 37 TRAFFICKING IN PEOPLE THE MANY ANXIETIES OF experiment he Jon Greenaway investiga tes the AUSTRALIA AND ASIA performed, supply side of illegal immigration. David Walker's Anxious Nation: Andrew Hamilton questions Australia's Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850-1939 seeking to derive reception of 'illegals' and asylum seekers. shows how complex Australia-Asia general n1eaning relations have always been, says 16 Peter Cochrane. from results THE MONTH'S TRAFFIC With Edmund Campion, Hugh Dillon 40 which, in the first and Kathy Laster. BOOKS instance at least, Peter Craven reviews William Maxwell's 17 reissued novel, The Folded Leaf; are always highly SUMMA THEOLOGIAE Peter Pierce makes a m eal of Thomas Harris' Hannibal (p41 ). particular and 19 specialised.' ARCHIMEDES 43 Our man turns the microscope on THEATRE - Gustav Nossal on scientists, sex and boxer shorts. Australian theatre needs Macfa rl ane Burnet, see p22 natural therapy, argues Peter Craven. 20 Geoffrey Milne surveys som e of THE STATE OF VICTORIA Australia's winter offerings. As Victoria heads for elections, Cover design by Siobhan Jackson. Moira Rayner takes stock. 45 Photograph of Sir Macfarlane POETRY Burnet courtesy The Wa lter and 22 'Tadpoles' and 'Norfolk Island Pine' Eliza Hall Institute of Medical SIR FRANK MACFARLANE BURNET by Kate Llewellyn. Research, Melbourne. Graphics pp5, 16, 18, 19, 20, 28, Sir Gustav Nossal on the science and 3 1, 43 by Siobhan Jackson. centenary of a distinguished Australian. 48 Photographs ppl0- 13 courtesy FLASH IN THE PAN Jon Greenaway. Reviews of the films Tea With Mussolini; Photographs pp22- 27 courtesy 28 The Wa lter and Eliza Hall BLACK AND OTHER ARTS Eyes Wide Shut; Two Hands; My Name Institute of Medical Research, Jim Davidson on what the Grahamstown is Joe; Playing by Heart and Melbourne. Festival tells us about the new Bedrooms and Hallways. Photograph p35 by Barbara Leigh. South Africa. Eureka Street magazine 50 Jesuit Publications 31 WATCHING BRIEF PO Box 553 OBITUARY Ri chmond VIC 3 12 1 T el (03)9427 73 11 Linda McGirr salutes 51 Fax (03)9428 4450 Jennifer Paterson. SPECIFIC LEVITY V OLUME 9 NUMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 3 EURI:-KA srru:-er COMMENT: 1 M A RK M c KENNA A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology General manager Joseph Hoo Reinember, Editor Morag Fraser Assistant editor remeinber the 6th Kate Manton Graphic designer Siobhan Jackson of N oveinber Publisher Michael McGirr SJ INMA' 188 8, the edi tonal-wdte< of the C andelo and Eden Production manager: Sylvana Scannapiego Union, a small bi-weekly n ewspaper on the far South Coast Administration manager: Mark Dowell of NSW, posed the following question to his readers: 'When Editorial and production assistants will the Australian republic come?' His answer was sure and Juliette Hughes, Paul Fyfe SJ, swift. Geraldine Battersby, Chris Jenkins SJ 'The Australian republic will come quickly ... As we grow more important and our population increases we think Con tri bu ting editors less and less of that old country from which we have come Adelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ, Perth: Dean Moore Sydney: Edmund Campion, Gerard Windsor ... We like to call ourselves Australian and feel happy that Queensland: Peter Pierce Australians can grasp each others' hands in the true bond of citizenship ... on the platform of the country's commonwealth.' United Kingdom correspondent If it was easy to be optimistic in 1888, it seems much Denis Minns or harder in 1999. Only a lit tle over two m onths out from the South East Asia correspondent republic referendum on 6 November, the prevailing mood in Jon Greenaway the republican camp is hardly one of confidence. After weeks Jesuit Editorial Board of negotiations in Canberra, it is now clear that Australians Peter L'Estrange SJ, Andrew Bullen SJ, will face two questions in November. Andrew Hamilton SJ The first question will ask voters whether they approve Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ of establishing Australia as a republic 'with the Queen and Marketing manager: Rosanne Turner Governor-General being replaced by a President appointed Advertising representative: Ken Head by a two-thirds majority' of Federal Parliament. The second Subscription manager: Wendy Marlowe question, in the words of John Howard, will present voters with 'an opportunity to unite the country on an aspirational Administration and distribution [sic] issue in a very positive way', by approving the Prime Lisa Crow, Mrs Irene Hunter Minister's revised Constitutional Preamble. Patrons The new Preamble is infi nitely superior to the Prime Evrelw Street gratefully acknowledges the Minister's previous draft, but still fail s on many counts. There support of C. and A. Carter; the is an irony in asking the people to approve an 'aspirational' trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; Preamble when the people were not consulted in the process W.P. & M.W. Gurry of its drafting. After consulting poet Les Murray, historian Eureka Street magazine, ISS N 1036-1758, Geoffrey Blainey, and others who happened to hold the Australia Post Print Post approved pp349181/003 14, balance of power in the Senate at the right time, Mr Howard is published ten times a year produced the final version of his Preamble on 11 August, by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Vi ctoria 3 121 two days before the legislation was due to be passed by T el: 03 942 7 73 11 Fax: 03 9428 4450 Parliament in time for the November referendum. 'The em ai l: [email protected] Preamble can't be changed because w e need to pass the http://www .openplanet.com.au/eureka/ legislation this week,' said Mr Howard. Responsibility for editorial content is accepted by The Prime Minister's understanding of deliberative Michael M cGirr SJ, 300 Vi ctoria Street, Richmond. Printed by Do ran Printing, democracy is novel. When asked why the new Preamble 46 Industrial Drive, Braeside VI C 3 195. included reference to those who defended Australia during © jesuit Publicati ons 1999 time of war he replied-'We decided last night to put that in.' Unsolicited manuscripts, including poetry and The Prime Minister also believes that the Preamble will fi ction, will be returned only if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Requests for serve' as a great contribution to reconciliation ' . He describes permission to reprint material from th e magazine his effort as a 'positive, honourable, pro-active, contemporary should be addressed in writing to: reference to indigenous people in our Constitution'. The word The editor, Eurelw Street magazine, ' kinship', says Howard, ' doesn 't carry any particular PO Box 553, Ri ch m ond VIC 3 12 1 connotations of ownership, it speaks of their lands not of 4 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1999 the landi therefore, by definition it is something that chanting 'Sixty-nine changes to the Constitution I' and relates to land that is owned by indigenous people.' accusing the Australian Republican Movement of In other words, the white man can relax. Aborigines 'ethnic cleansing'. Add the old favourites such as don't own 'the land', they own 'their land'. These are 'more power to Canberra' and the high fence that is the words Howard thinks are 'generous'. Section 128 (which requires at least four states and a But where is the generosity in failing to negotiate national majority if the referendum is to pass), and it with Aboriginal people? The truth is that Mr Howard's is easy to appreciate the difficulty of the challenge Preamble is, as he says, 'a reference to indigenous which faces republicans in November. people' (my emphasis), rather than a document which The referendum will ask voters to continue the belongs to indigenous people. Does this mean the tradition of Australia's gradual evolution to independ­ whitefella should feel'honourable' simply ence. The proposed bipartisan appointment because Mr H oward h as decided to model is entirely consistent with the mention indigenous people in a Preamble '. ' · maintenance of our existing political which is designed to have no legal effect ? .·;,:·_:: institutions.