On Whiteness: Current Debates in Australian Studies

Whiteness Studies in Australia arguably began as a reflection on the worry, concern and fear of ordinary Australians for border control. While this highly ideological fantasy was orchestrated during the 1990s by the Hansonites and John Howard, it obviously has deeper roots and should encompass the infamous White Australia Policy. Yet the re-irruption of the nation and its borders in Australian Studies since the 1990s has arguably showed how the capacity to raise the myths of freedom and security to the status of truths in order to create internal consensus lies on the bedrock of representation. Thus, although the race trap sometimes tricked those speaking about whiteness in the first wave of Australian whiteness studies, whiteness exists only as a discursive strategy although the desire for whitenss is often violent in its attempt to constitute itself and its borders. A second wave of whiteness studies is now taking place, with scholars engaging in a deeper discussion of its premises and about the relationality of its borders. The issue seminar may be a significant part of this second wave of whiteness studies.