Introduction. On Whiteness: Current Debates in Australian Studies

Whiteness Studies in Australia emerged in part as a critical reflection on the worry, concern and fear of ‘ordinary’ Australians about the issue of border control. While this ideological fantasy was orchestrated during the 1990s by the Hansonites (subsequently becoming an intrinsic part of the national agenda when adopted by the then Liberal PM, John Howard), its historical roots lie in the White Australia Policy. The re-irruption of the nation and its borders in Australian Studies (here understood in the broadest of senses) since the 1990s has led to examinations of how the capacity to elevate the myths of freedom and security to the status of absolute truths in order to create internal consensus lies on the bedrock of representation.