Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Thirty years after its introduction, the meaning, impact and politics of multiculturalism are still contested issues in Australia-so contested, in fact, that this article provoked reactions even before it was written. On the basis of the title alone, I was approached by one person who congratulated me on having at long last left the 'multicultural orthodoxy' behind; another took me to task for 'misrepresenting multiculturalism'; and a third for trivialising a matter of crucial importance to Australian society and culture. My title was, and is, a response to concerns evoked by the overall theme of this collection: 'Australia: who cares?' but, in my title, 'She'll be right, mate' was always in quotation marks, and so intended to reference a certain stereotype of Australian lazy optimism without thereby endorsing it. Moreover, in the subtitle, 'multiculturalism' and 'the culture of benign neglect' are linked by the word 'and', not 'or'; in other words, the article proposes to explore the relationship between one and the other but does not suggest that they are interchangeable.
ANZSRC / FoR Code
2005 LITERARY STUDIES
Publication Details
Ommundsen, W. 2007, 'She'll be right, mate: multiculturalism and the culture of benign neglect', in D. Callahan (eds), Australia who cares?, Network Books, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA.