The Locals: Identity, Place and Belonging in Australia and Beyond

278 Pages·2011·4.952 MB·English

by  Rob Garbutt

R
o
b
This book presents the first comprehensive survey of being a local, in particular
G
in Australia. As in much of the colonised, English-speaking world, in Australia a
r
the paradox is that the locals are not indigenous peoples but migrants with a b The Locals
u
specific ethnic heritage who became localised in time to label other migrants as t
t
the newcomers and outsiders. Claims of belonging as ‘local’ provide a crucial
T Identity, Place and Belonging
insight into power relations that extend beyond the local level to questions of h
e in Australia and Beyond
national identity and the ethics of belonging in a postcolonial, multicultural
L
nation. How have Anglo-Celtic Australians installed themselves as locals? o
c
Where do Indigenous Australians stand in this local politics of identity? What a
l
s
are the ethical considerations for how we connect our identities to places
while also relating to others in a time of intensifying migration? This book
explores these questions via a multidisciplinary cultural studies approach and
a mixed methodology that blends a critical language study of being local with
auto-ethnographical accounts by the author, himself a ‘local’.
Rob Garbutt
C I S
22
Cultural Identity Studies
Rob Garbutt is an Associate Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Writing
at Southern Cross University, Australia. He earned a BSc in Chemistry at CIS
22
the University of New South Wales, a Master‘s in Adult Education at the
University of Technology, Sydney, and a PhD in Cultural Studies at Southern
Cross University. He has published on the topics of place, identity and
belonging, as well as on equity in higher education.
P
e
te
r
L
a
n
g
P eter Lang

www.peterlang.com
R
o
b
This book presents the first comprehensive survey of being a local, in particular
G
in Australia. As in much of the colonised, English-speaking world, in Australia a
r
the paradox is that the locals are not indigenous peoples but migrants with a b The Locals
u
specific ethnic heritage who became localised in time to label other migrants as t
t
the newcomers and outsiders. Claims of belonging as ‘local’ provide a crucial
T Identity, Place and Belonging
insight into power relations that extend beyond the local level to questions of h
e in Australia and Beyond
national identity and the ethics of belonging in a postcolonial, multicultural
L
nation. How have Anglo-Celtic Australians installed themselves as locals? o
c
Where do Indigenous Australians stand in this local politics of identity? What a
l
s
are the ethical considerations for how we connect our identities to places
while also relating to others in a time of intensifying migration? This book
explores these questions via a multidisciplinary cultural studies approach and
a mixed methodology that blends a critical language study of being local with
auto-ethnographical accounts by the author, himself a ‘local’.
Rob Garbutt
C I S
22
Cultural Identity Studies
Rob Garbutt is an Associate Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Writing
at Southern Cross University, Australia. He earned a BSc in Chemistry at CIS
22
the University of New South Wales, a Master‘s in Adult Education at the
University of Technology, Sydney, and a PhD in Cultural Studies at Southern
Cross University. He has published on the topics of place, identity and
belonging, as well as on equity in higher education.
P
e
te
r
L
a
n
g
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
The Locals
Cultural Identity Studies
Volume 22
Edited by
Helen Chambers
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Rob Garbutt
The Locals
Identity, Place and Belonging
in Australia and Beyond
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
Garbutt, Rob, 1961-
The locals : identity, place and belonging in Australia and beyond /
Rob Garbutt.
p. cm. -- (Cultural identity studies ; 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-0343-0154-1 (alk. paper)
1. National characteristics, Australian. 2. Group
identity--Australia. 3. Ethnic groups--Australia. 4.
Immigrants--Australia. 5. Australia--Emigration and immigration--Social
aspects. I. Title.
DU121.G36 2011
305.800994--dc22
2010049173
ISSN 1661-3252
ISBN 978-3-0343-0154-1
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2011
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission
of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage
and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Germany
To my mother, Dorrie Garbutt,
and to my partner, Shauna McIntyre,
with love

Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Within and beyond the clearing 13
Chapter 2
Local geographic 31
Chapter 3
The locals: A critical review of literature 69
Chapter 4
The local word 107
Chapter 5
Becoming local: White on white 159
Chapter 6
White ‘autochthony’ 175
Chapter 7
Towards an ethics of location 205
viii
Select Bibliography 221
Index 239