The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire, 1788-1840

有人认为澳大利亚一直是一个以种族为基础的社会，奉行不利于澳大利亚土著居民和我们的亚洲邻国的种族政策，这种观点在全国引起了激烈的辩论。知名记者争辩说，种族从来不是澳大利亚历史上的推动力，这不利于理解复杂的历史，对历史学家的贬损攻击也无助于向我们的邻国解释过去。殖民时期的澳大利亚是否是一个以种族为基础的社会还有待确定。由于土著对ATSIC消亡的不确定性，以及我们的伊斯兰邻国之间日益加剧的敌意，我们比以往任何时候都需要冷静的学术来对澳大利亚的过去进行复杂的解释。

The view that Australia was always a racially based society, pursuing racial policies to the detriment of indigenous Australians and our Asian neighbours, is subject to rancorous national debate. Polemical assertion by high profile journalists that race was never a driving force in Australian history is not conducive to understanding complex history, nor are derogatory attacks on historians helpful in explaining the past to our neighbours. Whether colonial Australia was a race-based society remains to be established. With indigenous uncertainty over the demise of ATSIC and rising antagonism among our Islamic neighbours, there is need, as never before, for dispassionate scholarship to provide a complex interpretation of Australia's past.