CROSSINGS : Volume 10.1 / 2005

Photo: Church at Hermannsburg, Central Australia Editor: Associate Professor David Carter Published by: Australian Studies Centre, The University of Queensland Copyright 2005

EDITORIAL : David Carter Welcome to the first issue of Crossings for 2005. This is a 'bumper' issue with news from around the world about new Australian studies developments and recent events, a number of original essays, and an extraordinary calendar of forthcoming conferences. First let me publicise two InASA 'events'. Last year saw the publication of the collection Thinking Australian Studies: Teaching Across Cultures (UQP 2004). Edited by Kate Darian-Smith, Gus Worby and me, the book contains essays from two InASA conferences plus new commissioned papers on the history of Australian studies and especially the teaching of Australian studies in international contexts. This important collection can be purchased on-line from the University of Queensland Press via their website at uqp.uq.edu.au. In June this year (16-17 June 2005) InASA and the Weemala Indigenous Unit of the McAuley campus of the Australian Catholic University are holding a two-day symposium on 'Indigenous Issues in Australian Universities: Teaching, Research, Support'. Convenor is Maggie Nolan (m.nolan@mcauley.acu.edu.au). A new feature in this edition of Crossings is that we are publishing all the abstracts from last year's successful British Australian Studies Association conference, held at Cardiff University, Wales. Abstracts are linked to authors' e-mail addresses enabling interested readers to make contact directly. A selection of essays from the conference will be published in a future issue of the UK Journal of Australian Studies. We have three remarkably varied essays: Michele Lang writing on the largely forgotten Indigenous art of decorated boab nuts from the Kimberley; Juan Josi Varela Tembra, from Salamanca, Spain, on the evolution of the Catholic Church in Australia (the first time Crossings has published in Spanish); and Lun-hung Nora Chiang from National Pingtung and National Taiwan Universities on the integration of middle-class Taiwanese women in Australasia (first published in the Asian Journal for Women's Studies, Korea). The internationalism of Australian studies is alive and well! Our news items include reports from the Menzies Centre in London, from Ian Henderson, currently the Centre's Lecturer; from Professor Maryvonne Nedeljkovic, Université du Havre; and from poet, philosopher and activist John Kinsella, proposing a new, trans-national, cross-institutional, but more than virtual, School of Environmental Poetics and Creativity. Denis Haskell reports in from Georgetown, Hilary Carey from University College, Dublin, where she has recently taken up the position of Keith Cameron Professor of Australian History, and David Gilbey announces two new publications from Charles Sturt University. We also bring news of the University of Melbourne's Australian Centre Literary Awards. We also include a press release from the Australia-Japan Foundation, announcing the appointment of Les Terry from Victoria University of Technology, as the next Professor of Australian Studies at Tokyo University (a position currently held by our regular contributor on Aboriginal art, Christine Nicholls). Les has recently published an autobiographical work, The Remarkable Resurrection of Lazarus X (Simon & Schuster), which has been very well received. Finally could I invite all readers to register or update their details on ASID, the Australian Studies International Database.