VOL 6.2, 2001:   editorial   |   inasa   |   executive   |   essays   |   conferences   |   news   |   publications   From the President: InASA   Gus Worby   It is a privilege and pleasure to be President of InASA for 2001-2002. I'd like to pay tribute to David Carter for his period in that Office. He has been an important and eloquent advocate for Australian Studies at local, national and international levels and, as the new Director of the Australian Studies Centre at University of Queensland and InASA Executive member, he will undoubtedly continue to play a vital role. Indeed, a glance at the composition of the Executive in this issue will yield ample evidence of the company he keeps and the strength of Australia Studies in its representatives, manifestations, locations and connections: Directors of Centres in Australia and abroad; prestigious Chair holders — like Marilyn Lake at Harvard; scholarly authors; distinguished feminists; teachers; social scientists; humanists. Australian Studies has a feisty past and an impressive present because of the struggle to situate different approaches to the study of 'Australia' as material reality, concept and construct. These current leaders and supporters of our Association have done much to shape that debate — and continue to do so in print, in the academy, in the 'corridors' of government and in the very public media. InASA reflects, first and foremost, the intellectual capital and prowess at our disposal and then the institutional support which attends and recognises those resources — especially but by no means exclusively in the Centres and in major sequences and topic offerings in disciplines and programs which connect and attract Australianists around the world. In this context it is right and fitting that we pay our respects to and celebrate the memory of the late Kay Daniels whose CRASTE report Windows onto Worlds grounded and informed so much of the subsequent discussion and debate in our field. At our next Executive Meeting, at the suggestion of Lyndall Ryan, we will consider ways of recognising this contribution. In the first edition of Crossings for 1996 David Headon, then editor of the bulletin, wrote of an untidy changing of the guard in Australian Studies, of attempts to combat the 'back-to-the-trusty-disciplines' pressure and the pervasive corporate tendencies of university bureaucracies, and again of the multiple meanings of Crossings identified by Helen Irving — intersections, multidisciplinarity, the desire to get away from the straight and narrow. Corporatisation goes on apace in our private and public sector institutions and the need for new meeting points to assess and debate its impacts is more pressing than ever. Change often seems untidy by necessity but there is life in the exchanges which attend it. Witness David Carter's report in the last number which encourages bilateral communication and demonstrates the international networking opportunities on offer to Australianists through personal contacts, awards, conferences, chat sessions, media hookups and joint or shared publications. The API network so vigorously promoted by Richard Nile is another case in point and this year's packaging of six 'Federation' publications from Australian and International conferences sets exactly the right sort of precedent for future collaborations. Each in its way identifies Australian Studies as a site of negotiation. Together they also bespeak consolidation. InASA seeks to be an honest though not impartial broker in these negotiations, its 'internationalism' identified in its outlook and willingness to facilitate connections and of course to promote and demonstrate interest in Australia/within Australia. The most immediate opportunity to meet with colleagues to discuss such possibilities will be at the EASA Reconciliations Conference in Lecce in September. I look forward to that very much. Its title (like Crossings ) is packed with meanings: balancing the books; mending broken relationships; coming to terms with 'self'; calling history to account; paying the rent; recognising rights and responsibilities... Whilst it is a key concept in a particular discourse on nation and the role played by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in the process of national self definition and international recognition, it also points to a way of 'being Australia' — to borrow Donald Horne's phrase from the Ideas for Australia program of a decade ago. In this respect InASA's annual conferences — like the recent and lively Nation and Narration multi-disciplinary event held in Brisbane — offer great scope for critique and interaction. We anticipate that the 2002 June InASA Conference will be in South Australia. Meetings at Flinders University involving Australianists from a range of disciplines and colleagues from Yunggorendi First Nations Centre are well under way. In this partnership we look to stress the very centrality of Indigenous issues to the Australian Studies endeavour within the problematics and beyond discourses of reconciliation. A final note. I would like to acknowledge the generous support of Kate Darian-Smith as InASA Secretary and say how much I look forward to working with new Treasurer Catriona Elder and Australian and International Vice Presidents Stephen Alomes and Andrew Hassam. Contents   |   Next Page