12 June 1999
Aoyama University
Annual Conference of Australian Studies
Association of Japan
@
Mayumi KAMADA
Nagoya University of Commerce and
Business Administration
It is a great honour to be given an opportunity to talk at the 10th
anniversary of the Australian Studies Association of Japan. I must
admit that I feel tense to talk about 'Australian Studies in Japan'
in front of the founders and the experts in the field. Maybe I was
asked to talk at this symposium, because I am a product of the first
generation academics of Australian Studies in Japan, and also a
product of Australian Studies that the Australian government heavily
invested in. Today I do not intend to systematically review the
field, because it is beyond my capability. Rather I would like to
review Australian Studies in Japan through my personal experience as
a student in the field.
I have kept asking myself, as a student of Australian Studies, why I
am studying about a particular area of the world, 'Australia'. My
answer is very simple: A chance factor turned out to be a necessity
of my life. I happened to choose Australia as my field of study when
I was a student of the Department of International and Cultural
Studies, because at that time, American Studies was the major subject
in Area Studies of English speaking countries, and I preferred to
select a less populated field. Then I was given an opportunity to
study in Australia, and liked to continue studying. Now I cannot live
without it. I was fortunate that my interest in Australia occurred
coincident with the Australian government's commitment to develop
Australian Studies in Japan. Perhaps, it was not a coincidence, but
my interest was framed in the social context. And my interests and
the topics were a reflection of the interests of the societies of
both Australia and Japan.
My first contact with Australian Studies was a course in the
university delivered by Professor Matthews whose 'mission', directed
by the Australian government, was to provide courses of Australian
Studies in Japanese universities. As far as I understood, there were
neither many courses of Australian Studies, nor lecturers specialised
in the field at the time. When I decided to select Australia as my
field of study, I approached various institutions to learn about
Australia, such as, Hachioji Seminar, the libraries of the Australian
Embassy and the Australia-Japan Foundation in Aoyama, and Nichi-Go
Chosa Iinkai (Japan-Australia Research Committee). And I also
approached specialists of Australia who were foundation members of
this association,. These 'access points' of Australian Studies were
also closely related to the Australian government's commitment to
establish Australian Studies in Japan.
The first question I asked myself was: Had White-Australia Policy
really come to an end? It was around 1978. I remember that at one of
the seminars I attended, great concern was expressed that 'white
Australia policy' was mentioned as still existing in geography
textbooks for Japanese schools. (I must point out, though, people of
my generation who studied the textbooks still believe so.) Since
then, the core question of my study has been 'how the Australian
nation has been built'. I looked into Australia's immigration policy
towards Asian migrants particularly Indo-Chinese refugees,
multiculturalism in Australia, Australia-Asia relations, Asian
Studies in Australia, and indigenous politics. It seems that my
interests and questions were not only drawn from topical issues in
Australian society, but also from images of Australia that the
Australian government tried to present and campaigned for.
I have found three types of roles for myself, as a student of
Australian Studies. Firstly, I must learn about Australia, secondly,
learn from Australia, and thirdly, I must play a role as an 'access
point' in constructing networks of people interested in and related
to Australia.
I must firstly acquire knowledge of many aspects of Australian
society and my interpretation should be projecting the society as
closely as possible to the reality. The focus of the study often
reflects (perhaps unconsciously) interests of my conceptional
framework as a Japanese and sometimes of Japanese audiences in
general. At the same time, the appropriateness of the focus needs to
be interpreted in Australian perspectives. For instance, I once
looked into Asian Studies in Australia, in order to investigate how
Australian perspectives of Asia had changed. This research made me
realise how much my 'Japanese' perspective framed the presuppositions
of the research. I originally planned to analyse how Asia related
issues were explained in the textbooks used in Australian schools. I
presumed that there were strict curricula and syllabi of subjects
drawn up by the governments, and textbooks written according to them
(like in Japan). I expected Asian Studies to be studying about Asia,
rather than studying Asian languages. In both cases, I was wrong. My
aim in the research was partly successfully achieved in the end, but
I had to change my research strategies drastically. Instead of
looking at 'textbooks', I looked into State and Federal government
policies on Asian Studies, and some syllabi written by State
Education Departments. Through the process of learning about
Australia, I always hope to shed light on the various threads that
make up Australian society without ignoring too much the pattern of
the whole fabric. A good student of Australian Studies should be
familiar with the society as a whole and be able to focus on
appropriate phenomena of the society and provide relevant
interpretations to audiences.
Learning from Australia cannot be, in practice, distinguished from
learning about Australia. The learning process involves extracting
universal problems and questions. Please let me again talk about my
subject of interest. Studying about the 'reconciliation' process
between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians made me think what
sort of rights of indigenous people should be recognised as a general
concept, then with specific reference to Australia, and how the
rights should be ensured by changing existing systems. There is much
to be criticised in the policies and systems in Australia, but I also
appreciate the attempts at reform and the changes that have been
made. The attempts to construct political institutions for indigenous
and non-indigenous Australians to live together in Australia can be
examined as one of the models of 'self-determination' or autonomy of
indigenous peoples. I personally hope the reform will lead Australian
society to embody an Australian nation built on diversity of values,
and a new principle of a nation free from ethnic-nationalism. Perhaps
it is easier for a non-Australian to assess the process and make a
positive evaluation of the attempts of the Australian people.
Thirdly, as a student of Australian Studies, I hope I can participate
in constructing knowledge related to Australia and networking among
people in the society in which I belong. The first generation of
Australian Studies in Japan established channels of communication
among specialists in both countries, and contributed their expertise
to decision making in political and economic arenas. They also
provided us (students) with knowledge and access points to Australia.
In the last few decades, the number of specialists in the field of
Australian Studies with different disciplines has grown. Furthermore,
the number of Japanese visiting Australia has increased immensely and
interest in Australia has expanded. Today, a variety of people are
interested in and related to Australia for diverse reasons. In this
situation, networking among people interested in Australia does not
necessarily require highly specialised expertise, but experts in
Australian Studies with wider knowledge about Australian society
should play important roles in providing appropriate 'access points'
both in Japan and in Australia. I expect that networks have been
formed beyond professional interests such as in the arts, sport,
nature, and so on; and extend to groups of diverse concerns such as
the environment, human rights, economics and crime and so on, of not
only the two countries, but in the Asia-Pacific region.
Through the first decade of its life, the Australian Studies
Association of Japan has provided a place to exchange understandings
of Australia among specialists, and has organised an important
network among experts on Australia. I expect this will continue to be
so, and will be a powerful engine to create diverse networks of
people interested in Australia, and to enrich Australian Studies in
Japan.