Multicultural Australia - fact, fiction or aspiration?

The seminar paper presented by Dr. John McLaren focuses on the meaning and value of multiculturalism in education, history and in society at large, as an indication of the tenacity with which a dominant culture, in this case that of British Australia, clings to its privileges. While this tenacity may in part be attributed to the relationship between this culture and the economic power to which it gives access and by which its dominance is maintained, the ferocity of the debate suggests deeper insecurities. Thus, Mr Hugh Morgan's opposition to Aboriginal land rights can easily be explained by Western Mining's desire to turn Australia into a quarry, but his apparent belief that if we acknowledge the violence of white settlement or validity of Aboriginal spiritual beliefs we are jeopardising the survival of both the nation and Christianity demands psychological rather than economic explanation