'I'm white, she's black, so what'? : telling stories of gender, race and interracial romance in Australia

Aboriginal Australian/white interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. This rise in the number of interracial relationships raises the question of why this trend is prevalent, and what impact it is having on Australian society. Although scholars and the media promote this growth in numbers of interracial relationships as a positive sign that past social and cultural divisions 'are dissipating', minimum research has given attention to the motivating forces behind these relationships, or the impact these relation-ships may have on the couples themselves. This study utilises individual and conjoint interviews with six interracial heterosexual couples to explore how they confront their racial identities, experience the public gaze, raise biracial children and negotiate racial, gen-der and class differences. Some families initially disapproved of their children marrying outside their race and their 'concerns' are traced to a history of race relations in Australia. The narratives of the research participants reveal a myriad of ways in which race shapes the interactions of partners with each other, as well as with family members, working associates and strangers. Nevertheless, despite keenly perceiving the racial attitudes of the community around them, the interracial couples interviewed tended to minimise or even discount the relevance of race in their own relationships