ABSTRACT
This provocation concerns itself with the relative lack of visibility of non-Anglo migrants in Australia's heritage listings. It argues that this stems from a lingering structural racism that is embedded in heritage practice in Australia. Focusing on the case of Chinese migration to Australia between the 1840s and 1940s, it is shown how, in skewing heritage nominations in favour of the original architectural classification of old buildings, the association which Chinese migrants had with many of these places is obscured or discursively erased. The result is that the theatre of heritage effectively becomes a form of white public space.
