ABSTRACT
The structures of social action within which this work takes place are the hard-won outcomes of histories and cultures, in turn the products of human social interaction sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant. Authors have argued that nation states are not the best means of achieving such a consummation, that rather it is the people themselves who most nearly approach, fleetingly and chaotically, the dream of human community. This work was partly conceived of as participating in that quest, with the knowledge that no definitive answers would ever be possible, and recognising that it is the quest for even a transitory understanding of human being that itself constitutes one of the most enduring and universal human endeavours. Since Australians have become more easily articulate about our quest for a national identity, the authors have produced an extraordinary amount of work, in art, film, literature, music and dance, in learned theses and bureaucratic reports, all interrogating ourselves and our everyday lives.
