1. Why look at both Australian and Indonesian societies in interrogating equality and difference? And why focus on gender roles and status?

2. Equality: When there is equal access to the resources people value…
health
education
Employment
political representation
recreation

3. Difference the way any society is made up of a diversity of people
culture
Sexuality & gender
age
class
linguistic backgrounds
levels of physical and intellectual ability

4. commonality
Social cohesion is ideal for most societies where, despite difference, people and groups cooperate for the common good of society. They emphasise commonality as in Hobbe’s notion of the “social contract”.
Australia: Multiculturalism. Values?…
Indonesia: “Unity in Diversity”. Values…?

5. The Australian Ideal A narrative of the nation…
Since European settlement, the state mantra has been that Australia would be an egalitarian paradise – unlike Europe with its gaping class divide and hierarchical traditions. But is Australia really the land of the “Fair go”? Was it ever?

7. A speaker at a public meeting in support of the eight-hour-day campaign declared that, "the old British idea that one class was born to labour and another to direct that labour has no place here".

8. “The birth of a nation” - thesis by historian Marylin Lake

9. masculinity and nation…
…the Anzacs had `given infinite confidence in the manhood and destiny of Australia’…`the first great fruitage of ... nationhood ... on a day of testing Australia became fully one with the Empire ... as a true man goes to his bride'.”
Read the whole article here:
(link is on wikispaces!)

10. “the Australian is a better man than any of the recently imported, because he came of the pick of a bold and adventurous stock and his peerless country improved him in two generations out of all comparison with his grandsire'. The British in contrast were the `queer little weaklings' left behind by this migration, `whose grandchildren swank around to this day and criticise Australia with the bitterness of their own inferiority’
(Anzac era reflection on Australian superiority)

11. Questions for Australia:
Is multiculturalism working?

12. Is nationalism necessarily racist?

13. Is Australia a class-less paradise?

14. Are men and women equal?

15. What about Indonesia?
Indonesia is often perceived as the poor but “threatening neighbour” to a rich and progressive Australia. Indonesia is referred to as “our backyard.” Australia’s r’ship w Indonesia questioned by human rights activists and independent journalists.
exploitation of workers and the environment
brutal occupation of East Timor, Aceh, West Papua etc
religious fundamentalism
the lack of welfare
rights of women, LGBTI, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities.

16. … Inequality in Indonesia has been supported by Australian foreign policies and the policies of Australian businesses.
Youtube clips:
Timor Leste occupation:
Balibo Five cover-up:
West Papuan asylum seekers accepted by Australia:
Police fire on gold mine protesters:

17. Key concepts of the unit
ｷ Equality
ｷ Difference
ｷ Commonality
ｷ Consequences of unequal access
ｷ Socially valued resources
ｷ The ideal of equality
ｷ Discrimination
ｷ Perception

18. Focus:
In this unit you will compare the roles and status of women in Indonesia and Australia, evaluate strategies for change, and hypothesis possible futures. You will see that the way women are treated in society must be understood across local, national and global levels.