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This essay is a theoretical exploration of how interracial families are sites for the development and articulation of hybrid identity: complex ways of representing and positioning oneself within larger social constructs of racial, social class, gender, and cultural difference. Our aim here is to examine the significance of place, locality, and situated "racializing practices" in the constitution of identity. We draw on Stuart Hall's concepts of "New Times" and "hybridity" to argue that interracial subjects or family formations have always been and continue to be of cultural and political concern in both postcolonial and post-industrial nation states and economies. Our cases and illustrations come from the context of the current public and political debate over immigration and multiculturalism, in Australia, a debate that highlights once again the centrality of "race" in the popular imaginary. Working from postcolonial and feminist theory, we argue that "between two cultures" theorizations, and extant research and social policies on multiculturalism, do not adequately account for the hybridity and multiply situated character of several generations of interracial subjects. Throughout we offer comments from interracial families we interviewed. In closing, we turn to more specific narratives of the development of racializing practices and racial identities in two specific local sites: the cities of Darwin and Brisbane. We conclude by drawing implications from this study for multicultural and antiracist educational theorizing and practices.
THE STUDY
This essay draws on interview narratives from the initial phase of a three year study of interethnic families in Australia.l In the first two years of the study ( 19961997, we interviewed couples in 42 visibly mixed-race marriages, where one partner was visibly Caucasian, white Australian and the other was of visibly Indo-Asian background. Because a key focus was on the effects of the visibility of mixed-race families in what historically has been a predominantly white Anglo-European society, we selected couples where one member was of visible racial difference. Because we were also concerned with understanding how the development of cultural representation and identity occurred in relation to specific histories and situations of "place" and geography, we studied families in five major Australian cities: Townsville, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, and Melbourne.
Our research focus and choice of subjects was based on our own 25-year history as an...