Abstract

This article, drawing on Peter Beilharz’s account of Bernard Smith’s conception of the Antipodes, argues for the utility of using the connections between Australia and New Zealand as a means of exploring aspects of settler state and national relations within a local, meso-regional and global perspective. The historical development of British imperial and settler state citizenship provides the setting for demonstrating how an Antipodean viewpoint could be pursued. Emphasis is placed on the creation and reproduction of aboriginal and immigrant minorities, the establishment of strategic cross-Tasman regional relations, and shifts in the reconstruction of majority ethnic and national imaginings