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This paper reflects on the methodological, academic, and ultimately personal challenges involved in constructing the Find & Connect web resource, a public history project funded by the Australian Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in response to the 2009 apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants. Central to these challenges is the relationship between the researchers and the key stakeholders: the Care Leavers and the organizations that ran the institutions in which they spent their childhoods. The paper explores the use of collaborative history in negotiating the conflicting hopes and expectations of the various parties to the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia's middle powers face a trilateral dilemma stemming from their relationships with the U.S. and China. This paper uses the Australian example to examine the dilemma. It shows that Australia has bound itself to the U.S. because of domestic political factors, cost considerations, a belief that it can keep its interests separate, and its perception of regional threats. The paper then argues that others are likely to resolve their trilateral dilemmas in ways that make the regional strategic dynamic more competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes China's impact on Australia-U.S. relations from 1949 to 1996, including how far Australia's China policy followed the American lead. The conclusion: American influence was dominant, but Australia's own initiative was enough to belie the suggestion that it was no more than a blind follower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical overview of Australian, Chinese, and American perspectives on trilateralism, with a detailed discussion of Australian debates on the matter. Its aim is to trace the evolution of the changing discourse on the rise of China, examine major debates in Australia, and provide both an intellectual background and an overview for this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City Council of Lismore, on the Far North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, has developed a series of large story sites along on the banks of the Wilsons River, to tell the district's history. Each site contains six large, visually striking interpretation panels using the river as the common theme. Lismore is in the heart of a region that has seen great demographic transformation in the past thirty years, as internal migration from southern states to the warm north coast have brought a diversity of newcomers into the rural countryside with a large indigenous population of traditional custodians. Story telling is a vital aspect of the research and text for the panels. Coming from the anecdotal reflections of one member of the project team, this paper explores the collaborative process between the two historians—one non-Aboriginal and one Aboriginal consultant—as we addressed tensions in the non-Aboriginal community about representations of the contact zone and found our way in presenting diverse stories in a public arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lost histories behind museum holdings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ancestral remains provide cautionary tales as to what happens when a society neglects, forgets, or attempts to conceal traumatic episodes in its history. As the writing of the history becomes separated from the event in time, in space, and in culture, the short-term impacts of the event are lost, while the long-term impacts are often trivialized or ignored. However, on re-discovery, it becomes clear that these histories cannot be left to disappear. This paper describes some of the emerging recovered histories that have been facilitated by the repatriation of ancestral remains by the National Museum of Australia. I hope it will serve as a reminder that the events of the past do echo in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]