This text features essays by Australian cultural commentators on the pursuits and concerns that give meaning and significance to everyday life. This re-assessment of Australian cultural life ranges from heritage, gender and fashion, to the beach, new films and the Sylvania Waters phenomenon.

This is a re-assessment of Australian cultural life. The collection features essays by many of Australia's leading cultural commentators on the pursuits and concerns that give meaning and significance to everyday life. It covers a wide range of topics, including cultural heritage, gender, fashion, food, sport, the beach, new films and the Sylvania Waters phenomenon. A portrait of the new Australia, it covers indigenous, feminist, multicultural and regional issues, along with changes to the workplace and to political maps.

Future pasts, David Carter
the new heroes - inventing a heritage, Peter Cochrane
making diversity work - the changing cultures of Australian workplaces, Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis
doing it with your mates - connecting aspects of modem Australian masculinity, Peter Looker
things we want to keep - discovering Australia's cultural heritage, Ken Taylor
jacking up - styles of protest in Australia, James Warden
the funny country, Richard Harris
Australia and the world in schoolbooks, Julian Thomas
the beach, the coast, the signifier, the feral transcendence and pumpin' at Byron Bay, Craig McGregor
Laurie and Noeline and Sylvania Waters, Joy Hooton
strictly stomper - the new Australian films, David Headon
are we what we eat?, Bev Kingston
Packer cricket, Richard Cashman
it's Sony rock and roll - contemporary Oz rock, Philip Hayward
profits from the desert? The Adelaide Festival of Arts, Andrew Taylor
short stories - tabloid culture in the 1950s, Ann Curthoys and Kathryn Evans
the polities of the Australian tribe - a confidential report on the political habits of the Australians, made by an anthropologist from outer space, Donald Home
inventing "the economy", Jo-Anne Pemberton
not finding a word for it - political language in the 1990s, Judy Brett
1974 - just another year, Peter Read
"Life and sweaty" - ethnic communities at play, Philip Mosely
a sporting chance? The federal construction of Aboriginal sport, Vicky Paraschak
the mirrored ceiling - fashion and Australian women, Margaret Maynard
a day at the zoo, Kay J. Anderson.