Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies - An issue presented to the distinguished Australian folklorists, Hugh Anderson and his wife, Dawn, in his eightieth year

Abstract

In this last year there have been many indications that the Folklore discipline is gaining considerably in both academic and general recognition in this country, much as it is abroad. Specifically, not only have there been our own Association's members contributing to major folklore and related conferences in North America and the United Kingdom, but Graham Seal was invited to give a keynote opening address - on concepts concerned with ANZAC - to a special inaugural Folklore Conference at the Victoria University of Wellington, in the New Zealand capital. Like grand theme conferences continue to be associated with the National Library in Canberra, while more applied ones are linked with state libraries and regional festivals. Similarly, it is pleasing that a long 2005-written paper from an AFA member has more recently appeared in the electronic journal, 'Folklore' edited in Estonia. It may also be noted that Australian scholars represented in this present issue reach out to field materials in Burma, Canada, and elsewhere, while many of their themes are 'global contemporary'. We have also been interested in the way in which Folklore and Ethnography, perhaps, rather than Anthropology, may be said to be coming together. Of course, this has been the case in some sense, for many years, and the matter has been discussed in our pages.