School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemUncomfortable histories: learning with contested and confronting history in Australian museums( 2016)Today’s museums are charged with responsibilities far exceeding the straightforward display of interesting or unique objects; increasingly, they are expected to represent a wide range of stories, often focusing on bringing to light histories that – for various reasons – have previously been hidden or neglected. In Australia, the stories museums have told have been passionately debated for several decades, with considerable consternation meeting exhibitions deemed to over-emphasise the violence of colonisation or to present triumphalist narratives of Australian involvement in overseas wars. These are similar to debates that rage within academic history and school history education in this country. Previously silenced or ‘untold’ histories are often a source of collective shame and pain, and this thesis examines the representation of histories likely to provoke such discomfort in museum visitors. These contentious and confronting histories are difficult material for inclusion in museum displays at a time when appealing to diverse audiences is essential to survival. This thesis examines the potential for museums to support the learning of school-aged visitors, analysing the representation of ‘uncomfortable histories’ across three Australian museum institutions: the Australian War Memorial; Museum Victoria; and Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority. It considers the question of which histories are seen as ‘difficult,’ contentious or confronting in these museums, and argues that histories of war and violence, discrimination and collective trauma are often connected to perceived responsibilities for museums in civics and citizenship education and/or education for social justice. The three museums are addressed in case studies that draw on archival research, interviews with museum staff, and analysis of museum exhibitions and education programs. This thesis conceptualises the museum as a heterotopia, a ‘space of difference’ where visitors can encounter an unfamiliar familiar – ‘visiting’ history in the present and viewing displays as a ‘separate’ reality, even while the museums themselves are located within the society they seek to represent as ‘other Within the museum, affect and emotion have become central to communicating and teaching the past, and this thesis analyses what Margaret Wetherell describes as ‘affective practices’ alongside an investigation of the implications of cultural memory and collective trauma in museum representations. This thesis argues that ‘uncomfortable histories’ carry significant potential to support history learning in museums, although this potential can be employed to vastly different ends. In some instances, discourses surrounding previously ‘untold’ stories are put to work to encourage a celebration of difference, endeavouring to lay the foundation for more socially just communities and to create space for multiple perspectives of the past and present. In other cases, histories of violence and trauma are employed to reinforce dominant narratives that silence and undermine conflicting perspectives and seek to present a more singular representation of Australian history. In all cases, contentious and confronting histories are used to provoke emotional responses and affective practices that promote particular understandings of the past. Each of the museums analysed faces considerable challenges in managing political and community pressures when representing these histories, but each demonstrated a commitment to representing the past with accuracy and authenticity. Ultimately, this thesis argues, in spite of the difficulties representing confronting history for diverse audiences, museums see considerable educative value in constructing encounters with the uncomfortable past.
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ItemI was a good-time Charlie: social dance and Chinese community life in Sydney and Melbourne, 1850s-1970s( 2016)A vibrant calendar of balls and dances has long been at the heart of Chinese-Australian community life. It was at these dances that community members most powerfully experimented with and articulated what it meant to be a Chinese Australian across dimensions of race, gender and class. This thesis traces the history of Chinese community life through various social events in Sydney and Melbourne over a period spanning roughly 120 years, using dance as a prism through which to offer new insights into the interplay of the material and the emotional in the lives of young Chinese Australians. It will do so first by examining the historical contexts which shaped the early motivations of Chinese Australians who participated in dance, determined the avenues through which they socialised collectively, influenced outsiders’ perceptions of Chinese community life, and lent social and political meanings to Chinese community activities. Subsequently, this thesis turns its focus to selected dances and Chinese community events which took place in Sydney and Melbourne, restoring to the centre of study events which have often been dismissed as peripheral to main theatres of historical action. In doing so, it illuminates the social, political and emotional ends which these events served and which in turn fuelled the strength of Chinese community social life in the period under study. It also provides insight into the experiences of Chinese-Australian youth, particularly Australian-born Chinese adolescent women, who were often vital participants, organisers and ambassadors within their communities. By demonstrating the varying and complex investments Chinese Australians made in their communities through their participation in these dances, this thesis challenges earlier scholarly assumptions that Chinese community life ebbed in vitality in the first half of the twentieth century. Towards these aims, this thesis draws upon a wide range of archived documentary and oral history sources, as well as numerous private documents, photographs, memoirs and correspondence to recover otherwise inaccessible aspects of Chinese-Australian social history.
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ItemFrom Achilles to Anzac: classical receptions in the Australian Anzac narrative( 2016)The Anzac narrative lies at the heart of Australian national identity and this thesis demonstrates how its authors have drawn upon classical narratives to attain and maintain this position. Since the first Australian soldiers landed on Gallipoli’s beaches at dawn on 25 April 1915, allusions to the classical world have been drawn upon to compose the Anzac narrative. The proximity of Gallipoli to the presumed site of the legendary Trojan War (on the other side of the Dardanelles) ignited the imaginations of soldiers, journalists, historians, poets, novelists, artists and politicians. From the outset, Anzac soldiers were likened to ancient Greek warrior heroes and the Gallipoli campaign was compared with the mythical Trojan War. After the Great War ended, large-scale commemoration of those killed in service to their nation commenced in Australia. The idealised image of the Anzac soldier based on the ancient warrior heroes from mythical narratives endured during this period, but was coupled with ideologies from fifthcentury BCE Hellenic democracies, which venerated those soldiers who died in service to their state in order that their deeds be remembered for evermore. Anzac commemoration, like the commemoration of ancient Greek citizen-soldiers, was focussed on equal recognition for all those who died, and memorialised the dead in such a way that their sacrifices inspired the surviving citizens to dedicate themselves to the improvement of their community for future generations. Integral to the coupling of ancient Greek and Anzac commemorative practices was the Australian War Correspondent and Official Historian, C.E.W. Bean. Bean was classically educated and drew on his knowledge of the past to create a detailed record of wartime events as a legacy for the Australian people of the time, and also those of the future. To provide context, the thesis commences with a survey of classical reception in Australia prior to the Great War. It then traces the many ways the classics were drawn upon to compose the Anzac narrative. During the war, journalistic, literary, historical and personal narratives focussed on the strength and beauty of the Anzac soldier, and comparisons to the heroes of ancient Greek mythology were common. After the war, commemorative efforts dwelt on the magnitude of sacrifice, emphasising that building a prosperous Australian future would ensure that these losses incurred would not be in vain. To do this, democratic commemorative practices and funerary rituals of fifthcentury ancient Greek states were employed in Australian commemorative efforts. These established a strong link between Anzac commemoration and ancient Greek ancestor hero cults. After the Second World War, the Anzac narrative dwindled before being revived in the 1980s, in part, by Peter Weir’s film Gallipoli, which transformed the imperialist Anzac narrative into a nationalist story of Australian maturity and independence for a new generation of Australians in need of a distinct national identity. The classics have been written into the very foundations of the Anzac narrative and function to elide space and time, connecting the Australian people to Europe and the Western tradition. Associating Anzac deeds with the classical tradition positioned Australia as a descendant of great civilisations and has ultimately shaped a cult of Anzac reminiscent of ancient Greek ancestor hero cults.
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ItemA voice for animals: the creation, contention & consequences of the modern Australian animal movement, 1970-2015( 2015)During the unrest and upheaval of the 1970s and at a time when social movements were struggling for liberation and justice, a fresh wave of animal activism emerged in Australia. From the rearing of pigs and poultry in intensive farms, the slaughter of Australian sheep and cattle in the Middle East and South East Asia, the use of animals in research, the shooting of native waterbirds, to the consumption of meat, across Australia the modern animal movement consistently contested the politics and culture of how animals were used and exploited. Engaging with diverse approaches to studying social movements, exploring previously unexamined archives, and through interviews with current and former leading activists, this thesis offers the first major historical study of the creation, contention, and consequences of animal activism in modern Australian history. Through an account of the ideas of animal rights and by analysing other dynamics and processes, this thesis tells the story of how ordinary people were inspired to take action and create the modern animal movement. By exploring the development and performance of a wide variety of protest methods, such as lobbying, direct action, civil disobedience, open rescue, undercover investigations, and lifestyle activism, this thesis reveals the often innovative and provocative ways in which activists made their claims and challenged the status quo. In doing so, this thesis also examines a set of complex and conflicting outcomes, for the animal movement affected the political agenda, policy, industry, media and communication, and the very fabric of society. Over time, activists influenced and pluralised Australian politics, society, and culture, although not necessarily in the ways they desired. Ultimately, through narrating and analysing the modern animal movement, this thesis reveals how and why ordinary people engaged in politics and activism, and uncovers the extent and limits of the changes they stimulated.
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ItemA history of Churchill Island: settlement, land use and the making of a heritage site( 2015)This thesis utilises a public history approach to respond to the desires of the project’s public stakeholders to obtain a rigorous and detailed history of Churchill Island, and to examine its nature as a heritage site. It examines how Churchill Island has been variously imagined and used to make a permanent settler colonial space. In doing so it argues that the history of the island offers a rich example of the complexity of settlement in Victoria. An exploration of the intersections between the practices of community engagement, academia and history, the thesis responds to the challenges thrown up by the History Wars and the Churchill Island Project by making a history of settlement that is both academically critical and publicly accepted.
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ItemThe civilisation of Port Phillip( 2014)In understanding their place in the Port Phillip District, free settlers were pulled between the European legacy of the Enlightenment and the Australian experience of brutal encounters, in which those in power deployed violence against both Aboriginal people and convicts. Somewhere between these two sources of understanding lay the ideologies of Port Phillip’s free settlers. This thesis contends that a close examination of the colonial archive reveals the ideologies of Port Phillip’s free settlers. By identifying the specific intricacies of these settler ideologies, we can achieve a better understanding of the white settlement of the District. This thesis uses the lenses of rhetoric and violence to identify and understand free settler ideologies. It analyses settler statements about their role in the District using Roland Barthes’ idea of ‘mythologies’—statements of purported fact that mask ideological positions. Slavoj Žižek’s breakdown of violence into three separate forms helps conceptualise the realities of the early settlement period, and creates new and productive understandings about violence in the Australian colonies. The thesis applies these theoretical tools to a series of incidents and individuals of Port Phillip. It contends that these seemingly insignificant points of history actually reveal much about the early District, including imagined futures, ideological struggle, and intellectual debate. In different contexts, free settlers defined themselves against Aboriginal people, government officials, and convict-class labourers, and they also expressed their aspirations for the future of the District. Free settler rhetoric in the Port Phillip District established and maintained a settler polity in southeastern Australia whose influence continues to be felt today. Combining a re-reading of the colonial archive with new historiographical methods and an extensive review of the existing literature, this thesis upends conventional progress narratives, and in their place presents a truer picture of what free settlers termed the civilisation of Port Phillip.
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ItemLeft wing Melbourne artists and the Communist Party during the early Cold War period( 2013)Although the 1950s remain in the collective psyche as a distinct period of dull, uneventful, complacency, there have been some intellectual reassessments which present the period as a more fluid and formative time in our social and political history. I will reinforce this view by examining the cultural landscape of Melbourne. For a section of society, including cultural workers, this was a challenging and difficult period, when lives took a turn towards a new kind of political intensity. Progressive, left-wing artists wished to have a say in the building of post-war culture and sought a stake for the underdog in the future of the nation in the face of the Menzies Government’s political and moral war against the Left. I explore issues such as how artists’ participation in the early Cold War political scene affected their strategies for professional survival. I highlight the relationship of artists to the Communist Party of Australia, by focusing on its cultural policies and political practices and by asking, what was its role and degree of significance in the lives of artists? How did left-wing cultural workers negotiate the tension between following the Party line and their own creative expression? By exploring these themes I will demonstrate that the 1950s was a time of highly engaged creative and artistic endeavour and a period of ferment around issues of left-wing politics and art. The thesis studies individual artists as well as relevant left-wing cultural institutions from the 1950s. I submit that a significant effect of the cultural Cold War in Melbourne was to encourage artists to join groups which provided support, political activism and means of expressing their art-forms. There were important ‘warrior’ institutions that were part of the Left during this period. I discuss the activities of a number of these and examine their relationship with the Communist Party. They are the New Theatre, the Realist Film Association and the Victorian Division of Actors Equity. I also discuss the role of the Guardian weekly newspaper and the CPA’s theoretical journal, the Communist Review. The activities of these individuals, groups and institutions provide evidence of an effective role played by art and culture within the political sphere. The picture emerges of a melding of art with political life to an extent that counters popular descriptions of Melbourne as unstimulating and lifeless during the 1950s. For those artists who saw themselves in combat with conservative forces, life was indeed far from dull.
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ItemPrinciples and paradoxes: the Whitlam government's approach towards the Palestine Liberation Organisation, 1972-1975( 2011)Australian policy towards the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was the source of significant controversy during the Whitlam government’s term in office. Between the years 1972-1975, disagreement within the major political parties and among the Australian public over responses to the PLO emerged in several crises over the period. Drawing upon archival sources and popular media, this thesis examines the personalities, pressures and paradoxes that shaped the government’s viewpoint on the PLO. The difficulties that Whitlam encountered in maintaining a neutral approach and the domestic debate over the government’s even-handed policies contributed to an issue that, although overlooked in much of the scholarship of the period, proved to be an extremely controversial aspect of the Whitlam government’s conduct of Australian foreign policy. Whitlam’s policies to the PLO have been interpreted as being anti-Israel in their orientation, inextricably tied to Middle East economic concerns and an abandonment of Australia’s alliances and principles in international relations. This thesis argues that contrary to this, the overall purposes of Whitlam’s foreign policies to the PLO are best understood in the context of Whitlam’s desire to reshape Australian national identity. Over the course of the events during 1972 and 1975 and the ensuing debate over the PLO, Whitlam strives to articulate a foreign policy that was free of racial considerations, which upheld the principle of neutrality and that demonstrated Australian independence in the world. Whitlam’s commitment to reshaping Australian international relations and renewing Australian identity provided the foundation for his resilience in seeking to accord the PLO with some level of recognition in Australia.
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ItemWitnessing Australian stories: history, testimony and memory in contemporary culture( 2010)This thesis identifies and examines a new form of public memory-work: witnessing. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in response to the increased audibility of the voices of Australian Indigenous peoples and asylum seekers. Drawing upon theories of witnessing that understand the process as an exchange between a testifier and a ‘second person’, I perform a discourse analysis of the responses of settler Australians to the rise of marginal voices. Witnessing names both a set of cultural practices and a collective space of contestation over whose stories count as ‘Australian’. Analysing a range of popular texts - including literature, autobiography, history, film and television programmes - I demonstrate the omnipresence of witnessing within Australian public culture as a mode of nation building. Though linked to global phenomena, witnessing is informed by, and productive of, specifically national communities. From Kate Grenville's frontier novel The Secret River (2005), through to the surf documentary Bra Boys (2007), witnessing has come to mediate the way that people are heard in public, and how their histories and experiences are understood within cultural memory. Linked to discourses on national virtue and renewal, witnessing has emerged as a liberal cultural politics of recognition that works to re-constitute settler Australians as ‘good’ citizens. It positions Indigenous peoples and asylum seekers as ‘objects’ of feeling, and settler Australians as ‘gatekeepers’ of national history. Yet even with these limits, witnessing remains vital for a diverse range of groups and individuals in their efforts to secure recognition and reparation for injustice. Though derided under the Howard government as an ‘elite’ discourse, for a large minority of settler Australians witnessing has become central to understandings of ‘good’ citizenship. With the election of Rudd - and the declaration of two national apologies - witnessing has been thoroughly mainstreamed as the apotheosis of a ‘fair go’.
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ItemIn their own words: locating generations of women in an Australian family, 1846 to 1990( 2010)This thesis examines selected texts across several generations in one middle-class Australian family to retrieve histories of so-called ordinary women whose lives are often invisible in mainstream history. The women’s life experiences that spanned geographically the Queensland outback to the city of Melbourne, were interspersed with interludes in Paris and England in the late 1880s, and Egypt and Salonica in the First World War. Relying on fragmentary sources including personal letters, photographs, daily work diaries, household accounts, postcards and other ephemera, and earlier family historians’ compilations, the thesis captures the complex web of relationships sustained through personal tragedies, deep affections and intermittent hostilities. The significance of women’s central place within the family emerges clearly while revealing the workings of class, gender and race. Despite the particular nature of these generational stories, nevertheless five case studies indicate how certain middle-class women experienced wider social changes on a remote cattle station in the Queensland bush, in hospital nursing in towns and cities, as expatriate colonials performing Australian identities at times of national emergence and within family life in a prestigious Melbourne suburb. The narratives of these individual women demonstrate intriguing aspects of the changing lives of Australian women played out the level of intimate everyday life.