School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Protest and patient care: Employing theories of organising and mobilisation to explain the growth of the Victorian Nurses' Union
    Tierney, James L. ( 2015)
    After striking for the first time in its history in 1985, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victorian Branch) (ANMF) has experienced consistent and continuous growth in union membership since 1990, a period in which most unions have suffered a decline in membership. Drawing on an analysis of the trade union ‘organising’ model and social movement theories of organisation, mobilisation, leadership and the framing of grievances, this thesis will chart the history of the Branch over this period. It will address three questions. First, how was the union able to grow and flourish in a period characterised by union membership decline? Second, what strategies did the leaders of the Branch employ to ensure this growth and success? Third, how were these strategies developed and how were they applied in industrial campaigns?
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    Zazou, Zazou Zazou-hé: a youth subculture in Vichy France, 1940-44
    Seward, Kate G. ( 2007)
    In the late 1930s, French singer Johnny Hess launched his career in the cabarets ofParis. In 1939, he released the hit song “Je Suis Swing”. The catchy chorus proclaimed: “Je suis swing, je suis swing, dadou dadou je m'amuse comme un fou, je suis swing, je suis swing, zazou zazou zazou-hé”. In the winter of 1941, an eccentric group of young people began to gather in cafes on the Champs-Elysées and in the Latin Quarter of Nazi occupied Paris. They called themselves Zazous. This thesis is a history of the Zazou youth subculture in press, film and literature. It uses contemporary popular culture to explain a socio-cultural phenomenon which emerged under the Vichy regime and the Nazi Occupation. Three case studies each introduce a different representation of the Zazous. The first case study is the caricature of the Zazou in the collaborationist press. The second case study is Richard Pottier's 1942 film Mademoiselle Swing. The third case study is the Zazou as literary subject in Boris Vian's Cent Sonnets and Vercoquin et le plancton. In reading the Zazou through a cultural prism, each chapter details a different element of the subculture's function within the "parent" culture. The collaborationist press were writing for supporters of the Vichy regime and actively promoting the values of the National Revolution. Mademoiselle Swing was a popular representation seeking a wide, perhaps even a mass, audience. Boris Vian wrote his novel and poetry from within the subculture itself; his intended audience was familiar. These case studies reveal as much about the Vichy regime as they do the Zazous: the subculture is a mirror in which Occupation culture is reflected. The Zazous posed real ideological problems for Vichy. However, in reacting so vehemently, the regime in fact magnified the Zazous' social influence. In examining the Zazous, not only does a defined "world" of youth emerge, but we also uncover the incoherent nature of the Vichy regime. The thesis also traces a chronological evolution of the Zazous from “Je Suis Swing” in 1939 to their effective dissolution with the introduction of the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) in the winter of 1942-43.
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    With my needle: embroidery samplers in colonial Australia
    Fraser, Margaret Eleanor ( 2008)
    This thesis examines a group of more than one hundred needlework samplers stitched in the Australian colonies during the nineteenth century. It uses them as documents of social history to examine the lives of individual girls and women during that time, and to trace changing expectations of girls, especially in the later decades of the century. Although there are many individual stories that can illuminate certain aspects of Australian history such as migration, settlement, and death and mourning, these samplers are most useful as documents in the examination of girls' education and the social expectations transmitted through the education system. It addresses the contradiction between the sampler's continuing presence in girls' schooling and the increasing irrelevance of the skills embodied in it. The thesis argues that needlework samplers retained their place in girls' education well into the twentieth century because of their significance as symbols of feminine accomplishment. They were physical expressions of a definition of respectability that was based on the `feminine ideal' of the nineteenth century and allayed anxiety about girls' involvement in formal schooling.
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    Beyond the book: reshaping Australian public history in the Web 2.0 environment
    Sheehy, M. G. ( 2008)
    With digital media and the web becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives, few historians have considered in depth the impact that this is having on the ways that history is represented and communicated in the public sphere. This thesis is an examination of how the practice of public history in Australia is being reshaped in the Web 2.0 environment. In the context of new media theory, public history practice is considered in relation to identifiable changes in the ways the web is used and understood. The public historian’s concern with interpreting the past to a public audience means that changing social practices and information patterns are pertinent to their work. This thesis highlights the ways in which different forms of history are being produced, distributed and consumed on the web. It focuses on the potential role of the web user as an active producer of personal and creative interpretations of the past and on how experimental public history practices in the Web 2.0 environment have emerged in response to changing audiences. This study argues that the rise of Web 2.0 is reflected by personalised, ubiquitous, democratic and innovative public history practices on the web. Through an in depth analysis of The Powerhouse Museum collection search and YouTube as case studies, this thesis shows how increased participation, the proliferation of user-generated content, social networking and existing practices by users in the Web 2.0 environment reshapes public history. This thesis goes beyond conceiving of the web as a site of historical source material, both digitised and born-digital, to an understanding of the value of participatory media and informal communication in enabling the sharing of historical knowledge and materials between and among networks of people on the web.
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    From idol to artform: missionaries and material culture in the Pacific
    MCGILL, ESTHER ( 2012)
    In Hawai’i the introduction of woven cloth and sewing circles led to the development of a distinctive form of quilting. In Arnhem Land in Australia the transition to a market economy through the promotion of local art and craft production led to the material transformation of bark painting from objects of temporary use to artefacts of permanent significance. In both of these cases missionaries played a key, though often unintentional, role in the development of these artforms. This thesis is an exploration of Indigenous creativity and purpose combining with missionary influence on Pacific material culture. Particular focus is made of the development of quilting in Hawai’i in the nineteenth-century and bark painting at Yirrkala in the twentieth-century, culminating in Lili’uokalani’s 1895 ‘Queen’s Quilt’ and the 1963 Painted Bark Petition. During periods of social change, transformations occur in material culture produced by a society. Exploring the relationships between missionaries and Indigenous peoples through artistic expressions of the time illuminates many aspects of these relationships otherwise restricted to European-dominated accounts. Material culture is used as an historical source material to explore cultural changes and corresponding notions of authenticity, as expressed through missionary and museum collections. This thesis is concerned with the two-way nature of cultural exchanges, with particular reference to the art produced through these relationships, art that is both aesthetically beautiful and socially powerful. Queen Lili’uokalani’s Crazy Quilt and the Yirkaala bark petitions both appropriated aspects of European culture in order to create new objects of significant cultural, political, and social importance, and were generated out of missionary-Indigenous relationships.
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    Indigenous representation in Australia's frontier and foreign wars
    Nguyen, Van Thuy ( 2005)
    This thesis investigates the evolving perception of Australian identity and its impact on the commemoration of Indigenous soldiers. Structured around three case studies, this thesis follows a chronological timeline of commemorative practices characteristically colonial in its presentation of Indigenous Australian communities. The first chapter focuses on colonial constructions of national identity and its influences on the legacy of Captain Reginald Saunders, the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. Referencing his 1960s biography and textual memorial, The Embarrassing Australian by Harry Gordon, this thesis argues that it is only through the language of assimilation that Saunders was accepted as an "Australian" and appropriately commemorated for his military achievement. The second chapter highlights evolving perceptions of Australian history and national identity and the impact of Indigenous soldier commemoration within the Australian War Memorial. While the Memorial initially disregarded the Indigenous Australian contribution to the war effort, it has since evolved to acknowledge their role within its galleries. The final chapter looks at museums and their representation of Indigenous soldiers during the Frontier Wars. The portrayal of Indigenous soldiers, either as savages or warriors, among the museum displays and storyboards reflect how the nation chooses to publicly commemorate them. The methods adopted by museums reveal their rejection or acceptance of the Indigenous story of European colonization. By showing how forms of representation are tied to historical moments in regards to Indigenous soldiers and linking these commemorative trends with Australian national identity this research both adds to the body of literature on Australian commemoration and foreshadows an evolving trend where perceptions of "nation" are increasingly willing to embrace an Indigenous past into its definition.
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    The role of the chaplaincy in the Bermudian convict establishment
    Brasier, Angeline ( 2007)
    The role of the chaplaincy in the Bermudian convict establishment is best delineated by a case study of one of the longest serving chaplains, Rev. Robert Mantach (1795 - 1853). In the face a monumental adversity, Mantach established and superintended schools on board each hulk at Ireland Island. He helped both educated and Irish Roman Catholic prisoners obtain mitigation of sentences. His experiences as chaplain will help demonstrate how the British Government perceived the role of chaplain and how chaplains were instruments of Government policy and the extent to which this was consistent with their sacred function.
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    The private face of patronage: the Howitts, artistic and intellectual philanthropists in early Melbourne Society
    Clemente, Caroline ( 2005)
    This thesis investigates a case of upper-middle class, private patronage in Melbourne, focusing on three decades between 1840 and 1870. Evidence points to the existence of a lively circle of intellectual and artistic activity around the Quaker family of Dr Godfrey Howitt and his wife, Phebe, from the Midlands who arrived at the Port Phillip District in 1840. The presentation of a group of fine, rare colonial water-colours and drawings to the National Gallery of Victoria by a direct Howitt descendant, Mrs James Evans in 1989, was the point of inspiration for this subject. Godfrey Howitt, one of the first experienced medical practitioners in the colony, had much in common with the Superintendent of Port Phillip. Their friendship gave the Howitts entrée into the uppermost social circles of the colony. Financially, the family prospered due to Howitt's professional practice which insulated them against economic downturns and provided a steady accumulation of wealth. While as a Quaker, Phebe Howitt had little background in the fine arts, she began to exercise patronage in support of her artist friends, most of who arrived with the gold rush in 1852. With it came Godfrey Howitt's elder brother, William, a famous English author. In London in 1850, William and Mary Howitt's daughter, the feminist painter and writer, Anna Mary, had become engaged to Edward La Trobe Bateman. A brilliant designer and cousin of Superintendent La Trobe, Bateman introduced the young, still struggling Pre-Raphaelite artists with whom he was closely associated, to the English Howitts. Arriving in Melbourne in 1852, William was followed shortly afterwards by Bateman and two artists, including the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor, Thomas Woolner. The gold rush also attracted Eugene von Guérard, and Nicholas Chevalier in due course. In 1856, as a guest of the Howitts' on her first Victorian visit, Louisa Anne Meredith, writer, botanical artist and social commentator, was introduced to their artistic and literary circle. The Howitts' friendship with these artists thus took on a very different hue from the normal patterns of patronage. Beyond commissioning works of art from artists returning empty handed from the gold fields, Phebe Howitt supported them in other ways until suffering a catastrophic stroke towards the end of 1856. During that period, the founding of the new Victorian colony's cultural institutions became a source of official artistic commissions for the first time. Through friends in influential positions like Justice Redmond Barry and Godfrey Howitt, Bateman was employed in various design projects for new public buildings and gardens. With the purchase of Barragunda at Cape Schanck in 1860, Godfrey Howitt assumed a central role as patron. In making the house available to Bateman and his artist friends, he and his daughter, Edith Mary, repeated the unusual degree of patronage formerly exercised by Phebe Howitt before her illness. By 1869, Woolner, Bateman and Chevalier had departed the colony and from 1870, von Guérard was taken up with the National Gallery of Victoria. Although succeeding generations of the family maintained contact with all the artists in their circle, by Godfrey Howitt's death in 1873, the prime years of Howitt patronage had passed.
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    Historical context, patronage and decoration of the Melbourne Livy
    Doyle, Moira ( 2000)
    The end of the fourteenth century saw the production in Paris of translations of the Latin classics in large, de luxe format, such as the Melbourne Livy manuscript. This study examines the historical development of French vernacular literature prior to these productions. It is argued that the demand for vernacular translations was not a sudden phenomenon but resulted from a tradition that had begun three hundred years earlier, a tradition that was aided by the political, social and cultural climate existing in France at that time. Possible reasons why Jean le Bon chose Pierre Bersuire for the task of translating Livy's History of Rome are investigated. It is concluded that Bersuire was ideally suited for the task because he had access to the most complete Livy texts available at the time, he was a renowned academic and humanist and was a respected, senior member of the Church. Examining the linguistics of the translation is outside the scope of this study but the success of the translation is measured by other factors: the dissemination of the text, the lavishness of its copies, the use of the manuscripts and the impact of the translation on other translations. The Melbourne Livy is argued to have belonged to the Burgundian Court and was possibly a New Year's Day gift to Philippe le Hardi from Dino Rapondi in 1400. Because of the lack of documentary evidence, the argument is based on stylistic comparisons between the Melbourne Livy and three other manuscripts, which are the only extant manuscripts that were produced by the Rapondi brothers for Philippe le Hardi. The comparison concentrates mainly on border decorations, but miniatures are also compared. The similarities in the decorative elements identified by these comparisons support the contention that the four manuscripts were all produced in the one workshop so may have been intended for the one patron - Philippe le Hardi. The illustrative programme is then studied from the point of view of influences that impacted upon it as well as its possible aims. Apart from relating the Melbourne Livy programme to previous Livy manuscripts and the wider genre of historical narrative, the political, social and didactic influences are also gauged. It is concluded that the Melbourne Livy adequately served the social and political aims of its patron. Finally, in an attempt to answer the question raised by previous scholars regarding the number of artists involved in the programme, a detailed study of the miniatures is undertaken. It is my belief that three, or possibly four artists were involved. My findings confirm the attribution by Millard Meiss that the miniatures of the 'first artist' relate to the Cite des Dames Master; and that the 'second artist' is most likely the Polycratique Master as suggested by Francois Avril. The remaining artist or artists were strongly influenced by this latter Master. Because of the highly collaborative nature of manuscript illumination, however, no decisive conclusions are drawn.
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    The AIDEX '91 protest: a case study of obstructive direct action
    McIntyre, Iain ( 2011)
    In November 1991 the biennial Australian International Defence Exhibition (AIDEX ‘91) was held in Canberra at the National Exhibition Centre (NATEX). Organised in the context of the drive by the Australian Labor Party to double domestic military exports between 1987 and 1992, the event attracted overseas and domestic arms manufacturers and buyers, as well as up to 2000 protesters from across Australia. There had been a similar demonstration at the previous AIDEX exhibition, held in 1989, and this one occurred in the wake of recent disruptive protest activity around issues such as rainforest imports and old-growth logging as well as events such as the first Gulf War. During the eleven-day protest a number of events occurred across Canberra including religious ceremonies, concerts and a series of rallies at Parliament House and in the city centre. The majority of protesters camped across the road from NATEX and picketed its main gates. Tactics as varied as lying passively on the road and setting barricades on fire were employed, causing much debate during and after the event. Media coverage was widespread and often sensational, leading many protesters to complain of misrepresentation. The protest was also marked by allegations of extensive police violence and over 200 arrests were made. In the months leading up to AIDEX ‘91 the government of the Australian Capital Territory had announced that it would not allow another arms fair to be held in the region. The poor publicity generated in the build-up to the 1991 event also saw the number of exhibitors fall from 234 to 138. During the protest, displays, military vehicles and other items were either delayed or prevented from entering the site. Afterwards, attempts by the event organiser, Desiko Pty Ltd, to organise similar events on federally owned property in the ACT and in the adjoining town of Queanbeyan, New South Wales were blocked by local and state authorities wary of the disruption caused during AIDEX ‘91. Although air shows and smaller events have continued to be held in Australia, there has not been an arms exhibition on the scale of AIDEX since 1991. This thesis will provide a history of the AIDEX ‘91 protest. In doing so it will seek to understand why the issue of arms fairs arose at this time as well as how and why a particular repertoire of contention, which I have labelled ‘Obstructive Direct Action’, was employed by activists as part of a strategy of ‘coercion’. The organisation, promotion and unfolding of the protest will be examined and evaluated along with the outcomes it produced. The ways in which protests such as these reflect the tactical, organisational and strategic choices that activists make, consciously or otherwise, will also be considered along with how such choices are shaped by the context in which they occur.