Suchergebnisse

Memorials to white explorers and pioneers long stood (virtually) unchallenged in the heart of Australia's towns and cities. By occupying civic space, they served to legitimise narratives of conquest and dispossession, colonising minds in the same ways 'settlers' seized vast tracts of territory. The focus of this article is a memorial raised to the memory of three white explorers, 'murdered' (it was claimed) by 'treacherous natives' on the north west frontier. It examines the ways that historians and the wider community took issue with this relic of the colonial past in one of the first encounters in Australia's statue wars. The article explores the concept of 'dialogical memorialisation' examining the way that the meanings of racist memorials might be subverted and contested and argues that far from 'erasing' history attacks on such monuments constitute a reckoning with 'difficult heritage' and a painful and unresolved past. It addresses the question of whose voice in empowered in these debates, acknowledges the need for white, archival based history to respect and learn from Indigenous forms of knowledge and concludes that monuments expressing the racism of past generations can become platforms for truth telling and reconciliation.

'Marxism and Australian Socialism before the Bolshevik Revolution' by David W. Lovell with Janis Flaherty is reviewed.

The Great Strike of 1890 in Australia and New Zealand symbolized the rise of class, influenced nationalist discourse, and shaped labour politics. It also signified a crisis in gender relations. Conservatives and unionists openly contested the meaning of masculinity, mobilizing concepts of manhood in ways specific to class, community, ethnicity and age. Both groups were alarmed by the role women played in the dispute; attacks on scabs and special constables and the occupation of public, 'male' spaces challenged ascribed boundaries, customs and locales, and revived a rich tradition of pre‐industrial protest.

When Australian soldiers returned from the First World War they were offered the chance to settle on 'land fit for heroes'. Promotional material painted a picture of prosperous farms and contented families, appealing to returned servicepeople and their families hoping for a fresh start. Yet just 20 years after the inception of these soldier settlement schemes, fewer than half of the settlers remained on their properties. In this timely book, based on recently uncovered archives, Bruce Scates and Melanie Oppenheimer map out a deeply personal history of the soldiers' struggle to transition from Anzac to farmer and provider. At its foundation lie thousands of individual life stories shaped by imperfect repatriation policies. The Last Battle examines the environmental challenges, the difficulties presented by the physical and psychological damage many soldiers had sustained during the war, and the vital roles of women and children