Voices of Challenge in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

This book brings together long-obscured histories to discuss Australia’s cultural, social, and political diversity in depth. The history of Australia’s migrant and minority print media reveals extensive evidence for the nation’s global connectedness, from the colonial era to today. A fascinating and complex picture of Australia’s long-term transnational ties emerges from the smaller enterprises of individuals and communities in the distant and more recent past. This book explores the authentic voices of minority groups which challenged the dominant experiences, patterns, and debates that have shaped Australia. 

 

“Catherine Dewhirst and Richard Scully once more bring together a thought-provoking compilation of original studies of Australia’s minority and migrant press. The thematic scope and chronological range of their ‘Voices of Challenge’ are wide —Italian and Chinese communities and their journalism, indigenous media, class, gender, culture and counter-culture, ethnicity, politics, and propaganda. A candid account of the fortunes of the elite minority Medical Journal of Australia is an unexpected bonus. There is much to be learned and pondered in this well-edited volume.” (Cameron Hazlehurst, Honorary Professor, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Australia) 

“Voices of Challenge showcases cutting-edge scholarship in Australian media history, taking advantage of our ever-increasing access to historical newspapers and journals through digitisation and especially that wonderful Australian invention, Trove. Using textual analysis, oral history, and archival research, the authors show how diverse groups such as European socialists, Chinese merchants, Indigenous activists, and first wave feminists all used print culture to strengthen their communities and challenge those in power. In the spirit of ‘history from below’, these essays also demonstrate that a focus on marginalized groups can cast light on wider national, diasporic and world histories.” (Ann Curthoys, Honorary Associate Professor, The University of Sydney, Australia)

“Scholars have long discussed the role of news and journalism in constructing, in competition or in tandem, the Australian nation and an imperial Britishness. Moving beyond this established historiography, the fascinating essays in Voices of Challenge in Australia's Migrant and Minority Press compellingly restore unjustly neglected communities and visions, including ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, and trans-European cosmopolites, to their rightful place. In doing so, they providea valuable new perspective on Australian history and an important contribution to global and alternative journalism studies.” (Mark Hampton, Associate Professor of History, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, author of Visions of the Press in Britain, 1850-1950, Hong Kong and British Culture, 1945-97)

Catherine Dewhirst is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.  She has published on Italian-migrant histories and co-edited, with Richard Scully, The Transnational Voices in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press (Palgrave, 2020). 

Richard Scully is Associate Professor in Modern History at the University of New England, Australia. He is the author of numerous studies of the history of cartoons and caricature, including Eminent Victorian Cartoonists (3 volumes, 2018) and British Images of Germany (Palgrave, 2012).