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Books > History > Australasian & Pacific history
Christmas Island is a small territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean. It is home to three main ethnic groups, the smallest of which are European Australians. Christmas Island is also where those who arrive "illegally" to seek asylum in Australia are accommodated. Christmas Island has played a key role in Australian security, located as it is at the northern extremity of Australian territory; much closer to Indonesia than to the nation to which it belongs, and from whose territory it has recently been excised for migration purposes. As a migration exclusion zone, Christmas is both within and without of the nation, and has gone from a place known among nature lovers for its unique red crabs and bird life to the highly politicised subject of national concern and heated debate. But what is it like to be at home on Christmas Island? How do locals make and come to be at home in a place both within and without of the nation? This anthropological exploration--the very first one ever undertaken of this strategically important island--focuses closely on the sensual engagements people have with place, shows how Christmas Islanders make recourse to the animals, birds and topographic features of the island to create uniquely islandic ways of being at home--and ways of creating "others" who will never belong--under volatile political circumstances. This original ethnography reveals a complex island society, whose presence at the very edge of the nation reveals important information about a place and a group of people new to ethnographic study. In and through these people and their relationships with their unique island place, this ethnographic exploration reveals a nation caught in the grip of intensive national angst about its borders, its sense of safety, its struggles with multiculturalism, and its identity in a world of unprecedented migratory movement. As the first book in the discipline of anthropology to study Christmas Island in ethnographic terms, Christmas Island is a critical work for all collections in anthropology and Australian Studies. "Christmas Island is described by Simone Dennis as 'the last outpost of the nation', that is, a multicultural microcosm of contemporary Australia, worried by a search for a national identity in touch with the past but not limited by it...In Simone Dennis, Christmas Island has its consummate ethnographer and analyst." - Professor Nigel Rapport, University of St. Andrews
This book considers the law, policy and procedure for child witnesses in Australian criminal courts across the twentieth century. It uses the stories and experiences of over 200 children, in many cases using their own words from press reports, to highlight how the relevant law was - or was not - applied throughout this period. The law was sympathetic to the plight of child witnesses and exhibited a significant degree of pragmatism to receive the evidence of children but was equally fearful of innocent men being wrongly convicted. The book highlights the impact 'safeguards' like corroboration and closed court rules had on the outcome of many cases and the extent to which fear - of children, of lies (or the truth) and of reform - influenced the criminal justice process. Over a century of children giving evidence in court it is `clear that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same'.
This book offers the first in-depth enquiry into the origins of 135 Indigenous Australian objects acquired by the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1855 and held now by the British Museum. In response to increasing calls for the 'decolonisation' of museums and the restitution of ethnographic collections, the book seeks to return knowledge of the moments, methods, and motivations whereby Indigenous Australian objects were first collected and sent to Britain. By structuring its discussion in terms of three key 'stages' of a typical naval voyage to Australia-departure from British shores, arrival on the continent's coasts, and eventual return to port-the book offers a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of the pathways followed by these 135 objects into the British Museum. The book offers important new understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples' reactions to naval visitors, and contains a wealth of original research on the provenance and meaning of some of the world's oldest extant Indigenous Australian object collections.
From its rise in the 1830s to its pinnacle in the 1930s, the opium trade was a guiding force in the Chinese political economy. Opium money was inextricably bound up in local, national, and imperial finances, and the people who piloted the trade were integral to the fabric of Chinese society. In this book, Peter Thilly narrates the dangerous lives and shrewd business operations of opium traffickers in southeast China, situating them within a global history of capitalism. By tracing the evolution of the opium trade from clandestine offshore agreements in the 1830s, to multi-million dollar prohibition bureau contracts in the 1930s, Thilly demonstrates how the modernizing Chinese state was infiltrated, manipulated, and profoundly transformed by opium profiteers. Opium merchants carried the drug by sea, over mountains, and up rivers, with leading traders establishing monopolies over trade routes and territories and assembling "opium armies" to protect their businesses. Over time, and as their ranks grew, these organizations became more bureaucratized and militarized, mimicking-and then eventually influencing, infiltrating, or supplanting-the state. Through the chaos of revolution, warlordism, and foreign invasion, opium traders diligently expanded their power through corruption, bribery, and direct collaboration with the state. Drug traders mattered-not only in the seedy ways in which they have been caricatured but also crucially as shadowy architects of statecraft and China's evolution on the world stage.
The Foundation of Australia's Capital Cities is the story of how the places chosen for Australia's seven colonial capitals came to shape their unique urban character and built environments. Tony Webster traces the effects of each city's geologically diverse coastal or riverine landform and the local natural materials that were available for construction, highlighting how the geology and original landforms resulted in development patterns that have persisted today.
In 2002, Governor General Michael Jeffrey stated that 'we Australians had everything under control in Phuoc Tuy Province'. This referred not only to military control, but to the policy of 'pacification' employed by the Republic of Vietnam and external 'Free World' allies such as the US and Australia. In the hopes of stemming the tide of Communism, pacification aimed to win the allegiance of the populace through political, economic and social reform. In this new work, Thomas Richardson explores the 1st Australian Task Force's (1ATF) implementation of this policy in Phuoc Tuy between 1966 and 1972. Using material from US and Australian archives, as well as newly translated Vietnamese histories, Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966-1972 challenges the accepted historiography of the Western forces' fight against insurgency in Vietnam.
From its rise in the 1830s to its pinnacle in the 1930s, the opium trade was a guiding force in the Chinese political economy. Opium money was inextricably bound up in local, national, and imperial finances, and the people who piloted the trade were integral to the fabric of Chinese society. In this book, Peter Thilly narrates the dangerous lives and shrewd business operations of opium traffickers in southeast China, situating them within a global history of capitalism. By tracing the evolution of the opium trade from clandestine offshore agreements in the 1830s, to multi-million dollar prohibition bureau contracts in the 1930s, Thilly demonstrates how the modernizing Chinese state was infiltrated, manipulated, and profoundly transformed by opium profiteers. Opium merchants carried the drug by sea, over mountains, and up rivers, with leading traders establishing monopolies over trade routes and territories and assembling "opium armies" to protect their businesses. Over time, and as their ranks grew, these organizations became more bureaucratized and militarized, mimicking-and then eventually influencing, infiltrating, or supplanting-the state. Through the chaos of revolution, warlordism, and foreign invasion, opium traders diligently expanded their power through corruption, bribery, and direct collaboration with the state. Drug traders mattered-not only in the seedy ways in which they have been caricatured but also crucially as shadowy architects of statecraft and China's evolution on the world stage.
Spanning four centuries and vast space, this book combines the global history of ideas with particular histories of encounters between European voyagers and Indigenous people in Oceania (Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands). Douglas shows how prevailing concepts of human difference, or race, influenced travellers' approaches to encounters. Yet their presuppositions were often challenged or transformed by the appearance, conduct, and lifestyle of local inhabitants. The book's original theory and method reveal traces of Indigenous agency in voyagers' representations which in turn provided key evidence for the natural history of man and the science of race. In keeping with recent trends in colonial historiography, Douglas diverts historical attention from imperial centres to so-called peripheries, discredits the outmoded stereotype that Europeans necessarily dominated non-Europeans, and takes local agency seriously.
Despite the Australian Constitution having been one of the most stable since its commencement in 1901, it is becoming fatally flawed. The Naked Australian Constitution examines these flaws and the lack of public appreciation of those defects. This is due to several serious errors, including the racial basis of its origin, and the misleading nature of its text-with the High Court having interpreted it in a remarkably subjective manner, undermining the few express requirements and freedoms in the Constitution while also applying concepts that are not required by the constitutional text. As a result, the Constitution is now what the High Court says it is, instead of what it was expected to be by its drafters. Most Australians have no knowledge of the Constitution or its operation, but with the growing subjective application of the Constitution, this constitutional digression requires remedy by a Constitutional review. Ian Killey argues that without review, the Australian people will eventually see the Australian Constitution for what it is rapidly becoming-an Emperor with no clothes.
This book is the first history of commercial television in regional Australia, where diverse communities are spread across vast distances and multiple time zones. The first station, GLV Latrobe Valley, began broadcasting in December 1961. By the late 1970s, there were 35 independent commercial stations throughout regional Australia, from Cairns in the far north-east to Bunbury in the far south-west. Based on fine-grained archival research and extensive interviews, the book examines the key political, regulatory, economic, technological, industrial, and social developments which have shaped the industry over the past 60 years. Regional television is often dismissed as a mere extension of - or footnote to - the development of Australia's three metropolitan commercial television networks. Michael Thurlow's study reveals an industry which, at its peak, was at the economic and social heart of regional communities, employing thousands of people and providing vital programming for viewers in provincial cities and small towns across Australia.
The story of an essential Australian Army Corps
This book examines how convicts played a key role in the development of capitalism in Australia and how their active resistance shaped both workplace relations and institutions. It highlights the contribution of convicts to worker mobilization and political descent, forcing a rethink of Australia's foundational story. It is a book that will appeal to an international audience, as well as the many hundreds of thousands of Australians who can trace descent from convicts. It will enable the latter to make sense of the experience of their ancestors, equipping them with the necessary tools to understand convict and court records. It will also provide a valuable undergraduate and postgraduate teaching tool and reference for those studying unfree labour and worker history, social history, colonization and global migration in a digital age.
The New Port Moresby: Gender, Space, and Belonging in Urban Papua New Guinea explores the ways in which educated, professional women experience living in Port Moresby, the burgeoning capital of Papua New Guinea. Drawing on postcolonial and feminist scholarship, the book adds to an emerging literature on cities in the "Global South" as sites of oppression, but also resistance, aspiration, and activism. Taking an intersectional feminist approach, the book draws on a decade of research conducted among the educated professional women of Port Moresby, offering unique insight into class transitions and the perspectives of this small but significant cohort. The New Port Moresby expands the scope of research and writing about gendered experiences in Port Moresby, moving beyond the idea that the city is an exclusively hostile place for women. Without discounting the problems of uneven development, the author argues that the city's new places offer women a degree of freedom and autonomy in a city predominantly characterized by fear and restriction. In doing so, it offers an ethnographically rich perspective on the interaction between the "global" and the "local" and what this might mean for feminism and the advancement of equity in the Pacific and beyond. The New Port Moresby will find an audience among anthropologists, particularly those interested in the urban Pacific, feminist geographers committed to expanding research to include cities in the Global South and development theorists interested in understanding the roles played by educated elites in less economically developed contexts. There have been few ethnographic monographs about Port Moresby and those that do exist have tended to marginalize or ignore gender. Yet as feminist geographers make clear, women and men are positioned differently in the world and their relationship to the places in which they live is also different. The book has no predecessors and stands alone in the Pacific as an account of this kind. As such, The New Port Moresby should be read by scholars and students of diverse disciplines interested in urbanization, gender, and the Pacific.
Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (1916) explores Hawaiian folktales and myths collected by W. D. Westervelt. Connecting the origin story of Hawaii to the traditions of other Polynesian cultures, Westervelt provides an invaluable resource for understanding the historical and geographical scope of Hawaiian culture. Beginning with the origin story of Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, Westervelt introduces his groundbreaking collection of legends on the volcanic nature of the Hawaiian Islands. When the goddess Pele comes to the island of Hawaii seeking a permanent home, she finds Ai-laau, another god of fire, already in possession of the territory. Despite his fearsome power over creation and destruction, Ai-laau disappeared the moment he became aware of Pele's presence. Having traveled across the limitless ocean, her name was already known far and wide, along with her reputation for strength, anger, and envy. Establishing herself within the crater of Kilauea, Pele quickly took command over the gods, ghost-gods, and the people inhabiting the islands. Central to Hawaiian history and religion, Pele continues to be celebrated in Hawaii and across the Pacific today. With a professionally designed cover and manuscript, this edition of W. D. Westervelt's Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes is a classic of Hawaiian literature reimagined for modern readers. Add this beautiful edition to your bookshelf, or enjoy the digital edition on any e-book device.
This book draws on archival, oral history and public policy sources to tell a history of foster care in Australia from the nineteenth century to the present day. It is, primarily, a social history which places the voices of people directly touched by foster care at the centre of the story, but also within the wider social and political debates which have shaped foster care across more than a century. The book confronts foster care's difficult past-death and abuse of foster children, family separation, and a general public apathy towards these issues-but it also acknowledges the resilience of people who have survived a childhood in foster care, and the challenges faced by those who have worked hard to provide good foster homes and to make child welfare systems better. These are themes which the book examines from an Australian perspective, but which often resonate with foster care globally.
A colorful illustration of Hawaii's most cherished origin story, the myth of Pele and Hiiaka. Pele and Hiiaka: A Myth From Hawaii (1915) is a collection of folktales by Nathaniel B. Emerson. Drawing from written histories, personal experience, and extensive interviews, Emerson provides a lyrical account of the myth surrounding these goddess sisters. Pele, the goddess of volcanoes and ruler of Kilauea, and her sister Hiiaka encounter adventure, tragedy, and love during their respective journeys. These stories are not only appreciated for their beauty, but also their deep religious and cultural impact. With a professionally designed cover and manuscript, this edition of Nathaniel B. Emerson's Pele and Hiiaka: A Myth From Hawaii is a classic of Hawaiian literature reimagined for modern readers.
The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in Australian history. New York, 1874. Members of the Clan-na-Gael - agitators for Irish freedom from the English yoke - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote prison in the British Empire, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa to rescue the men from the stone walls of this hell on Earth known to the inmates as a 'living tomb'. What follows is one of history's most stirring sagas that splices Irish, American, British and Australian history together in its climactic moment. For Ireland, who had suffered English occupation for 700 years, a successful escape was an inspirational call to arms. For America, it was a chance to slap back at Britain for their support of the South in the Civil War; for England, a humiliation. And for a young Australia, still not sure if it was Great Britain in the South Seas or worthy of being an independent country in its own right, it was proof that Great Britain was not unbeatable. Told with FitzSimons' trademark combination of arresting history and storytelling verve, The Catalpa Rescue is a tale of courage and cunning, the fight for independence and the triumph of good men, against all odds.
Contemporary female novelists tend to portray the relationship between women and the state as profoundly negative, in contrast to various constructions in current feminist theory. Martine Watson Brownley analyzes novels by Margaret Atwood, Paule Marshall, Nadine Gordimer, and Margaret Drabble to explore the significance of this disparity. The book uses literary analysis to highlight elements of state power that many feminist theorists currently occlude, ranging from women’s still minimal access to state politics to the terrifying violence exercised by modern states. At the same time, however, feminist theory clarifies major elements in many contemporary women’s lives about which the novels are ambivalent or misleading, such as romantic love and the role of sexuality in state politics. Deferrals of Domain fills a double gap, both authorial and topical, in current critical treatments of women writers and will be of interest to both literary and women’s studies scholars.
Madness in the Family explores how colonial families coped with
insanity through a trans-colonial study of the relationships
between families and public colonial hospitals for the insane in
New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand between 1860
and 1914.
Originally published in 1928, this book is a comprehensive study of the Maori people - their inner lives, customs and beliefs - by one who lived amongst them during a time before modern western civilisation had much altered their existence. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: The Maori and his Surroundings - His Foods - Meat Foods - His Language - Some Maori Customs, Muru - More Maori Customs, Tangi - Maori Superstitions - The Maori and His Superstitions - More Maori Superstitions, Makutu - The Maori as a Warrior - The Coming of the White Man - The New Era - The New Era that Failed - Another Era that Failed - The Maori Woman - The Haangi (Native Oven) - A Few Closing Words - The Treaty of Waitangi - The Waitara Blunder - Some Reasons for the Decline of the Maori - Where the White Man Treads? - A Quaint Friendship - The Maori as a Storyteller - A Bit of Diplomacy - Taranaki (Mount Egmont) - Where the White Man Treads, and a Story - A Trait and an Incident - As He Saw it - A Promise Redeemed - A Traveller's Musings - Some Native Traits - A Maori Philosopher - A Twentieth Century Tohunga - The Pathos of it All - His Simple Faith - Our First Steamboat - The Maori and Our Duty - Mistaken Endeavour - The Old, Old Plea - The White Man's Brain - Concerning Stone Axes - An Appeal - His First Romance - In Various Moods - A New Year's Experience - A Final Word on Tohungaism - The Maori as a Tradesman - A Native Plea - The Maori Girls' School atTurakina - An Important Correction - Our Half-Castle Population - Cornwall Park and It's Donor - Some Outback Impressions - A Home in the Wilderness - A Plea for the Pioneer - A Last Word |
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