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Belonging - A Century Celebrated About the exhibition What sort of country do you want to belong to? What ties us together as Australians? What tears us apart? Since Federation in 1901, people have felt that they belonged or did not belong in Australia for many different reasons. Belonging explores some of the ways people experienced 'belonging' in Australia in the twentieth century. Drawing on the extensive collections of the National Archives of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, and the State Library of Victoria, this exhibition challenges viewers to consider the question: Where do I belong? People Arrivals Place Building
the Nation Other Information Itinerary Expectations I was lured here by the prospect of finding winters without frostbite, and migrant brochures which showed people basking a lot. Ian Warden, journalist, Do Polar Bears Experience Religious Ecstasy?, St Lucia, 1980. The creator of this colourful and light-hearted poster, Joe Greenberg, was told later by a Czech migrant that it had been displayed in all the migrant camps in Europe, and had influenced him to come to Australia. Poster
for the Commonwealth Department of Information Arriving I had no idea when I stood at the ship’s rail and looked beyond the sheds, which were the customs sheds, to what seemed a flat land completely devoid of distinguishing features what it would be like to live in Australia. Elizabeth Jolley, author, Central Mischief: On Writing, Her Past and Herself, Ringwood, Victoria, 1992. Eight months ago when I arrived in Australia, I expected to start a new life. Quiet, peaceful and better life than the life after the war as a refugee in German Camps. I well realised the accommodation difficulties, which may exist in such an enormous immigration scheme; I was prepared for discomfort and difficult days in the beginning, but I never thought of such conditions in which I am compelled to live in Wallgrove Hostel. I will say openly:- Had I known that I will have to live in such conditions, I would never have come to Australia and would advise others against emigrating there. Wallgrove Migrant camp resident, requesting transfer to another camp or return transport to Europe, National Archives of Australia Migrants
disembarking in Sydney Becoming citizens By living in this country, inevitably learning about Australian lives, ways of culture, our children will be Australian, working, contributing all their life to Australia. Ramy Var, Cambodian refugee, now Coordinator, Newly Arrived Refugees Program, Liverpool, New South Wales. National Library of Australia, Khmer Community oral histories Once the New Australians were here, and I coined that phrase, they were encouraged to become naturalised, and when they become naturalised they cease to be New Australians and are Australians with all the rights and privileges but also with all the obligations and responsibilities of those who’ve been naturalised before them and the natural born Australians … Chamboramy
Var, Khmer Community in Australia Oral History Project. National Library
of Australia
To the Honorable
A A Calwell; illuminated address from a group of European migrants, G
G Amarapoona A ‘white’ Australia Our chief plank is, of course, a White Australia. There’s no compromise about that. The industrious coloured brother has to go – and remain away! William Morris Hughes, future Prime Minister of Australia, Bulletin, 16 February 1901 White Australia
Game The dictation test … the test, when applied to an immigrant, is intended to serve as an absolute bar to such person’s entry into Australia … Commonwealth of Australia, Immigration Restriction Act, 1901 Radical Czech writer Egon Kisch came to Australia in 1934 for an anti-war conference. Prohibited from landing in Melbourne, Kisch jumped from his ship to the wharf and broke his leg. He was arrested and bundled back on board. Kisch, fluent in several European languages, was given a dictation test in Sydney in Scottish Gaelic. He failed. The High Court ruled that Scottish Gaelic was not a European language, and he was able to tour Australia. The
undesirable immigrant Internees People from enemy nations in Australia were interned throughout the first and the second world wars. They included Germans, Austrians, Irish (after the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin), Italians and Japanese. Hans Lindau, born in Berlin, was interned in Britain as an enemy alien in 1940, and sent to Australia on the Dunera. He was interned at Hay and later Tatura camp. Lindau made this coat hanger at Hay, noting it was made ‘out of material just at hand, there was a war on, you know’. He was released in 1943. Coat
hanger made in internment at Hay, New South Wales, out of material at
hand ‘Un-Australian’ We are going to fight Communism in the open. J B Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia, during the 1946 federal election campaign Reds who would rule us Towns and neighbourhoods I think a community, and being a part of a community and knowing the community and being involved in the community makes you belong. Belonging workshop, Tumut, New South Wales, 1 March 2000 Goat
derby in front of a hotel, Cunnamulla, Queensland Bar,
Betoota races, Queensland 1961 The
knit-off, Moree Show, New South Wales Communities of faith Churches are not just congregations, they are also social groups … they are an extended family. Belonging workshop, Geraldton, Western Australia, 22 March 2000 Welcoming
Pope John Paul II, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, New South Wales Stone’s Shul (synagogue), Carlton, Victoria The congregation was made up of devout believers who found comfort, warmth and companionship in their tiny synagogue. Here they celebrated the birth of a son, witnessed his debut as a man when he had his Barmitzvah at the age of thirteen and celebrated the weddings of their children. When a member of the congregation died, his fellow worshippers visited his home every night for a week to say prayers in his memory. Harry Stein, journalist, A Glance Over an Old Left Shoulder, Sydney, 1994 Worshippers
at mosque, Auburn, New South Wales Homeland communities We used to like to fish on the wharves. There was every kind of fish in the Harbour. We used to go there when the mackerel was on. Australians don’t like the mackerel but we like it. We fished from all the wharves, Woolloomooloo, under the Bridge, Walsh Bay – all the different communities – Greek, Maltese – all with a bucket … these were families … that was our entertainment. John F, Maltese immigrant, 1995, Australian Heritage Commission, Protecting Local Heritage Places, 1999 © Commonwealth of Australia Czech
children in national costume At the club I was at home the first day I moved into Stockton, joined the historical society and the bowling club … everybody was very welcoming. Belonging workshop, Newcastle, New South Wales, 6 March 2000 Buck’s
party at the Tuggeranong Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club, Erindale,
Australian Capital Territory Gay and Lesbian Communities Gay and lesbian people in rural communities Gay and lesbian people get a hard time. One couple was hounded out of town. And another couple was harassed with eggs thrown at the house and their rubbish bins overturned. Peterborough, South Australia, September 1998, Bush Talks, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1999 © Commonwealth of Australia Gay
Pride demonstration, Adelaide, South Australia Pitching in There was a tremendous sense of people getting together. And farmers, especially, were just loading their trucks with loads of hay and bringing it down and giving it to people who’d been burnt out. Belonging workshop, Tumut, New South Wales, 1 March 2000 Fire
fighting, Blue Mountains, New South Wales Team spirit Many Australians identified with the exploits of the national cricket team and its leading player, the celebrated batsman 'our Don Bradman'. Poster
for the Australian National Travel Association Team spirit On a Friday night, late shopping night … you’d go up Smith Street, just to walk along, you’d meet everybody … and the Collingwood footballers would go along. Many occasions they’d start from Johnston Street and walk up to Laxton’s shoe shop … then they’d walk back. They had everybody following them, talking to them. Gordon Carlyon, Collingwood Football Club secretary, in Rob Kingston thesis, ‘VFL Football in Melbourne in the 1930s’ Sydney
Swans football fans Uniform – belonging made visible There was … a feeling that an army uniform might turn you into a ‘somebody’. I couldn’t get that uniform home quickly enough. Harry Stein, journalist, A Glance Over an Old Left Shoulder, Sydney, 1994 Drummoyne
Primary School Friday morning inspection and march At the races The
Members Enclosure, Melbourne Cup 1965 Dress codes The hotel at Fitzroy Crossing had a sign that read ‘Gentlemen will please wear a singlet in the dining room'. George Seddon, environmental historian, Landprints: Reflections on Place and Landscape, Melbourne, 1997 Bar
Billiards, Lancelin, Western Australia, 1963 Dress codes I do know people who look at somebody and it depends how they look, how they do their hair as to whether that’s somebody they should be associated with. Nothing about what the person is like, who they are … Belonging workshop, Launceston, Tasmania, 9 March 2000 The
Homeboys, Campbelltown, New South Wales Meeting expectations I open a magazine and a supermodel stares back at me, her waist the size of a Life Saver. An article accompanying the picture constantly mentions how beautiful she is. I immediately drop the magazine and start doing sit-ups. Can you blame me? Sarah, from country Victoria, in Kaz Cooke, Real Gorgeous: The Truth about Body and Beauty, Sydney, 1994 Swimsuit
parade at beauty contest In
front of the judging panel ‘What do you do?’ is the first question of a new acquaintance, and children are asked ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Without work most people now feel ‘useless’. Work promises self-realization. Charles Fox and Marilyn Lake, historians, Australians at Work, Ringwood, Victoria, 1990 Belonging to the union Solidarity
forever Trade union song Union
banner of the Federated Society of Boilermakers, Iron & Steel Ship
Builders of Australia Belonging in the workplace I feel I belong more to where I work than to where I live. By the nature of the job I do, I’m very involved and attached to the community here. Belonging workshop, North Sydney, New South Wales, 3 March 2000 Newcastle Steelworks provided opportunities to belong in the workplace Aboriginal people who came to Newcastle and walked through the gates of BHP could put their hands up and get work. This was at a time when they were roped off from picture theatres, they weren’t allowed in hotels, they couldn’t sit in the barber’s shop and get their hair cut. Belonging workshop, Newcastle, New South Wales, 6 March 2000 ICI
House, East Melbourne, Telephone
switchboard, 1958 © Wolfgang Sievers, 1958/VI$COPY. Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2000 Out of work I’ve got several friends who are long-term unemployed and there is nothing like the dole to make a person not belong because they don’t have the financial wherewithal that the television tells them they should have … Belonging workshop, Maroochydore/Nambour, Queensland, 16 March 2000 All
those years you bust a gut to get me through tertiary - was it worth it,
Dad? 'One people, with one destiny' For the first time in history, we have a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation. Edmund Barton, later the first Prime Minister of Australia, at a meeting in Ashfield, New South Wales, 1893, in R R Garran, Prosper the Commonwealth, Sydney, 1958. Proclamation of the
Commonwealth of Australia by the Queen Centennial
Park, Sydney, on Commonwealth Inauguration Day On 9 May 1927, nearly three decades after the first Australian parliament opened in Melbourne, provisional Parliament House was opened in Canberra by the Duke of York. The new federal capital was now the seat of government. On the same date in 1988, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Parliament House. Despite the fact that Aboriginal people were ‘controlled’ under the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act, at least one Aboriginal man attended the first Parliament House opening in 1927. At the new Parliament House a large mosaic, by Aboriginal artist Michael Nelson Jagamara, is a prominent feature of the forecourt. Research notes, Ann Jackson-NakanoIlluminated address: Duke of York’s
speech for the opening of Parliament House, Canberra Belonging to a State We’re Tasmanian first, because we’re left off the map so often. Belonging workshop, Launceston, Tasmania, 9 March 2000 The eastern states have always been envious of Western Australia for its resources, its vastness, its variety … We’ve got everything in WA and it’s only that big lump of desert that really separates our thinking. Belonging workshop, Geraldton, Western Australia, 22 March 2000 My sense of belonging is belonging to Australia, I don’t care what state I live in … Belonging workshop, Wodonga, Victoria, 29 February 2000 Each state celebrates its significant anniversaries in ways that promote its distinctive character, and affirm the part it has played in building the nation. Poster
produced for the Australian National Travel Association Jessie Clarke, a Melbourne social worker, daughter of diplomat Herbert Brookes and his wife, Ivy, herself the daughter of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, dressed up for the Centenary of Victoria celebration ball in 1934, marking the colony’s foundation. Her head-dress represents Yallourn Power Station, her cloak shows Victoria’s irrigation scheme, and her crinoline is painted with scenes of Melbourne. Jessie
Clarke in Victorian Centenary ballgown Belonging to the British Empire The death of the Queen … cast on the Empire a shadow like the blackness of an eclipse, and nowhere was that shadow darker than in Australasia … she was the symbol – the human embodiment – of the Empire… W H Fitchett, author and editor, Review of Reviews for Australasia, 20 February 1901. Queen
Victoria’s statue with mourning wreaths, Queen’s Square, Sydney Belonging to the British Empire Australians will stand beside our own to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling. Andrew Fisher, future Prime Minister, Colac, Victoria, on the eve of the first world war, 31 July 1914. Come
on boys – follow the flag! An
opportunity for the whole family to see the young Queen Elizabeth II Looking to America Without any inhibitions of any kind, I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom. John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, speaking at a press conference in 1941.l Cable
from John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia to What’s home supposed to be, anyway? Is it the flat in Sydney where I live now? That’s where my husband lives, the place we go back to after we’ve been out. It’s where we sleep every night, where we eat and bathe and talk and laugh and keep our things, where we get letters, where people call us on the phone, where we can be found if someone is looking for us. Helen Garner, author, ‘Writing home’, Australian House and Garden, January 1998 Styles of housing Australians have dreamed of and achieved in the twentieth century My little piece of dirt, the great Australian dream, is when I bought the little Queenslander, renovated, that’s pretty special, with an eastern view over the mountains. We sit there at breakfast and at dinnertime and that’s pretty cool … ‘Belonging’ workshop, Rockhampton, Queensland, 14 March 2000 House
of tomorrow, Melbourne,
furniture by Grant Featherston,
1949 Percentage
of Australians who owned or were purchasing their homes, 1900s-1990s ‘Eustan’,
Grafton Street, Woollahra, New South Wales House proud It was my mother’s first house, the first house she ever owned, and she filled it with mirrors and furniture and carpets and lamps and cherished it and kept it spotless and saw it always painted so that it gleamed like new. Morris Lurie, author, Whole Life, 1992 Griffith
Marsupial, Frank and Pierina Bastianon Home Sweet Home We had a sense of belonging in the home. Our family was a very tight knit family. And we were made to belong to the family from the start because we had great respect for our parents … ‘Belonging’ workshop, Geraldton, Western Australia, 22 March 2000 Morning
tea on verandah, Brindabella station, New South Wales Backyards Fort
Denison, Sydney Harbour Homeless ‘I
just wanted a room in Carlton.’ Jimmy, flower seller, West Melbourne
In the interests of the child The stolen generations of Aboriginal children suffered from the effects of forced homelessness. Without limiting or affecting any other powers conferred upon him by the Act, the Chief Protector shall be entitled at any time to undertake the care, custody, or control of any aboriginal or half-caste if in his opinion it is necessary or desirable in the interests of the aboriginal or half-caste for him to do so. Northern Territory of Australia,
An ordinance relating to Aboriginals, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette,
Monday 8 January 1912 We used to get no mattress; only blankets to sleep on. We used to put all the stools up and we used to sleep on those concrete floors. Two or three girls would get together – no pillows, the concrete floor we slept on, you wouldn’t even let your dog sleep on it, it was so rough. Winter time it was freezing. Emily Liddle, member of the Stolen Generations, about the Bungalow, Darwin, Northern Territory, in Rowena MacDonald, Between Two Worlds, Alice Springs, 1995 Two
girls at the Bungalow, an institution for Aboriginal children taken from
their families, Alice Springs, Northern Territory Experiencing the country The call cannot be resisted. Spring is always sure to find me on the long trail to the valleys … to experience again the weary ranges and elysian valleys, the cold o’nights and the sweat of day, the song of birds and the taste of rabbit hoosh … Myles Dunphy, conservationist and bushwalker, ‘Transbluemountainia’, 1915, Dunphy Papers, State Library of New South Wales I’ve spent more time in the Gibson Desert than pretty well anybody, I think, and perhaps I’m a bit biased but I love the place. The colours, plant life – just everything about it, the quietness, lack of civilisation, perhaps. Our deserts are not to be sneezed at. Belonging workshop, Geraldton, Western Australia, 22 March 2000 On
holiday in Tasmania Maps in the mind If anyone asks me where I come from, I’m a Mosquito Island girl, a Mossie Island girl … I have at home maps on the wall ... And I just can’t explain to you that powerful identification, emotion, feeling of belonging … Belonging workshop, Newcastle, New South Wales, 6 March 2000 In 1987 writer Nadia Wheatley and illustrator Donna Rawlins created a children’s book, My Place, which tells the story of a Sydney house and neighbourhood over 200 years. Donna Rawlins also drew a ‘mental map’ of her own neighbourhood at Clifton Hill, Victoria. It is different in many ways from the Melway street map of the same place. Donna’s Place, Clifton
Hill My
country To
me, Bonalbo is my belongin place … I’ve never known another place like
it, and I’ve travelled quite a bit around New South Wales. All my attitudes
to life I got from this town. Where we grew up Many Australian writers have given us their
memories of childhood places. As a child, I lived in
a fantasy world
and.my favourite place of all time growing
up was sitting outside or inside this big aviary that Dad gave me, with
my canaries and finches. And I could sit.there
for hours in the beautiful sunshine of Perth and just go off into another
world … and now I relate sunshine to happiness ... Geraldton
swimming pool, Western Australia Holiday places Beach
snapshot Beach
at Williamstown Holiday
at Taronga: the Old Days Lost places I'm just crying for Darwin. Darwin resident, in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, 'Cyclone Tracy', Film Australia, 1975 Development of dams and freeways has been a painful experience for many people whose homes, businesses and towns have disappeared beneath water or concrete. Interior,
Bell’s hairdressers, Tallangatta, Victoria, before the dam Final places Where do I belong? The place where I would like to die, maybe that’s where I belong. Belonging workshop, Newcastle, New South Wales 6 March 2000 Chinese
funeral ovens and graves in Beechworth Cemetery, Victoria Maintaining links to country Aborigines
resting by camp fire, near the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle, New
South Wales Reassessing our history La
Grange Memorial, Fremantle, Western Australia (statue) La
Grange Memorial, Fremantle, Western Australia (plaque) 'This plaque was erected by people who found the monument before you offensive. The monument describes the events at La Grange from one perspective only: The viewpoint of the white settlers. No mention is made of the rights of Aboriginal people to defend their land or the history of provocation which led to the explorers’ deaths. The punitive party mentioned here ended in the deaths of somewhere around twenty Aboriginal people. The whites were well-armed and equipped and none of their party was killed or wounded. This plaque is in memory of the Aboriginal people killed at La Grange. It also commemorates all other Aboriginal people who died during the invasion of their country. Lest we forget. Mapa
Jarriya-Nyalaku'
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