AustLit

'Remembering Migration: Oral Histories and Heritage in Australia offers important new insights into what constitutes ‘migration history’ and ‘migration heritage’ in Australia. The book, edited by Kate Darian-Smith and Paula Hamilton, is a timely, interdisciplinary contribution that effectively stipulates how oral history, together with memory and heritage studies, can distinctly inform us about migrations to Australia. Twenty-one chapters – written by an assortment of seasoned, mid-career, and promising early career researchers – present a rich diversity of methodological approaches, detailed case studies, as well as migrant ethnicities and recollections. Examining how ‘individuals, communities and the nation have commemorated and recorded the experiences of migration’, Remembering Migration pays serious attention to an area of Australian history that is often emotionally charged and politically fraught (4). It sets out to consider how migrants in Australia remember, retain and rework their pasts and it critically centres how ‘small stories or single accounts of migration’ add relevant meaning to the broader processes of Australian heritage making (11). Untold stories are brought to life; familiar stories are reframed anew; and the entangled relations between migrant pasts and presents are presented with fresh historical dynamism. This dynamism is sustained on two fronts: by reinstating the value of oral history for understanding the phenomenon of migration and by revealing how stories of migrancy are complexly sourced, sorted and represented by Australian heritage sectors.' (Introduction)

'Marrngu men and women (local Aboriginal people in the Nyangumarta language) tell the story of their successful three-year strike to decolonise the Pilbara in this monumental history by Anne Scrimgeour. Oral history recordings, conducted by Scrimgeour and transcribed and translated into English by Barbara Hale and Mark Clendon, enable Marrngu to speak truth to the deeply racist, violent, colonial power systems so well documented in the historical record. Extensive research, eloquent and nuanced analysis, new arguments and captivating storytelling make this a truly great historical work.' (Introduction)

'Shellam writes that Meeting the Waylo is a ‘little book’, yet its immersion in multiple strands of scholarship, its impressive archival research, and its clear methodology make it a compelling and significant one. This is slow, well-crafted history; slow in the sense that three historical episodes lie at the heart of this book, and slow in the sense that the research, relationships, and insights undergirding it have accrued over time. Yet in this lies its power and its significance for historians, archivists, and curators of cross-cultural, Australian and Indigenous worlds.' (Introduction)

'John Curtin and James Scullin are commonly judged according to their respective struggles with World War II and the Great Depression. One is as close to being revered as any Australian prime minister has come; the other is, at best, pitied.' (Introduction)