Whether in the form of warfare, dispossession, forced migration, or social prejudice, Australia’s sense of nationhood was born from—and continues to be defined by—experiences of violence. Legacies of Violence probes this brutal legacy through case studies that range from the colonial frontier to modern domestic spaces, exploring themes of empathy, isolation, and Australians’ imagined place in the world. Moving beyond the primacy that is typically accorded white accounts of violence, contributors place particular emphasis on the experiences of those perceived to be on the social periphery, repositioning them at the center of Australia’s relationship to global events and debates.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Rendering the Legacies of the Past
Robert Mason
Chapter 1. The Politics of State-Sanctioned Violence in Australia: Racialized Constructions of Nation
Linda Briskman
PART I: HIDDEN VIOLENCE
Chapter 2. Uncovering the Shameful: Sexual Violence on an Australian Colonial Frontier
Libby Connors
Chapter 3. Fighting for Dignity: Migrant Identities in the Workplaces of Northern Australia
Robert Mason
Chapter 4. The Family Trust: On Assimilation, Migration and Concealing Ambivalent Identities
Ruth Longdin
Chapter 5. Legacies of the Uyghur Homeland and Uyghur–Australians
Anna Hayes
PART II: INTIMATE VIOLENCE
Chapter 6. The Greek Civil War, Child Removal and Traumatic Pasts in Australia
Joy Damousi
Chapter 7. From Hell to Hope: Postwar Jewish Holocaust Survivor Migration
Suzanne Rutland
Chapter 8. HIV/AIDS, Loss and the Australian Gay Community
Robert Reynolds and Shirleene Robinson
PART III: SANCTIONED VIOLENCE
Chapter 9. The RSL and Post-World War I Returned Soldier Violence in Australia
Martin Crotty
Chapter 10. Service Personnel: Australian Experiences of Interculturality and Violence in British India
Richard Gehrmann
Chapter 11. Race and Ethnicity in Sex Crimes Trials from 1950s Australia
Andy Kaladelfos and Lisa Featherstone
Chapter 12. The Violence of Exclusion: Australia’s Migration Zone Excision and the State of Exception
Farida Fozdar
Bibliography
Index
