The people we share a train carriage with on the way to work, the hundreds we pass in a busy shopping centre, all these people carry a story within them. Each story is changing, developing and interlinked with others. Each story is a multi-faceted tile that helps to build the complex, mosaic of human life on this planet. Fortunately for us Brisbane resident, Manijeh Saatchi, … [Read more...] about Refugees: Custodians of a Nation’s History
Australian Women Writers Challenge
Review: Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt
Larissa Behrendt has written a nuanced and engrossing book about colonial attitudes as they operated through a particular Australian colonial ‘captivity tale’. Using the story told by Eliza Fraser who was helped by the Aboriginal people of Fraser Island after surviving a ship wreck in 1836, Behrendt turns the colonial gaze back on itself to examine the motives, the fears and … [Read more...] about Review: Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt
A Quirky Hotel with a History
It was just another visit to Canberra but this time my mother was accompanying me to see her grand-daughter who lives in Canberra. All I wanted was a simple twin share room but one of the hotels I often use was booked out and the other I also sometimes stay at did not have twin share. They offered to put up a foldaway bed if I paid an additional sum of money – but I didn’t want … [Read more...] about A Quirky Hotel with a History
Review: Visiting the Neighbours – Australians in Asia
Visiting the Neighbours: Australians in Asia gives an overview of more than a century of Australian travel in South-east Asia. It demonstrates that the Australian relationship with Asian countries is long and complex. Focussing primarily on private travel, the author, Agnieszka Sobocinska provides a book which will cause many readers to reflect on their own relationship with … [Read more...] about Review: Visiting the Neighbours – Australians in Asia
“Genealogists are becoming the new social historians” says professional historian
“Australian history has been transformed by the contributions of family historians”, says Dr Tanya Evans, historian at Sydney’s Macquarie University. Her new book Fractured Families: Life on the Margins in Colonial New South Wales, is the result of collaboration between Tanya Evans and some of the many family historians who have worked with the archives of Sydney’s oldest … [Read more...] about “Genealogists are becoming the new social historians” says professional historian