Table Of ContentPALGRAVE STUDIES IN THE HISTORY
OF THE MEDIA
The Transnational Voices
of Australia’s Migrant and
Minority Press
Edited by
Catherine Dewhirst
Richard Scully
Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media
Series Editors
Bill Bell
Cardiff University
Cardiff, UK
Chandrika Kaul
University of St Andrews
Fife, UK
Alexander S. Wilkinson
University College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media publishes original, high
quality research into the cultures of communication from the middle
ages to the present day. The series explores the variety of subjects and
disciplinary approaches that characterize this vibrant field of enquiry. The
series will help shape current interpretations not only of the media, in all
its forms, but also of the powerful relationship between the media and
politics, society, and the economy.
Advisory Board
Professor Carlos Barrera (University of Navarra, Spain)
Professor Peter Burke (Emmanuel College, Cambridge)
Professor Nicholas Cull (Center on Public Diplomacy, University of
Southern California)
Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley (Macquarie University, Australia)
Professor Tom O’Malley (Centre for Media History, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth)
Professor Chester Pach (Ohio University)
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14578
Catherine Dewhirst • Richard Scully
Editors
The Transnational
Voices of Australia’s
Migrant and Minority
Press
Editors
Catherine Dewhirst Richard Scully
University of Southern Queensland University of New England
Toowoomba, QLD, Australia Armidale, NSW, Australia
ISSN 2634-6575 ISSN 2634-6583 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media
ISBN 978-3-030-43638-4 ISBN 978-3-030-43639-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43639-1
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P
reface
This book is the result of an interdisciplinary conference held at the
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, in 2017: “Voices of the
Australian Migrant and Minority Press: Intercultural, Transnational and
Diasporic Contexts”. The conference marked the fiftieth anniversary of
the publication of Miriam Gilson and Jerzy Zubrzycki’s 1967 seminal
study, The Foreign-Language Press in Australia, 1848–1964. Their work
has inspired scholars and students alike to engage with migrant and minor-
ity newspapers as a central source for examining questions about
community- building, inter-communal relations, transnational connec-
tions, and the national ideal. Gilson and Zubrzycki not only charted extant
migrant and other minority community newspapers from the late 1840s to
the early 1960s for the first time, but also established an understanding of
the breadth and scope that this field holds for deepening our knowledge
about Australia’s multicultural, social, and political heritage, in ways that
are relevant to today’s world. Indeed, the existence of the printed presses
which they identified, as well as the subsequent discovery and emergence
of missing newspapers and other types of periodicals, suggest the under-
stated yet great significance that Australia’s minority groups have had in
asserting a presence, and making contributions, against the backdrop of
supposed Anglo-Celtic colonial, national, and cultural homogeneity.
Since Gilson and Zubrzycki’s work, the study of the Australian migrant
and minority press has developed more fully as a means of exploring
Australia’s history and global relations. Such research has nevertheless
tended to be encompassed within studies of minority communities or is
isolated across diverse disciplinary publications. The aim of this book (and
v
vi PREFACE
a companion volume) is to present a concerted picture of the dynamism of
minority community newspapers and other news periodicals from a his-
torical perspective. We bring together the latest scholarship focused on
how such print enterprises have contributed to shaping communities of
the past and informing the present. While the purpose and services of such
presses would have been clear enough for contemporary readers, they
emerged from globally constructed communities and complex relation-
ships with colony, empire, and/or nation. What do the business initiatives
of these presses—initiated by individuals largely on the periphery of main-
stream society—tell us about the influence of imperial and transnational
connections, inter-cultural relations, and the national narrative? Using the
lens of ‘voices’ as our analytical frame, the chapters in this collection
explore the experiences and stories of Australia’s minority groups, largely
obscured from histories to date.
Whether long in duration, short-lived, or now missing from the archive,
the complexity of the migrant and minority community press punctuates
the landscape of Australia’s nation-building processes, in ways that have
been at once unsettling for the dominant British-Australian population as
evocative of the nature of Australia’s diversity. For a British colony and
later Federated nation, it is important to note that the local experiences
and narratives of smaller communities—many of non-English-speaking
backgrounds—have always been forged and negotiated within the context
of globalising forces. In many respects, minority groups belonged to at
least three layers of community: the homeland, whether village, region, or
nation; the new society; and the local community. Such communities,
largely from non-British origins—and including those of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Australians—were frequently disparaged within and
ostracised from the mainstream. A fear of the influence of anything foreign
(viz. Edward Said’s Orientalism) meant that ethnic, cultural, and racial
discrimination was never far from the surface, and indeed was often openly
countenanced.
The authors in this edited collection, some of whom participated in the
conference, bring multi-disciplinary approaches and linguistic skills to
their areas of the specialised field of print culture—newspapers, journals,
magazines, official bulletins—to engage with questions about diversity
and the wider ramifications of these histories. Exploring the enterprises
and concerns, sometimes crises, and reflections on the world around them
through this evidence and other sources, offers insights into the conver-
gence between local, national, and global experiences.
PREFACE vii
This book would not have been possible without the support of our
respective universities, the School of Humanities and Communication at
the University of Southern Queensland, and the former School of
Humanities at the University of New England (now within the Faculty of
Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education). We would like to thank
the Ian Potter Foundation for a grant funding the conference, and the
University of Southern Queensland’s Office of Research for further fund-
ing. We also wish to thank the National Archives of Australia for the use of
several images; conference co-convenors Dr Jayne Persian and Dr Mark
Emmerson; and John Zubryzcki for sharing his and his family’s memories
of his father’s vision, research, and achievements over Australia’s multicul-
tural era at the conference opening.
Toowoomba, QLD, Australia Catherine Dewhirst
Armidale, NSW, Australia Richard Scully
January 2020
c
ontents
1 A ustralia’s Minority Community Printed Press History
in Global Context: An Introduction 1
Catherine Dewhirst and Richard Scully
2 The Satirical Press of Colonial Australia: A Migrant and
Minority Enterprise 19
Richard Scully
3 “Cement, Guide and Representative for the Exile and the
Emigrant”: Ideological Discourse and italianità in
L’Italo-Australiano 37
Marianna Piantavigna
4 Australia’s Early Russian-Language Press (1912–1919) 61
Kevin Windle
5 Respectability and Disloyalty: The Competing
Obligations of L’Italiano’s Editors 81
Catherine Dewhirst
6 Zionism, Assimilationism and Antifascism: Divergent
International Jewish Pathways in Three Post-War
Australian Jewish Magazines 107
Max Kaiser
ix
x CONTENTS
7 L iterary Ambitions: The Polish-Language Press in
Australia 127
Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams and Mary Besemeres
8 Exploring the Migrant Experience Through an
Examination of Letters to The New Australian 151
Karen Agutter
9 Crónicas in Australia’s Spanish-Language Press: The Case
of El Expreso 169
Michael Jacklin
10 News Reporting of Italian Organised Crime in Australia:
Examining Il Globo’s Editorial Commentary 189
Clare Johansson and Simone Battiston
11 A Treasure Trove of Community Language Newspapers 209
Hilary Berthon
Bibliography 225
Index 253
