- My research examines the aesthetics and impact of crafted audio storytelling and analyses podcasting as a distinctive... moreMy research examines the aesthetics and impact of crafted audio storytelling and analyses podcasting as a distinctive new medium. I am also an international award-winning maker of podcasts and documentaries, oral historian and acclaimed non-fiction author. My book, The Power of Podcasting: Telling Stories Through Sound, was published Feb 2022 by New South; a Columbia University Press edition in Oct 2022 covers US, Europe and all zones outside Aust/NZ. My award-winning podcast collaborations include three with The Age newspaper in Melbourne: Phoebe’s Fall (2016), about the bizarre death of a young Melbourne woman in a garbage chute, Wrong Skin (2018), which examines the collision between culture and power in a remote Aboriginal community, and The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (2019), about an unlikely drug heist involving North Korea and Australia. I consult on narrative podcast production: most recently on queer true crime/history podcast, The Greatest Menace, Audible 2022, described as 'Australia's S-Town'. It won gold for Best Social Justice Podcast at New York Festivals. I am also concerned with using oral history and orality to capture marginalised voices and promote social inclusion. To this end, I have advised organisations such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Committee to Protect Journalists (US), Rutas del Conflicto (Colombia), the Australian War Memorial. As part of a major Australian Research Council project (2015-17), I recorded oral histories on crosscultural aspects of the production of Aboriginal art and converted them to an ABC radio documentary, The Conquistador, the Warlpiri and the Dog Whisperer (2018) and a podcast series, Heart of Artness , http://heartness.net.au which won another gold at New York Festivals. I am Founding Editor of RadioDoc Review, an open access journal that uniquely brings together scholars and practitioners to develop in-depth critical analysis of the audio documentary/feature and narrative podcast form. My MOOC, The Power of Podcasting for Storytelling, with Future Learn (2018-2020), had over 35,000 participants from 150 countries. Other podcasts I've been consulting producer on: Gertie's Law, from the Supreme Court of Victoria, and Motherlode, a history of early hacktivists including Julian Assange.edit
Narrative podcasts and radio documentaries are a built form, as carefully crafted as a good film. They apply the grammar, logic, and aesthetics of the audio medium to storytelling technique, paying particular attention to tone,... more
Narrative podcasts and radio documentaries are a built form, as carefully crafted as a good film. They apply the grammar, logic, and aesthetics of the audio medium to storytelling technique, paying particular attention to tone, texture, and temporality. This chapter examines the poetics of sound by conceptualizing the craft behind the making of three accomplished audio stories to deepen the way that both creatives and their audiences can engage with narrative audio works. The works analyzed are The Saigon Tapes and Goodbye to All This, from Falling Tree Productions in the United Kingdom, and Marrying Out from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Review(s) of: Cottoning On: Stories of Australian Cotton Growing by Siobhan McHugh, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1996, ISBN 086806 5978
Research Interests: History and Publishing
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Research Interests: Art History and Art
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Social work content podcasting has increased exponentially in recent years, playing a new role in the emerging social work education debate surrounding online and remote delivery of social work con...
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سفن نم رثكأ تساكدوبلا ىطعأ ،يتوصلا دسرلل ةديدج لاكشأ ريوطت عم تقولا سفن فيو ،اهموهفم يرغ ،طقف تاونس عضب يفف .ةعاذلإل ديدج.ينعمتسلما عم يربك دح لىإ ةقيثو تاقلاع جسن نم اهنكم
Research Interests: Humanities and Art
"Samoan chieftains patrol their notorious Campbelltown estate singing beautiful harmonies to deter crime. The children of the Flower Children in Nimbin swap hippie communes for modern apartments. A war widow works as a cleaner for 32... more
"Samoan chieftains patrol their notorious Campbelltown estate singing beautiful harmonies to deter crime. The children of the Flower Children in Nimbin swap hippie communes for modern apartments. A war widow works as a cleaner for 32 years to become the first woman in NSW to buy her government home. Aged Vietnamese, displaced as respected elders and alienated from their Westernised children live together in a co-operative. A lesbian ex-police officer raises the child of her violent former partner in a coastal retreat. A Bosnian refugee exults in her new life in Pyrmont and an Aussie film star remembers learning to perform - 'when the welfare bloke called'. In Shelter from the Storm Siobhan McHugh tells the compelling stories of past and present tenants of social housing. Told with honesty and humour, they provide unique insights into the extraordinary qualities of ordinary people and the diversity of Australian society. Teachers, artists, taxi drivers; Muslims, Catholics, Mormons; Iraqis, Australians and Russians; old and young people; orphans and divorcees are amongst the people to be found in public and community housing. Former tenants who have gone on to become 'tall poppies' also tell their story: maverick Labor politician Mark Latham, media mogul John Alexander, union leader Jennie George and actor and celebrity Bryan Brown. Luminaries and larrikins, rebels and refugees, they have all been battlers - but losers, never."
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Research Interests: Geography and Indigenous
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HEART OF ARTNESS is a crafted audio storytelling podcast that explores little known crosscultural relationships behind the production of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art, a global industry and important cultural practice. it is... more
HEART OF ARTNESS is a crafted audio storytelling podcast that explores little known crosscultural relationships behind the production of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art, a global industry and important cultural practice. it is co-hosted by art curator Margo Neale, Head of Indigenous Studies at the National Museum of Australia, and Siobhan McHugh, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Wollongong, and co-conceived with art historian Ian McLean, Chair of Contemporary Art at University of Melbourne.
In the '80s, art centres sprang up across remote Australia like city-states of the Italian Renaissance. Vital community hubs, they offered a way for Indigenous Australians to stay on their land and generate income, while dynamically preserving and disseminating their culture. But these art centres also represent sites of collaboration and exchange. The managers, who are usually white, act as a bridge between the Indigenous artists and the commercial market. They have to balance the practical realities of running a business with the complex protocols of honouring Indigenous culture, while negotiating the challenges of vestigial colonialism. The art produced here is both spiritual and political, the artists drawing on a history of outsider trade and exchange that goes back 400 years.
For Heart of Artness, Siobhan McHugh recorded 30 oral histories with Aboriginal artists and their associates in two remote and one urban community. She also recorded actuality and ambient sound, carefully blending these elements with edited interviews and tight scripting into engaging storytelling, intended for a public, mainstream audience. The podcast's appeal was confirmed when it won a gold award at New York Festivals. For podcast scholars, it's an interesting model in that it was competitively funded by our peak research body, the Australian Research Council, which accepted our argument that an audio output could literally include these marginalised voices and convey affective power.
Journal article on our interdisciplinary process here, with illustrative audio clips
In the '80s, art centres sprang up across remote Australia like city-states of the Italian Renaissance. Vital community hubs, they offered a way for Indigenous Australians to stay on their land and generate income, while dynamically preserving and disseminating their culture. But these art centres also represent sites of collaboration and exchange. The managers, who are usually white, act as a bridge between the Indigenous artists and the commercial market. They have to balance the practical realities of running a business with the complex protocols of honouring Indigenous culture, while negotiating the challenges of vestigial colonialism. The art produced here is both spiritual and political, the artists drawing on a history of outsider trade and exchange that goes back 400 years.
For Heart of Artness, Siobhan McHugh recorded 30 oral histories with Aboriginal artists and their associates in two remote and one urban community. She also recorded actuality and ambient sound, carefully blending these elements with edited interviews and tight scripting into engaging storytelling, intended for a public, mainstream audience. The podcast's appeal was confirmed when it won a gold award at New York Festivals. For podcast scholars, it's an interesting model in that it was competitively funded by our peak research body, the Australian Research Council, which accepted our argument that an audio output could literally include these marginalised voices and convey affective power.
Journal article on our interdisciplinary process here, with illustrative audio clips
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There are many ways to ruin a narrative podcast: intimacy, that cherished currency of podcasting, starts with a close mic. The deployment of voice, actuality, music and archival sound in the service of story makes a big difference to how... more
There are many ways to ruin a narrative podcast: intimacy, that cherished currency of podcasting, starts with a close mic. The deployment of voice, actuality, music and archival sound in the service of story makes a big difference to how engaged listeners will be. Underpinning all of this are the script and narrative structure. The host should be relatable, as a human being and in connection to the podcast theme. The script also has to link, foreshadow and clarify the various story elements, while the narrative arc works at both a micro level, providing a satisfying journey within each episode, and a macro, whereby thorny details and bum steers are explored, eliminated or developed, and by the end of the series, finally resolved—or at least exhausted.
This article is an in-depth critique of three narrative podcasts, analysing aspects from production/structure and craft/sound design to editorial/research, hosting, script and storytelling. Hosted by female journalists with a Chinese background, all provide strong context on Chinese history and politics but focus essentially on an individual: The King of Kowloon (produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) memorialises an eccentric graffiti artist called Tsang Tsou-choi, his art seen in the context of Hong Kong’s shrinking democracy. Both The Prince (by The Economist) and How To Become A Dictator (by The Telegraph) zero in on Xi JinPing, President of the People’s Republic of China.
This article is an in-depth critique of three narrative podcasts, analysing aspects from production/structure and craft/sound design to editorial/research, hosting, script and storytelling. Hosted by female journalists with a Chinese background, all provide strong context on Chinese history and politics but focus essentially on an individual: The King of Kowloon (produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) memorialises an eccentric graffiti artist called Tsang Tsou-choi, his art seen in the context of Hong Kong’s shrinking democracy. Both The Prince (by The Economist) and How To Become A Dictator (by The Telegraph) zero in on Xi JinPing, President of the People’s Republic of China.
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The podcast genre is characterized by a strong host-listener connection and a narrowcast delivery style that engenders an unusual level of empathy. Podcasting harnesses the intimacy and authenticity that can be conveyed by the human... more
The podcast genre is characterized by a strong host-listener connection and a narrowcast delivery style that engenders an unusual level of empathy. Podcasting harnesses the intimacy and authenticity that can be conveyed by the human voice. But sound itself also tells a story and podcasting trades on radio’s long-established ability to trigger listeners’ imaginations and have them co-create their own mental pictures – a quality shared by the best literary journalism. Writing effectively for audio, though, requires an understanding of the grammar of the audio medium and the principles of crafting and choreographing sound: characteristics analysed here. The surprise success of the investigative journalism podcast Serial (2014) showed the appeal of crafted audio storytelling and shifted the perception of podcasting from that of a technology to a distinct media genre, or textual practice. Serial appeared at a time when personal and confessional journalism was on the increase, a development Coward (2013) locates as originating in the literary journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and this article argues that the best personal narrative podcasts can also be seen as literary journalism. A growing number of podcasters create personal narrative podcasts told as first-person memoir and curated slice-of-life formats. This article surveys the evolution of the audio memoir form, from early audio diary and edited interview accounts to polished long-form storytelling such as the S-Town podcast (2017), which evokes Capote in its masterly evocation of depiction and character in small town Alabama. It provides a case study of two audio memoirs, “Love Hurts”, by Lea Thau, of Strangers podcast; and “When I Grow Up,” by David Holstone, part of an episode of the This American Life podcast and radio show. It concludes that podcasting provides an excellent vehicle for the audio memoir, where the affective power of sound can add visceral force to the spoken word. If voice is the most compelling aspect of memoir, the podcast memoir lets us hear that voice with naked clarity, narrating its life story straight into our ears. KEYWORDS: podcast, audio storytelling, audio memoir, affect, literary journalism.
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Audio storytelling is booming. From crafted, long-form documentaries to short digital narratives, podcasting, social media and online streaming have liberated audio from the confines of a live radio schedule and created huge new... more
Audio storytelling is booming. From crafted, long-form documentaries to short digital narratives, podcasting, social media and online streaming have liberated audio from the confines of a live radio schedule and created huge new transnational audiences. But how can the burgeoning influence of audio storytelling be harnessed in educational and community sectors? This article examines an initiative designed to advance the use of audio storytelling in educational contexts: the emotional history project, an intensive teaching model that trains undergraduate students with no prior audio experience to create powerful short audio stories in a 4 x 3 hour module. It relies on the capacity of audio to convey emotion, and the power of emotion to transcend social, cultural and racial differences and forge a visceral connection. By gathering deeply personal emotional moments, students not only have a heightened incentive to learn technical production skills, they are also motivated to consider e...
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This chapter deconstructs how two award-winning narrative/investigative journalism podcasts were made, furnishing actual working scripts and script iterations from the evolving process, in which the author was a consulting producer,... more
This chapter deconstructs how two award-winning narrative/investigative journalism podcasts were made, furnishing actual working scripts and script iterations from the evolving process, in which the author was a consulting producer, advising on narrative structure, script and optimal storytelling-through-sound. The analysis is framed in emerging theory of narrative podcasts and includes interviews with the production team.
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In a cultural milieu dominated by long-form television dramas such as Breaking Bad and Madmen, how has the apparently simple activity of audio storytelling gained such clout? In the US, documentary radio programs such as RadioLab, This... more
In a cultural milieu dominated by long-form television dramas such as Breaking Bad and Madmen, how has the apparently simple activity of audio storytelling gained such clout? In the US, documentary radio programs such as RadioLab, This American Life and Radio Diaries enjoy sold-out stage shows telling real-life stories that combine serious journalism with compelling personal narratives, philosophical discourse and an irreverent but always engaging tone.
Research Interests: History and Storytelling
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In 2013, the author founded an online journal, RadioDoc Review, to develop critical theory of the radio documentary/feature form and define production and research excellence in this under-researched field. Its international editorial... more
In 2013, the author founded an online journal, RadioDoc Review, to develop critical theory of the radio documentary/feature form and define production and research excellence in this under-researched field. Its international editorial board, comprising eminent scholars, acclaimed practitioners and key industry figures, selects audio works to be co-reviewed each volume. RadioDoc Review Volume 1 (2014) contains 31,000 words of ground-breaking analysis of the radio documentary/feature form, disseminated under the University of Wollongong's Open Access policy. Via promotion on social media, the journal has developed a significant international following, and the expert reviews have fomented debate in radio studies and in areas as diverse as race, psychiatry and imperialism in Africa. This article describes the establishment of RadioDoc Review and analyses its role in filling a gap in radio scholarship.
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For some 40 years, SBS Radio broadcasters have delivered homeland news to migrants, mediated Australian politics and culture, and provided a platform for Australia’s 200 or so ethnic communities. The most multicultural broadcaster in the... more
For some 40 years, SBS Radio broadcasters have delivered homeland news to migrants, mediated Australian politics and culture, and provided a platform for Australia’s 200 or so ethnic communities. The most multicultural broadcaster in the world, going to air in 74 languages, its promulgation of social cohesion in an era of heightened ethnic and religious tensions provides lessons not just for Australia, but for any multicultural society. Not that it started out with such lofty notions. Its precursor, Radio Ethnic Australia, was launched as 2EA in Sydney on June 9, 1975 – 40 years ago today, in fact – and on 3EA in Melbourne shortly after, as a way to provide information to migrant groups on government initiatives such as Medicare.
Research Interests: Law, Multiculturalism, Media Studies, Political Science, Politics, and 11 moreRadio, Future, Past, Look, ITS, Arts and Humanities, Ethnic Group, Homeland, SBS, Should, and Promulgation
Editorial on a special transnational issue of RadioDoc Review, curated by Dr Laura Romero and co-edited by A/Prof Siobhan McHugh. The issue features mainly sound-rich European works in languages other than English, critiqued by reviewers... more
Editorial on a special transnational issue of RadioDoc Review, curated by Dr Laura Romero and co-edited by A/Prof Siobhan McHugh. The issue features mainly sound-rich European works in languages other than English, critiqued by reviewers from four continents. It also showcases invited articles on mainstream podcasts, The Shadows (audio fiction) and Serial Season Three (crafted documentary) .
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Podcasting is hailed for its intimacy and authenticity in an age of mistrust and disinformation. But while it is relatively easy to make a podcast, it is much harder to make a great one. In The Power of Podcasting, award-winning podcast... more
Podcasting is hailed for its intimacy and authenticity in an age of mistrust and disinformation. But while it is relatively easy to make a podcast, it is much harder to make a great one.
In The Power of Podcasting, award-winning podcast producer and leading international audio scholar Siobhán McHugh provides a unique blend of practical insights into, and critical analysis of, the invisible art of audio storytelling. Packed with case studies, history, tips and techniques from the author’s four decades of experience, this original book brings together a wealth of knowledge to introduce you to the seductive world of sound.
Engagingly written, The Power of Podcasting operates at various levels: as a cultural survey of podcasting as a new medium, a 'creative confessional' of insider stories from makers, an introduction to the theory of audio narrative and a homage to audio storytellers old and new.
In The Power of Podcasting, award-winning podcast producer and leading international audio scholar Siobhán McHugh provides a unique blend of practical insights into, and critical analysis of, the invisible art of audio storytelling. Packed with case studies, history, tips and techniques from the author’s four decades of experience, this original book brings together a wealth of knowledge to introduce you to the seductive world of sound.
Engagingly written, The Power of Podcasting operates at various levels: as a cultural survey of podcasting as a new medium, a 'creative confessional' of insider stories from makers, an introduction to the theory of audio narrative and a homage to audio storytellers old and new.
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The Snowy tells the extraordinary story of the mostly migrant workforce who built one of the world's engineering marvels. The Snowy Scheme was an extraordinary engineering feat carried out over twenty-five years from 1949 to 1974, one... more
The Snowy tells the extraordinary story of the mostly migrant workforce who built one of the world's engineering marvels. The Snowy Scheme was an extraordinary engineering feat carried out over twenty-five years from 1949 to 1974, one that drove rivers through tunnels built through the Australian alps, irrigated the dry inland and generated energy for the densely populated east coast. The Snowy Mountains Scheme was also a site of postwar social engineering that helped create a diverse multicultural nation. Siobhán McHugh's in-depth interviews with those who were there at the time reveals the human stories of migrant workers, high country locals, politicians and engineers. This classic, prize-winning account of the remarkable Snowy Scheme is available again for the 70th anniversary of this epic nation-building project.(360pp). Publisher: New South Books, Sydney
'You should read this tale of an era when Australia dared to have a vision.' - Thomas Keneally
'You should read this tale of an era when Australia dared to have a vision.' - Thomas Keneally
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A social history of a huge hydro-electric scheme built in Australia after the Second World War, and remembered as much for its social engineering as its civil engineering. It was built by migrants from over 30 countries in Europe and... more
A social history of a huge hydro-electric scheme built in Australia after the Second World War, and remembered as much for its social engineering as its civil engineering. It was built by migrants from over 30 countries in Europe and became the crucible for the advent of multiculturalism in Australia. The book and radio series are based on oral history interviews with over 100 former workers and local residents. Original interviews are archived at the State Library of NSW.
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Associated radio series of same name ( Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1993), and original oral history archive in National Library of Australia.
Stage play based on book, by Terence O'Connell, Currency Press (2004).
Stage play based on book, by Terence O'Connell, Currency Press (2004).
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A blend of environmental journalism and social history, this history of the New South Wales cotton industry describes the mismanagement of irrigation licences, lack of regulation of pesticide use, exploitation of Aboriginal workers and... more
A blend of environmental journalism and social history, this history of the New South Wales cotton industry describes the mismanagement of irrigation licences, lack of regulation of pesticide use, exploitation of Aboriginal workers and overweening arrogance of some cottongrowers – a history that led to the ongoing political and environmental battles of the Murray-Darling river basin.
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Samoan chieftains patrol their notorious Campbelltown estate singing beautiful harmonies to deter crime. The children of the Flower Children in Nimbin swap hippie communes for modern apartments. A war widow works as a cleaner for 32 years... more
Samoan chieftains patrol their notorious Campbelltown estate singing beautiful harmonies to deter crime. The children of the Flower Children in Nimbin swap hippie communes for modern apartments. A war widow works as a cleaner for 32 years to become the first woman in NSW to buy her government home. Aged Vietnamese, displaced as respected elders and alienated from their Westernised children live together in a co-operative. A lesbian ex-police officer raises the child of her violent former partner in a coastal retreat. A Bosnian refugee exults in her new life in Pyrmont and an Aussie film star remembers learning to perform - 'when the welfare bloke called'.
In Shelter from the Storm Siobhan McHugh tells the compelling stories of past and present tenants of social housing. Told with honesty and humour, they provide unique insights into the extraordinary qualities of ordinary people and the diversity of Australian society. Teachers, artists, taxi drivers; Muslims, Catholics, Mormons; Iraqis, Australians and Russians; old and young people; orphans and divorcees are amongst the people to be found in public and community housing. Former tenants who have gone on to become 'tall poppies' also tell their story: maverick Labor politician Mark Latham, media mogul John Alexander, union leader Jennie George and actor and celebrity Bryan Brown.
Luminaries and larrikins, rebels and refugees, they have all been battlers - but losers, never.
In Shelter from the Storm Siobhan McHugh tells the compelling stories of past and present tenants of social housing. Told with honesty and humour, they provide unique insights into the extraordinary qualities of ordinary people and the diversity of Australian society. Teachers, artists, taxi drivers; Muslims, Catholics, Mormons; Iraqis, Australians and Russians; old and young people; orphans and divorcees are amongst the people to be found in public and community housing. Former tenants who have gone on to become 'tall poppies' also tell their story: maverick Labor politician Mark Latham, media mogul John Alexander, union leader Jennie George and actor and celebrity Bryan Brown.
Luminaries and larrikins, rebels and refugees, they have all been battlers - but losers, never.
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It's 1956 and Eva Fischer, 12, spends a year in the Snowy Mountains, in the highest town in Australia, the newly built Cabramurra. Eva's German father is a surveyor, one of over 30 nationalities building the massive Snowy Mountains... more
It's 1956 and Eva Fischer, 12, spends a year in the Snowy Mountains, in the highest town in Australia, the newly built Cabramurra. Eva's German father is a surveyor, one of over 30 nationalities building the massive Snowy Mountains HydroElectric Scheme. Her mother is a doctor, coping with the remote mountain community needs - from childbirth to multiple tunnel fatalities. Australian multiculturalism is being born too, but Eva is more concerned with saving her friend Lizzie's home from being drowned by the new dam at Adaminaby. A fictional diary aimed at readers aged 10-14, Eva's story is based on true events and primary research conducted by the author for her awardwinning history, The Snowy- The People Behind the Power.
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In this podcast, I ask Julie Snyder, executive producer and co-creator of Serial, about the design and impact of this groundbreaking audio storytelling podcast, which has had over 250 million downloads over two seasons. The focus is on... more
In this podcast, I ask Julie Snyder, executive producer and co-creator of Serial, about the design and impact of this groundbreaking audio storytelling podcast, which has had over 250 million downloads over two seasons. The focus is on the aesthetic, editorial and production choices involved in making Serial 01, about the killing of Baltimore schoolgirl Hae Min Lee, which at October 2016 had had over 150 million downloads and is studied in high schools and universities as an exemplar of investigative narrative audio journalism.
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This short (11mins) presentation ( http://bit.ly/1w7M9Va) introduces to a general audience the characteristics of AUDIO as a medium, and discusses why AUDIO STORYTELLING is such a powerful, yet underestimated, format. The author has... more
This short (11mins) presentation ( http://bit.ly/1w7M9Va) introduces to a general audience the characteristics of AUDIO as a medium, and discusses why AUDIO STORYTELLING is such a powerful, yet underestimated, format. The author has founded a new journal, RadioDoc Review, to examine the characteristics and aesthetic qualities of exemplary radio documentaries and features. She argues that the audio narrative genre can also be harnessed to 'translate' scholarly research in other fields, with hugely increased potential for impact and dissemination. You don't even have to be literate to 'get' audio. It is also far less invasive than video, and likely to elicit more intimate and revelatory material, particularly on sensitive topics, or ones related to appearance.
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Oral historian Siobhán McHugh talks us through the primal and intimate nature of soundscapes, sharing her favourite ‘driveway moments’ and showcasing the power of audio storytelling. With carefully curated links to some of the most... more
Oral historian Siobhán McHugh talks us through the primal and intimate nature of soundscapes, sharing her favourite ‘driveway moments’ and showcasing the power of audio storytelling. With carefully curated links to some of the most powerful and affecting moments she’s experienced in the medium, this piece just might convert you to the spoken (but unseen) word – if you’re not hooked on it already.
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This talk marked the 60th anniversary of the start of the Snowy Mountains HydroElectric Scheme, Australia's largest infrastructure project, built between 1949 and 1974 by a workforce of over 30 nationalities. Two-thirds were recent... more
This talk marked the 60th anniversary of the start of the Snowy Mountains HydroElectric Scheme, Australia's largest infrastructure project, built between 1949 and 1974 by a workforce of over 30 nationalities. Two-thirds were recent migrants from war-torn Europe and the scheme is as much a feat of social innovation as it is an engineering marvel. I play excerpts of oral histories I recorded with around 100 former workers and residents, later adapted for a radio series ( ABC 1987) and book (The Snowy: The People Behind the Power, Heinemann 1989). The book won the NSW Premier's Award for Non-Fiction and the second edition ( HarperCollins 1995) is now in its fourteenth reprint and held in libraries round the world.
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Invited academics showcase their research at this public event, held in the popular Five Islands Brewery. This talk canvassed my two decades of pioneering oral history projects, covering my work on the Snowy Mountains HydroElectric... more
Invited academics showcase their research at this public event, held in the popular Five Islands Brewery. This talk canvassed my two decades of pioneering oral history projects, covering my work on the Snowy Mountains HydroElectric Scheme, Australian women's role in the Vietnam War, sectarianism between (Irish) Catholics and (British) Protestants in Australia, and the experiences of Indigenous people forcibly removed from their families: the Stolen Generations.
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This was the inaugural public lecture of the Global Irish Studies Centre at the University of New South Wales, Kensington. It draws on my doctoral research into sectarianism in Australia and demonstrates the personal pain it caused... more
This was the inaugural public lecture of the Global Irish Studies Centre at the University of New South Wales, Kensington. It draws on my doctoral research into sectarianism in Australia and demonstrates the personal pain it caused through audio excerpts, which convey the emotion. It also theorises scholarly research into oral history and documentary studies that underpin the use of audio to impart research.
Just two generations ago, before multiculturalism became the norm, non-indigenous Australia was polarised between Protestants and Catholics. Religion was code for identity, with tensions fuelled by colonial grievances. ‘Catholic’ was perceived as ‘Irish’, and to an English Protestant Establishment, that meant trouble. When couples married across the religious divide, it often caused bitter family conflict. Australia’s recent sectarian past and its primary victims, the Irish Catholic underclass, are misrepresented by the increasing use of the ‘Anglo-Celtic Australia’ moniker to describe pre-multicultural Australia. Through moving personal histories, this multi-media lecture challenges the use of this misleading term and reclaims a neglected part of Irish-Australian history.
Just two generations ago, before multiculturalism became the norm, non-indigenous Australia was polarised between Protestants and Catholics. Religion was code for identity, with tensions fuelled by colonial grievances. ‘Catholic’ was perceived as ‘Irish’, and to an English Protestant Establishment, that meant trouble. When couples married across the religious divide, it often caused bitter family conflict. Australia’s recent sectarian past and its primary victims, the Irish Catholic underclass, are misrepresented by the increasing use of the ‘Anglo-Celtic Australia’ moniker to describe pre-multicultural Australia. Through moving personal histories, this multi-media lecture challenges the use of this misleading term and reclaims a neglected part of Irish-Australian history.