K Agutter
Biographic Data
| ID | 30803 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Agutter |
| GIVEN NAMES | K |
| FAMILY NAME | Agutter |
| SIGNATURE | AGUTTER K |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Adelaide |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5970-4235 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From forced to coerced labour: Displaced mothers and teen girls in post-World War II Australia
At the end of World War Two 1.2 million people were officially labelled Displaced Persons (DPs). Stateless, or refusing to return home, the majority were resettled in other countries including Australia which, like most receiving nations, saw these refugees primarily as a labour force for post-war economic recovery and expansion. However, unlike other nations, DPs destined for Australia signed a work contract which committed them to two years of …
Treading Warily into the Lives of Others
Between 1947 and 1953 Australia accepted over 172,000 refugees from post-war Europe. Many of these displaced persons are now deceased and have left little record outside of their official presence in the archive. Although their life stories may live on within families, and occasionally in often unpublished memoirs, as individuals they are apt to disappear from the historian’s gaze. As an academic historian I increasingly find myself using family …
European Post-War Migrants and Indigenous Australians: A History in Fragments
This article will outline a series of historical fragments which represent encounters between the early post World War Two European migrants and indigenous peoples. While both displaced persons and Indigenous peoples have been studied by historians as the objects of assimilationist policy, any relationship between these two groups has been largely ignored. This article will thus explore the connection between these disparate groups, in the contex…
Her majesty’s newest subjects: Official attempts to assimilate non-English speaking migrants in post-war Australia
Following World War Two, Australia accepted large numbers of Europeans as part of a mass immigration program that would completely change the face of the nation. Key to the acceptance of these non-English speaking migrants was the policy of assimilation and the expectation that new arrivals would blend into the ‘Australian way of life’. Although learning English was a fundamental requirement to assimilation, so too was an understanding of Austral…
Failing ‘Abyan’, ‘Golestan’ and ‘the Estonian Mother’: Refugee Women, Reproductive Coercion and the Australian State
In September and October 2015, the story of detained Somali refugee ‘Abyan’ unfolded in the Australian media. A victim of rape on Nauru and seeking an abortion that could not be obtained on the island nation, Abyan was escorted to Sydney where she was to attend an abortion clinic. She was ultimately returned to Nauru without having had an abortion. This paper situates Abyan’s story alongside other stories from Nauru and in a longer history of rep…
Lost in translation: Managing medicalised motherhood in post-World War Two Australian migrant accommodation centres
Women who began their lives as ‘New Australians’ in migrant centres, arriving from refugee camps and war-ravaged homelands, brought with them a range of interpretations of good health and its management. In post-WWII Australia, the medicalisation of maternity and infant welfare intensified in the context of a renewed anxiety about population and recent medical developments. This article investigates the systems and quality of care given to pregna…
The ‘unwanteds’ and ‘non-compliants’: ‘Unsupported mothers’ as ‘failures’ and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres
Ideas of assimilated citizenship are inherently gendered and during Australia’s post-World War Two migration boom they were deeply and explicitly invested in marriage, children and domesticity. In this period of social conservatism and economic boom, assimilation rhetoric functioned as a reassuring mirror for the host population, promoting the dream of prosperous family life as the ultimate aspiration for refugees and migrants. The role of immigr…
Food and the challenge to identity for post-war refugee women in Australia
In many societies, feeding one’s family in traditional and culturally appropriate ways is an essential part of being a mother and a wife. For migrants, food can play an important role in the maintenance of tradition, culture, and identity. This paper uses archival evidence, media coverage, memoirs, and oral histories to explore how policies associated with food in migrant hostels impacted on, and interfered with, the central role of food in the c…
Unsettling Narratives: Overcoming Prejudices in the Hostel Stories Project
In 1988, Jock Collins boldly suggested that Australia’s earlier migrant arrivals, the subject of prejudice themselves, often become the perpetrators of prejudice. Indeed, as we collect oral histories from post-war migrants, we are regularly confronted with angry statements such as “asylum seekers are just let in and given everything”. What lies at the heart of this phenomenon? Clearly, prejudice and stereotyping exists in all societies but seems …
Understanding Ethnic Residential Cluster Formation: New perspectives from South Australia’s migrant hostels
Throughout Australia’s history, successive governments have lamented the clustering of non-English-speaking migrants in ‘ethnic enclaves’ or ‘ghettos’. From the early Chinatowns of the 1800s till today, urban concentrations of ethnic groups have raised concerns and fears in local populations and authorities alike, despite decades of international research which suggests that ethnic residential clusters actually aid long-term assimilation and adju…
Assimilation through play: Migrant hostel play centres in post-War Australia
In post-war Australia, the provision of facilities for migrant and refugee children to ‘play’ in migrant accommodation centres was an essential element of government policy. Through an examination of photos and related archival material, this paper will consider how play was used as a means of introducing newly arrived young children to the English language and the Australian way of life. The paper will outline how play centres moved from hastily…
Belligerent Broken Hill Fighting the Forced Repatriation of Allied Aliens During World War I
In 1918 armed military and state police attempted to round up and forcibly repatriate allied Italian citizens across Australia for service in the Italian Army. Travelling from state to state, the Italian Consul General and the Australian Defence Department worked hand in glove to facilitate this forcible deportation. In May 1918 they arrived in the outback mining town of Broken Hill where they met with an unexpected level of hostility and resista…
The ‘unwanteds’ and ‘non-compliants’: ‘Unsupported mothers’ as ‘failures’ and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres
Ideas of assimilated citizenship are inherently gendered and during Australia’s post-World War Two migration boom they were deeply and explicitly invested in marriage, children and domesticity. In this period of social conservatism and economic boom, assimilation rhetoric functioned as a reassuring mirror for the host population, promoting the dream of prosperous family life as the ultimate aspiration for refugees and migrants. The role of immigr…
Understanding Ethnic Residential Cluster Formation: New perspectives from South Australia’s migrant hostels
Throughout Australia’s history, successive governments have lamented the clustering of non-English-speaking migrants in ‘ethnic enclaves’ or ‘ghettos’. From the early Chinatowns of the 1800s till today, urban concentrations of ethnic groups have raised concerns and fears in local populations and authorities alike, despite decades of international research which suggests that ethnic residential clusters actually aid long-term assimilation and adju…
Treading Warily into the Lives of Others
Between 1947 and 1953 Australia accepted over 172,000 refugees from post-war Europe. Many of these displaced persons are now deceased and have left little record outside of their official presence in the archive. Although their life stories may live on within families, and occasionally in often unpublished memoirs, as individuals they are apt to disappear from the historian’s gaze. As an academic historian I increasingly find myself using family …
European Post-War Migrants and Indigenous Australians: A History in Fragments
This article will outline a series of historical fragments which represent encounters between the early post World War Two European migrants and indigenous peoples. While both displaced persons and Indigenous peoples have been studied by historians as the objects of assimilationist policy, any relationship between these two groups has been largely ignored. This article will thus explore the connection between these disparate groups, in the contex…
Her majesty’s newest subjects: Official attempts to assimilate non-English speaking migrants in post-war Australia
Following World War Two, Australia accepted large numbers of Europeans as part of a mass immigration program that would completely change the face of the nation. Key to the acceptance of these non-English speaking migrants was the policy of assimilation and the expectation that new arrivals would blend into the ‘Australian way of life’. Although learning English was a fundamental requirement to assimilation, so too was an understanding of Austral…
Failing ‘Abyan’, ‘Golestan’ and ‘the Estonian Mother’: Refugee Women, Reproductive Coercion and the Australian State
In September and October 2015, the story of detained Somali refugee ‘Abyan’ unfolded in the Australian media. A victim of rape on Nauru and seeking an abortion that could not be obtained on the island nation, Abyan was escorted to Sydney where she was to attend an abortion clinic. She was ultimately returned to Nauru without having had an abortion. This paper situates Abyan’s story alongside other stories from Nauru and in a longer history of rep…
Food and the challenge to identity for post-war refugee women in Australia
In many societies, feeding one’s family in traditional and culturally appropriate ways is an essential part of being a mother and a wife. For migrants, food can play an important role in the maintenance of tradition, culture, and identity. This paper uses archival evidence, media coverage, memoirs, and oral histories to explore how policies associated with food in migrant hostels impacted on, and interfered with, the central role of food in the c…
Unsettling Narratives: Overcoming Prejudices in the Hostel Stories Project
In 1988, Jock Collins boldly suggested that Australia’s earlier migrant arrivals, the subject of prejudice themselves, often become the perpetrators of prejudice. Indeed, as we collect oral histories from post-war migrants, we are regularly confronted with angry statements such as “asylum seekers are just let in and given everything”. What lies at the heart of this phenomenon? Clearly, prejudice and stereotyping exists in all societies but seems …
Assimilation through play: Migrant hostel play centres in post-War Australia
In post-war Australia, the provision of facilities for migrant and refugee children to ‘play’ in migrant accommodation centres was an essential element of government policy. Through an examination of photos and related archival material, this paper will consider how play was used as a means of introducing newly arrived young children to the English language and the Australian way of life. The paper will outline how play centres moved from hastily…
Belligerent Broken Hill Fighting the Forced Repatriation of Allied Aliens During World War I
In 1918 armed military and state police attempted to round up and forcibly repatriate allied Italian citizens across Australia for service in the Italian Army. Travelling from state to state, the Italian Consul General and the Australian Defence Department worked hand in glove to facilitate this forcible deportation. In May 1918 they arrived in the outback mining town of Broken Hill where they met with an unexpected level of hostility and resista…
Unsettling Narratives: Overcoming Prejudices in the Hostel Stories Project
In 1988, Jock Collins boldly suggested that Australia’s earlier migrant arrivals, the subject of prejudice themselves, often become the perpetrators of prejudice. Indeed, as we collect oral histories from post-war migrants, we are regularly confronted with angry statements such as “asylum seekers are just let in and given everything”. What lies at the heart of this phenomenon? Clearly, prejudice and stereotyping exists in all societies but seems …
Understanding Ethnic Residential Cluster Formation: New perspectives from South Australia’s migrant hostels
Throughout Australia’s history, successive governments have lamented the clustering of non-English-speaking migrants in ‘ethnic enclaves’ or ‘ghettos’. From the early Chinatowns of the 1800s till today, urban concentrations of ethnic groups have raised concerns and fears in local populations and authorities alike, despite decades of international research which suggests that ethnic residential clusters actually aid long-term assimilation and adju…
Assimilation through play: Migrant hostel play centres in post-War Australia
In post-war Australia, the provision of facilities for migrant and refugee children to ‘play’ in migrant accommodation centres was an essential element of government policy. Through an examination of photos and related archival material, this paper will consider how play was used as a means of introducing newly arrived young children to the English language and the Australian way of life. The paper will outline how play centres moved from hastily…
The ‘unwanteds’ and ‘non-compliants’: ‘Unsupported mothers’ as ‘failures’ and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres
Ideas of assimilated citizenship are inherently gendered and during Australia’s post-World War Two migration boom they were deeply and explicitly invested in marriage, children and domesticity. In this period of social conservatism and economic boom, assimilation rhetoric functioned as a reassuring mirror for the host population, promoting the dream of prosperous family life as the ultimate aspiration for refugees and migrants. The role of immigr…
Food and the challenge to identity for post-war refugee women in Australia
In many societies, feeding one’s family in traditional and culturally appropriate ways is an essential part of being a mother and a wife. For migrants, food can play an important role in the maintenance of tradition, culture, and identity. This paper uses archival evidence, media coverage, memoirs, and oral histories to explore how policies associated with food in migrant hostels impacted on, and interfered with, the central role of food in the c…
Failing ‘Abyan’, ‘Golestan’ and ‘the Estonian Mother’: Refugee Women, Reproductive Coercion and the Australian State
In September and October 2015, the story of detained Somali refugee ‘Abyan’ unfolded in the Australian media. A victim of rape on Nauru and seeking an abortion that could not be obtained on the island nation, Abyan was escorted to Sydney where she was to attend an abortion clinic. She was ultimately returned to Nauru without having had an abortion. This paper situates Abyan’s story alongside other stories from Nauru and in a longer history of rep…
Lost in translation: Managing medicalised motherhood in post-World War Two Australian migrant accommodation centres
Women who began their lives as ‘New Australians’ in migrant centres, arriving from refugee camps and war-ravaged homelands, brought with them a range of interpretations of good health and its management. In post-WWII Australia, the medicalisation of maternity and infant welfare intensified in the context of a renewed anxiety about population and recent medical developments. This article investigates the systems and quality of care given to pregna…
Her majesty’s newest subjects: Official attempts to assimilate non-English speaking migrants in post-war Australia
Following World War Two, Australia accepted large numbers of Europeans as part of a mass immigration program that would completely change the face of the nation. Key to the acceptance of these non-English speaking migrants was the policy of assimilation and the expectation that new arrivals would blend into the ‘Australian way of life’. Although learning English was a fundamental requirement to assimilation, so too was an understanding of Austral…
European Post-War Migrants and Indigenous Australians: A History in Fragments
This article will outline a series of historical fragments which represent encounters between the early post World War Two European migrants and indigenous peoples. While both displaced persons and Indigenous peoples have been studied by historians as the objects of assimilationist policy, any relationship between these two groups has been largely ignored. This article will thus explore the connection between these disparate groups, in the contex…
Treading Warily into the Lives of Others
Between 1947 and 1953 Australia accepted over 172,000 refugees from post-war Europe. Many of these displaced persons are now deceased and have left little record outside of their official presence in the archive. Although their life stories may live on within families, and occasionally in often unpublished memoirs, as individuals they are apt to disappear from the historian’s gaze. As an academic historian I increasingly find myself using family …
From forced to coerced labour: Displaced mothers and teen girls in post-World War II Australia
At the end of World War Two 1.2 million people were officially labelled Displaced Persons (DPs). Stateless, or refusing to return home, the majority were resettled in other countries including Australia which, like most receiving nations, saw these refugees primarily as a labour force for post-war economic recovery and expansion. However, unlike other nations, DPs destined for Australia signed a work contract which committed them to two years of …
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Australian History and Society (7 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · History (5 works) · Immigration (5 works)