Collaborating on whiteness

Representing Italians in early White Australia1

Bibliographic Data

ID12646567
AuthorsCatherine Dewhirst (0000-0002-5278-0075, University of Southern Queensland, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume32
Issue1
Pages33-49
Publication date2008-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Australian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1444-3058 • E-ISSN: 1835-6419
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14443050801993800
OpenAlexW2093092878
LanguageEN
Citations received12

This article examines the experience of Italian migrants as ‘ethnic whites’ in the period before World War I through two foreign language newspapers, L'Italo-Australiano (1905–1909) and the Oceania (1913–1915). The social history that emerges from these newspapers provides insight into Australia's national history and is complemented by views from the mainstream press. Italian community leaders used resistance and compromise to validate the whiteness of Italians, appealing to nationalistic values. The editors engaged with the polemics of Italian immigration by articulating a counter-ideology to Australia's obsession with creating a homogenous society which frequently relegated Italians to the periphery. Their attempt to promote an Italian agricultural village illustrates this ideological stance. Its failure to take hold in the manner they had envisaged suggests the contradictions inherent in the processes of nation-building, especially regarding the discourse of whiteness. Italians were central to a lively debate over preferential migrants – a debate still relevant today

Aesthetics · Art · Compromise · Ethnic group · Ideology · Immigration · Mainstream · Media studies · Newspaper · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Social science · Sociology · White (mutation · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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