The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Australia’s Minority Community Printed Press History in Global Context: An Introduction

   • Catherine Dewhirst, Richard Scully

   Pages 1-17

3. The Satirical Press of Colonial Australia: A Migrant and Minority Enterprise

   • Richard Scully

   Pages 19-36

4. “Cement, Guide and Representative for the Exile and the Emigrant”: Ideological Discourse and italianità in L’Italo-Australiano

   • Marianna Piantavigna

   Pages 37-59

5. Australia’s Early Russian-Language Press (1912–1919)

   • Kevin Windle

   Pages 61-79

6. Respectability and Disloyalty: The Competing Obligations of L’Italiano’s Editors

   • Catherine Dewhirst

   Pages 81-105

7. Zionism, Assimilationism and Antifascism: Divergent International Jewish Pathways in Three Post-War Australian Jewish Magazines

   • Max Kaiser

   Pages 107-125

8. Literary Ambitions: The Polish-Language Press in Australia

   • Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams, Mary Besemeres

   Pages 127-149

9. Exploring the Migrant Experience Through an Examination of Letters to The New Australian

   • Karen Agutter

   Pages 151-167

10. Crónicas in Australia’s Spanish-Language Press: The Case of El Expreso

    • Michael Jacklin

    Pages 169-187

11. News Reporting of Italian Organised Crime in Australia: Examining Il Globo’s Editorial Commentary

    • Clare Johansson, Simone Battiston

    Pages 189-208

12. A Treasure Trove of Community Language Newspapers

    • Hilary Berthon

    Pages 209-224

13. Back Matter

    Pages 225-257

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This edited collection invites the reader to enter the diverse worlds of Australia’s migrant and minority communities through the latest research on the contemporary printed press, spanning the mid-nineteenth century to our current day. With a focus on the rare, radical and foreign-language print culture of multiple and frequently concurrent minority groups’ newspaper ventures, this volume has two overarching aims: firstly to demonstrate how the local experiences and narratives of such communities are always forged and negotiated within a context of globalising forces – the global within the local; and secondly to enrich an understanding of the complexity of Australian ‘voices’ through this medium not only as a means for appreciating how the cultural heritage of such communities were sustained, but also for exploring their contributions to the wider society.

• multiculturalism
• minority communities
• print culture
• globalization
• national identity

“This is a fascinating edited book … . I enjoyed reading this edited volume. It explores a subject that has been little looked at in such depth. It therefore makes an important contribution to the existing literature on migration history and media studies, and illustrates the scholarly benefits of combining both of these fields. I recommend it to readers, both expert and general.” (Jatinder Mann, JACANZS, Vol. (1) 1, June, 2021)

“This fascinating and rich collection of essays draws on new evidence to locate the history of Australia’s vibrant, strident and diverse migrant and minority press in a broader transnational and global landscape of print culture. It shows how newspapers spoke out boldly, in a range of registers and languages, to articulate the concerns and advocate the needs of the myriad groups making up the Australian nation during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  The book advances new lines of inquiry that will interest all those working on histories of the press and migration, and those seeking to understand the intrinsically transnational nature of the modern mass media.” (Professor Simon J. Potter, University of Bristol, UK)

“Ranging across 150 years, this exciting collection of essays considers the cultural and political role of the minority press in cities and towns around Australia. Through a close reading of newspapers and magazines published by and for linguistically diverse communities, and in English for later generations, it explores issues of immigration, mobility and identity, and ideology, production and reception. Transnational Voices is both a unique work, and a starting point for future conversations and collaborative projects about the shared histories of Australia.” (Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley FAHA, Macquarie University, Australia)

“Contrary to the stereotype, Australia has long been a multilingual society. This illuminating and riveting collection reveals the richness of under-utilised minority and foreign language newspapers as historical sources on our national and international past. It also highlights the transnational networks that have shaped the paradox of the migrant condition and inherent ambivalence of Australians who have lived both here and there, as exiles also at home.” (Professor Marilyn Lake AO, The University of Melbourne, Australia)

• University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia

  Catherine Dewhirst

• University of New England, Armidale, Australia

  Richard Scully

Catherine Dewhirst is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, where she teaches European, global and women’s histories, and historiography. Her research focuses on Italian migrant communities and newspapers from Italian imperialism to the Second World War.

Richard Scully is Associate Professor in Modern European History at the University of New England, Australia. He is the author of Eminent Victorian Cartoonists (2018), and is primarily a researcher of the history of political cartooning in Europe and its colonial empires.

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