Kevin Blackburn

Imagining Aboriginal Nations: Early Nineteenth Century Evangelicals on the Australian Frontier and the “Nation” Concept

This article evaluates the extent that Aboriginal societies in early nineteenth century Australia were known by Europeans coming into early contact with them as Aboriginal nations rather than as tribes. The study demonstrates that early nineteenth century Evangelicals saw the Aboriginal societies that they encountered on the Australian frontier as nations because the Evangelicals’ view of the world was based on that found in their Bible, in which it is described how God had divided the world up into different nations. The article draws the conclusion that seeing Aboriginal people as nations was common among the Evangelicals. However, the practice of mapping and delineating individual Aboriginal nations was limited to a few Evangelicals, such as George Augustus Robinson and Edward Parker, who had acquired an intimate knowledge of Aboriginal culture.

War Memory and Nation-Building in South East Asia

This article analyses why some countries in South East Asia have set aside a national day to remember the Japanese Occupation in the cause of nation-building and why other countries have tended to choose not to remember the Japanese Occupation because for them it does not further nation-building. Singapore, the Philippines and Burma have all remembered their experience of struggle and sacrifice during the Second World War to further national unity. However, most South East Asian countries have chosen at a national level not to commemorate this undoubtedly major watershed in the regions history.

Recalling War Trauma of the Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation in the Oral History of Malaysia and Singapore

The Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation were traumatic periods in the lives of people now over seventy years old in Malaysia and Singapore. This study traces why individuals interviewed for oral history of the Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation have often been able to tell stories of trauma without being overwhelmed by their reminiscences. It emphasizes that memories of traumatic experiences of the Pacific War and Japanese Occupation in Malaysia and Singapore are mediated and eased by supportive social networks that are part of the interview subjects community. The individuals personal memories of traumatic war experiences are positioned in the context of the collective memory of the group and, thus, are made easier to recall. However, for individuals whose personal memories are at variance with the collective memory of the group they belong to, recalling traumatic experiences is more difficult and alienating as they do not have the support of their community. The act of recalling traumatic memories in the context of the collective memory of a group is particularly relevant in Malaysia and Singapore. These countries have a long history of being plural societies, where although the major ethnic groups—the Malays, Chinese, and Indians—have lived side by side peacefully, they have lived in culturally and socially separate worlds, not interacting much with the other groups. The self—identity of many older people who lived through the Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation is inextricably bound up with their ethnicity. Oral history on war trauma strongly reflects these identities.

White Agitation for an Aboriginal State in Australia (1925-1929)

This article evaluates proposals in the late 1920s for the creation of an Aboriginal State in either a part of the Northern Territory or South Australia. In the proposals for an Aboriginal State, Aborigines were to own their own land, live according to their own customs, govern themselves, and have Aboriginal Members of Parliament representing them in the Federal Parliament. The study analyses the intellectual foundations of the proposals in the political organisations of the Maori of New Zealand. It examines Aboriginal people’s ambivalence to the idea, which arose out of their bitter experience of living through previous plans made supposedly for their benefit by white society.

Preaching ‘the gospel of efficiency’: The promotion of ideas about profit‐sharing and payment by results in Australia, 1915–29

This article examines the process by which the idea of industrial efficiency emerged from the Protestant work ethic in the Australian context. The study uses Australian evidence to support Max Webers thesis that the emphasis on efficiency in the way the individual worked was part of the continued secularisation of the religious asceticism of Protestantism in modern society. The article examines the ideology behind the methods by which industrial efficiency was to be realized—profit‐sharing and payment by results—between 1915 and 1929, when these ideas first rose to prominence in Australia.

Changi: a place of personal pilgrimages and collective histories.

This article investigates the meaning that the Changi historical site has had for its visitors. The study traces how the landmarks and relics of the former prisoner-of-war camp at Changi in Singapore have been re-created and, in some cases, relocated for the public since the end of World War II. Changis meaning as a place is derived not only from the significance that it has for the ex-prisoners of war and their relatives, who frequently revisit the site: many visitors for whom Changi represents a major historical event in their own national history also attach considerable importance to the site.

The ‘Race of Athletes’ of World War I

Soon after the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915, the Australian soldiers were described as a ‘race of athletes’ in the first despatch to make it back to Australia. The use of this sports metaphor by British journalist Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett reflected the prevalence in both Britain and Australia of the late Victorian and Edwardian idea of masculinity which decreed that proving one’s manhood on the sports field was preparation for the ‘greater game’ of proving manhood on the battlefield. The notion that Australian men, who excelled at sports before World War I, had at Gallipoli proven themselves and upheld the manhood of their nation found its way into Australian national identity.

Anzac and Sport after World War II

In Australia after World War II, sports associations saw their returning players as having gone through the test of battle and again proven themselves. The Korean War confirmed the belief that sport could create ‘soldier sportsmen’ who were perceived as superior fighters. But conscription during the Vietnam War challenged the notion that there existed an Anzac ‘soldier sportsman’ who volunteered when he heard the ‘call of duty’ to take up the ‘greater game’. Throughout the post-war period increasingly the relationship between Anzac and sport became even closer as the playing of sport on Anzac Day was adopted by all Australian States. By the twenty-first century sports associations had invented rituals and ceremonies for the sport played on the day.

Anzac Day and the Language of Sport and War

During World War I, sport became integral to not just military life, but to the marking of Anzac Day. On the day, the Anzacs would have a memorial service in the morning and celebrate the testing of their manhood in the afternoon by playing sport. This sporting tradition continued in the interwar years, but was considerably curtailed when half of the Australian States banned sport on Anzac Day because the day began to increasingly be seen as a ‘sacred day’ that was incompatible with the playing of sport. Despite the ban on Anzac Day sport, the language that had linked Anzac to sport persisted during the interwar years and the notion that the Anzacs were ‘soldier sportsmen’ grew more common when they were described on Anzac Day.

The ‘Army of Athletes’ of World War II

Australian sportsmen joining up from 1939 to 1945 believed they had to demonstrate that they possessed the sporting and battle prowess of the Anzacs of 1914–1918. There was a commonly accepted notion that the Anzacs had established a sporting tradition as well as a martial tradition which Australian soldiers of World War II should uphold. There was pressure on sportsmen to join up because of the belief that in some way playing sport had prepared them with the right physical and mental qualities to fight on the battlefield.