Berlin wears its history on its sleeve. Its reputation as the seat of Hitler’s Third Reich and pivotal position during the Cold War, then the collapse of the divide between east and west, make that inevitable. But the modern German state has propelled history further into the public eye, in the hope that frank … Read more
This week (13 to 16 September 2017) Oral History NSW hosted the 2017 Oral History Australia conference. Minna Muhlen-Schulte provides a snapshot. Moving memories: oral history in a global world presented an exciting, challenging and moving survey of the impacts of oral history. The conference also covered new directions shaping the discipline. Some of … Read more
Minna Muhlen-Schulte reflects on the current debate about statues. As the removal of Confederate statues increases in the wake of Charlottesville, the questions proliferate about public history, the politics of commemoration and our role as professional historians in these debates. What happens when the meaning of a memorial or statue shifts between generations and … Read more
Jennifer Debenham discusses the website, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Eastern Australia 1788-1872, which was formally launched at the annual Australian Historical Association’s conference in July by Indigenous Senior Lecturer, Dr Stephanie Gilbert, from the University of Newcastle’s Wollotuka Institute. The launch session was introduced by project leader, Professor Lyndall Ryan. Dr William (Bill) Pascoe, … Read more
Sydney Living Museums’ exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, The Moderns: European Designers in Sydney comes at a time when the city’s built environment and architectural heritage are very much in the spotlight. Nicole Cama takes a look at one of those designers, Eva Buhrich. From the 1930s to the 1960s, a number of architects and … Read more
… by Mark Dunn, Chair, PHA NSW & ACT This year the 36th Annual Australian Historical Association (AHA) Conference was held in Newcastle. Out of over 300 delegates giving papers, at least 18 PHA NSW & ACT members were present and presenting. This was great to see and represents the largest number in a … Read more
The Public History Prize seeks to encourage historical practice that is applied to real world issues. It invites entries from undergraduate, graduate diploma and master students in NSW and the ACT , which demonstrate excellence in writing or other media, and the ability to interpret the past in a contextual way. The Prize for … Read more
Bruce Baskerville gives a taste of his paper at the recent Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle. The presentation was based on part of chapter three in his 80,000 word PhD thesis, so giving just a 20-minute talk was a challenge. As one speaker at the conference noted ‘constraint is enabling’, in other words, a field … Read more
… a heritage consultant at JCIS Consultants. My work focuses on the east coast of Australia. In my practice, I am never sure whether I am a historian, archaeologist or a geographer and often I think I am all at the one time. Certainly, my research interests are not confined to a single discipline. … Read more
By Paul Irish, whose book Hidden In Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney (2017) is out now, published by NewSouth Publishing. We all recognise the Sydney Opera House. Many of us also know that it is built on a point named after early colonial Aboriginal identity Bennelong, who lived there in the … Read more