Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 “The White Experiment” : Racism and the Broome Pearl-Shelling Industry
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'With the Federation of Australia, aspiration for racial homogeneity was firmly established as being fundamental to national identity. Therefore, increasing criticism was directed against Asian employment in the pearl-shelling industry of Broome. It was not least against the backdrop of population politics, that several efforts were implemented to disestablish the purportedly ‘multiracial enclave’ in ‘White Australia.’ These culminated in “the white experiment,” i.e. the introduction of a dozen British men to evince European fitness as pearl divers and initiate the replacement of Asian pearling crews. Embedded in these endeavours were reflections of broader discourses on ‘white supremacy’ and racist discrimination.' (Introduction)

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  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Anglica : An International Journal of English Studies Special Issue : Australia vol. 28 no. 3 2019 17386605 2019 periodical issue 'The need to redefine Australia has been particularly urgent in the recent two decades when the image of this antipodean society as almost a model multicultural one, craving for freedom and tolerance, was demolished by growing intolerance and nationalisms. In today’s world, torn by conflicts of interests, racial hatred and social divisions, the nineteenth-century concept of a nation and national ideology, which only apparently faded away in the era of the late twentieth-century globalisation, is now being given a new prominence not just by minor politicians who want to win the favour of their electorates (Pauline Hanson and others), but by surprisingly large sections of democratic, egalitarian societies as Australia and New Zealand undoubtedly are.' (Ryszard W. Wolny, Preface) 2019 pg. 43-58
Last amended 17 Sep 2019 13:24:17
43-58 “The White Experiment” : Racism and the Broome Pearl-Shelling Industrysmall AustLit logo Anglica : An International Journal of English Studies
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