Kelly Jean Butler Kelly Jean Butler i(6037117 works by)
Also writes as: Kelly Butler
Gender: Female
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1 2 y separately published work icon Witnessing Australian Stories : History, Testimony and Memory in Contemporary Culture Kelly Jean Butler , New Jersey : Transaction Publishers , 2013 6037186 2013 single work criticism

This book is about how Australians have responded to stories about suffering and injustice in Australia, presented in a range of public media, including literature, history, films, and television. Those who have responded are both ordinary and prominent Australians—politicians, writers, and scholars. All have sought to come to terms with Australia’s history by responding empathetically to stories of its marginalized citizens.

Drawing upon international scholarship on collective memory, public history, testimony, and witnessing, this book represents a cultural history of contemporary Australia. It examines the forms of witnessing that dominated Australian public culture at the turn of the millennium. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in Australia in response to the increasingly audible voices of indigenous peoples, migrants, and more recently, asylum seekers. As these voices became public, they posed a challenge not only to scholars and politicians, but also, most importantly, to ordinary citizens.

(From the publisher's website)

1 'This is How I'm Sorry' : Witnessing the Frontier in Contemporary Australian Historical Writing Kelly Butler , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Frontier Skirmishes : Literary and Cultural Debates in Australia after 1992 2010; (p. 169-184)
1 1 y separately published work icon Witnessing Australian Stories : History, Testimony and Memory in Contemporary Culture Kelly Jean Butler , Melbourne : 2010 6037495 2010 single work thesis

'This book is about how Australians have responded to stories about suffering and injustice in Australia, presented in a range of public media, including literature, history, films, and television. Those who have responded are both ordinary and prominent Australians–politicians, writers, and scholars. All have sought to come to terms with Australia's history by responding empathetically to stories of its marginalized citizens.

'Drawing upon international scholarship on collective memory, public history, testimony, and witnessing, this book represents a cultural history of contemporary Australia. It examines the forms of witnessing that dominated Australian public culture at the turn of the millennium. Since the late 1980s, witnessing has developed in Australia in response to the increasingly audible voices of indigenous peoples, migrants, and more recently, asylum seekers. As these voices became public, they posed a challenge not only to scholars and politicians, but also, most importantly, to ordinary citizens.

'When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his historic apology to Australia's indigenous peoples in February 2008, he performed an act of collective witnessing that affirmed the testimony and experiences of Aboriginal Australians. The phenomenon of witnessing became crucial, not only to the recognition and reparation of past injustices, but to efforts to create a more cosmopolitan Australia in the present. This is a vital addition to Transactions critically acclaimed Memory and Narrative series.' (Publisher's blurb)

1 Black Writers White Editors : Episodes of Collaboration and Compromise in Australian Publishing History Kelly Butler , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Melbourne Historical Journal , vol. 37 no. 2009; (p. 147-149)

— Review of Black Writers White Editors : Episodes of Collaboration and Compromise in Australian Publishing History Jennifer Jones , 2009 single work criticism
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