The Family Law Act of 1975 and the establishment of the Family Court of Australia in the followin... more The Family Law Act of 1975 and the establishment of the Family Court of Australia in the following year aimed to revolutionise the settlement of marital disputes in this country. Gone was the notion of divorce as a spectator sport, the slalcious media reports of unfaithful spouses and the private investigators enllisted to stalk suspicious partners. But the court quickly became the focus of hostility, andmanhy saw it as a failed experiment. Drawing on interviews with judges, lawyers and counsellors, Born in Hope challenges this assessment. It captures the complexity of the early years as the Family Court grappled with increasing media criticism and act sof violence never before seen in the Australian legal system. This intriguing oral history provides a deeper understanding of the legal institution which has had an impact on so many Australians.
In nineteenth century Victoria illegitimacy and death went hand in hand; Estimates vary but the d... more In nineteenth century Victoria illegitimacy and death went hand in hand; Estimates vary but the death rate amongst illegitimate babies was at least three times that of legitimate children and possibly much higher. The reasons for this disparity were obvious. Single mothers often had little or no pre-natal care and many had no assistance at delivery. Poor and alone, few were able to breast feed their children for long and many had little choice but to hand them over to wet nurses who, at a time when artificial feeding was little developed, were ill equipped to keep them alive.
On peut considérer que l’adoption, le déplacement permanent d’un enfant d’une famille à une autre... more On peut considérer que l’adoption, le déplacement permanent d’un enfant d’une famille à une autre, est rarement politiquement neutre, mais signale plutôt un déséquilibre de pouvoir qui est souvent nié par les processus juridiques qui l’autorisent. Le choix du terme « adoption forcée » par des militants dans plusieurs pays occidentaux a bouleversé les conceptions actuelles de l’adoption au xx e siècle, qui considèrent celle-ci comme une pratique sociale bienveillante permettant de trouver des foyers pour les enfants « non désirés » ou comme une transaction dans un marché libre permettant aux couples stériles de construire des familles. Bien que non sans contestation, cette perturbation met au défi les historiens de l’adoption de placer leur travail dans un contexte plus large de pratiques nationales et internationales de retrait d’enfants. En s’appuyant sur le nombre croissant d’études en anglais documentant ces pratiques dans différents contextes nationaux, cet article cartographie l’étendue et la variété des moyens par lesquels les gouvernements ont utilisé le recours à l’adoption pour renforcer les politiques sociales dans des domaines tels que l’assimilation des autochtones ou d’autres minorités raciales, le rapatriement des enfants d’ascendance mixte au lendemain du colonialisme, les représailles contre les opposants politiques pendant les conflits et le contrôle interne des mœurs en temps de paix, la répression de la remise en cause du modèle patriarcal de la famille par l’augmentation des naissances hors mariage dans le monde occidental au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’article identifie les contextes nationaux dans lesquels l’adoption plutôt que le placement des enfants est devenue une méthode acceptée et, dans certains cas, privilégiée pour atteindre ces objectifs. Il soutient que la capacité à reconstruire des enfants « souillés » pour les rendre acceptables pour les parents adoptifs potentiels, se présentant au départ comme motivée par la bienveillance, mais de plus en plus par l’infertilité, a été un élément central de cette transition. L’augmentation de la demande qui en a résulté a souvent poussé les autorités pourvoyeuses à élargir leur définition des enfants à adopter, en créant des chaînes d’approvisionnement, dans des endroits aussi divers que l’Australie, l’Espagne, le Nigeria et la Corée du Sud, dans lesquelles les futures mères étaient hébergées et recevaient des soins médicaux à condition qu’elles abandonnent leur enfant à la naissance. Dans de telles circonstances, la liberté du consentement, sur laquelle repose le statut juridique de l’adoption, est gravement compromise. En identifiant les cas où l’absence manifeste de consentement concernant les enfants placés en adoption pendant la guerre ou les troubles civils, notamment en Allemagne et en Argentine, a conduit à perturber les adoptions et, dans de nombreux cas, à les annuler, l’article explore les défis que posent pour l’avenir les tentatives des activistes contemporains de faire classer comme forcées, voire illégales, les adoptions faites dans d’autres contextes et d’autre cadres juridiques.
was born in Australia and obtained degrees in politics, women's studies and history from La Trobe... more was born in Australia and obtained degrees in politics, women's studies and history from La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne, where she is Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History. Her teaching and research interests centre on nineteenth-century British colonialism and she has published work on Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean. She is currently completing a book the methodological approach of which casts new light on the career of Colonial Governor Edward Eyre. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the rule of law in the colonial encounter.
In May 1910 Edward VII, king of Great Britain and Ireland and emperor of India, who had assumed t... more In May 1910 Edward VII, king of Great Britain and Ireland and emperor of India, who had assumed the throne on the death of his mother Queen Victoria in 1901, died at the age of 68. He had worn the Crown which held together an Empire of formidable extent that ranged across a quarter of the globe and included over 300 million people. 1 Of these, nearly 19 million were settlers, most of British origin, in the White Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the newly united South Africa, the economic transactions of which constituted 16.5 per cent of Britain's overseas trade. 2 Edward's son and successor George V had visited all of these Dominions, a feat not matched by his father and grandmother. King George's coronation, scheduled for 22 June the following year, provided a suitable occasion for the prime minister of Britain, H. H. Asquith, to call together Dominion representatives for an Imperial Conference. The first Imperial Conference had coincided with Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, in 1887, and several mutually advantageous meetings had occurred subsequently, the most recent having been in 1907. 3 At this juncture, with international tensions brewing, the most urgent business for the British Liberal Government was to unite the Dominions around issues of defence. And so in May 1911 the prime ministers of the Dominions, flanked by their appropriate ministers, set foot in the British capital, all apparently pleased, if not flattered, to be there to receive the applause of the press and the assiduous attentions of the senior ministry and royal family. From the newly united South Africa came its first prime minister, General Louis Botha, recently commandant-general of the defeated Boer army. The long-serving French-Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier represented Canada. Also from Laurier's sphere, but separate from Canada, was Sir Edward Morris of Newfoundland, which had stayed outside the Confederation. From the Commonwealth of Australia came Mr Andrew Fisher, the first Australian Labor Party man
South Africa: better 'the Hottentot at the hustings' than 'the Hottentot in the wilds with his gu... more South Africa: better 'the Hottentot at the hustings' than 'the Hottentot in the wilds with his gun on his shoulder' These upheavals also made it possible for White settlers to penetrate significantly into the interior. From about 1836, substantial numbers of Afrikaners from the eastern Cape (subsequently to be called Voortrekkers), who were dissatisfied with the social and economic policies of the British colonial government, began to trek into the interior, seeking land and militarily challenging the dominant African rulers. The ultimate result of this 'Great Trek' was the establishment of Boer (Afrikaner) republics in the interior, and in Natal on the southeast coast. The Boer republic of Natalia was established in 1838, following the military defeat of the Zulu king, Dingane; but in 1842, it was militarily annexed by Britain, in the following year becoming the second British colony in South Africa: Natal. 3 With its history of Dutch and British interventions, it can be seen that, by the mid-nineteenth-century, what is now known as South Africa comprised a patchwork of states, ruled by distinct national and ethnic groups. 4 There were two British colonies, the Cape Colony and Natal, along the southern and southeastern coast, controlling access to the sea; two inland Boer (Afrikaner) republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal; 5 and numerous African polities, ruled by Indigenous peoples such as the Xhosa, the Zulu, the Sotho, the Tswana, the Pedi, the Swazi and the Griqua. By the time, in 1899, of the outbreak of the South African War, all of the independent African polities had come under European (essentially British) rule, and the war for control of South Africa, its people and its resources was one fought between, on the one side, the two Boer republics and, on the other, Britain and its two colonies. In the 1850s, however, Britain had no great interest in the interior of South Africa, and was content to recognise the independence of the two Boer republics in the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions of 1852 and 1854 (see Map 4.1). Following the pattern set in the Canadian and Australasian colonies, and advocated in the Durham Report, the British Government granted representative government to both the Cape and Natal in the 1850sto the Cape in 1853 and to Natal in 1856. In both cases, the grant raised the question-for the colonists and the Colonial Office in London-of what the policy should be in relation to the political rights of the substantial numbers of Indigenous inhabitants within each colony. Among the European-ruled states of nineteenth-century South Africa, this was an issue only in the two British colonies. The two Boer republics-the Transvaal and the Orange Free State-granted the franchise to all adult White males, without qualification-but not to any non-White people; for the whole period of their existence, the two republics allowed no formal political rights to the large numbers of African people living within their borders. The 1839 Constitution of ESTABLISHING SETTLER DOMINANCE
The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from... more The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from the late 1830s to 1870 were notable for their swift movement politically from initial Crown colonies to virtual local self-government. As in Canada, the British Government first made arrangements for representative government based on a property franchise for all of these colonies, the already existing and the new, and then conceded responsible government to the colonists. Further, by 1860 the legislatures of the eastern and southeastern Australian colonies had instituted full manhood suffrage. Formally, the Indigenous peoples of the Australasian colonies, Aborigines and Maori, were included in this rush along the path to self-government and democracy. Closer examination reveals that colonists on the Australian continent could afford to show contemptuous disregard of Aborigines' involvement in political processes. New Zealand settlers, by contrast, would need to surround their initially fragile dominance of the colony with safeguards against Maori potential to influence their political agendas. White Canadians explicitly and consciously enshrined in law that Indigenous political rights were dependent on 'progress' in 'civilisation'. In the Australasian colonies, that agenda also would never be far from the surface, interwoven with urgent settler imperatives grounded in their intensive pursuit of their own economic interests. The means by which colonists could acquire land and their subsequent usage of it would strongly influence Maori and Aborigines' entitlement to political citizenship and the likelihood of their exercising it. 1 'The aboriginal inhabitants are all British subjects and could qualify for the franchise equally with others' At the time the Select Committee on Aborigines was sitting in Britain, in 1836, the principal British colony of New South Wales (NSW) was a [ 63 ]
The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from... more The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from the late 1830s to 1870 were notable for their swift movement politically from initial Crown colonies to virtual local self-government. As in Canada, the British Government first made arrangements for representative government based on a property franchise for all of these colonies, the already existing and the new, and then conceded responsible government to the colonists. Further, by 1860 the legislatures of the eastern and southeastern Australian colonies had instituted full manhood suffrage. Formally, the Indigenous peoples of the Australasian colonies, Aborigines and Maori, were included in this rush along the path to self-government and democracy. Closer examination reveals that colonists on the Australian continent could afford to show contemptuous disregard of Aborigines' involvement in political processes. New Zealand settlers, by contrast, would need to surround their initially fragile dominance of the colony with safeguards against Maori potential to influence their political agendas. White Canadians explicitly and consciously enshrined in law that Indigenous political rights were dependent on 'progress' in 'civilisation'. In the Australasian colonies, that agenda also would never be far from the surface, interwoven with urgent settler imperatives grounded in their intensive pursuit of their own economic interests. The means by which colonists could acquire land and their subsequent usage of it would strongly influence Maori and Aborigines' entitlement to political citizenship and the likelihood of their exercising it. 1 'The aboriginal inhabitants are all British subjects and could qualify for the franchise equally with others' At the time the Select Committee on Aborigines was sitting in Britain, in 1836, the principal British colony of New South Wales (NSW) was a [ 63 ]
The Family Law Act of 1975 and the establishment of the Family Court of Australia in the followin... more The Family Law Act of 1975 and the establishment of the Family Court of Australia in the following year aimed to revolutionise the settlement of marital disputes in this country. Gone was the notion of divorce as a spectator sport, the slalcious media reports of unfaithful spouses and the private investigators enllisted to stalk suspicious partners. But the court quickly became the focus of hostility, andmanhy saw it as a failed experiment. Drawing on interviews with judges, lawyers and counsellors, Born in Hope challenges this assessment. It captures the complexity of the early years as the Family Court grappled with increasing media criticism and act sof violence never before seen in the Australian legal system. This intriguing oral history provides a deeper understanding of the legal institution which has had an impact on so many Australians.
In nineteenth century Victoria illegitimacy and death went hand in hand; Estimates vary but the d... more In nineteenth century Victoria illegitimacy and death went hand in hand; Estimates vary but the death rate amongst illegitimate babies was at least three times that of legitimate children and possibly much higher. The reasons for this disparity were obvious. Single mothers often had little or no pre-natal care and many had no assistance at delivery. Poor and alone, few were able to breast feed their children for long and many had little choice but to hand them over to wet nurses who, at a time when artificial feeding was little developed, were ill equipped to keep them alive.
On peut considérer que l’adoption, le déplacement permanent d’un enfant d’une famille à une autre... more On peut considérer que l’adoption, le déplacement permanent d’un enfant d’une famille à une autre, est rarement politiquement neutre, mais signale plutôt un déséquilibre de pouvoir qui est souvent nié par les processus juridiques qui l’autorisent. Le choix du terme « adoption forcée » par des militants dans plusieurs pays occidentaux a bouleversé les conceptions actuelles de l’adoption au xx e siècle, qui considèrent celle-ci comme une pratique sociale bienveillante permettant de trouver des foyers pour les enfants « non désirés » ou comme une transaction dans un marché libre permettant aux couples stériles de construire des familles. Bien que non sans contestation, cette perturbation met au défi les historiens de l’adoption de placer leur travail dans un contexte plus large de pratiques nationales et internationales de retrait d’enfants. En s’appuyant sur le nombre croissant d’études en anglais documentant ces pratiques dans différents contextes nationaux, cet article cartographie l’étendue et la variété des moyens par lesquels les gouvernements ont utilisé le recours à l’adoption pour renforcer les politiques sociales dans des domaines tels que l’assimilation des autochtones ou d’autres minorités raciales, le rapatriement des enfants d’ascendance mixte au lendemain du colonialisme, les représailles contre les opposants politiques pendant les conflits et le contrôle interne des mœurs en temps de paix, la répression de la remise en cause du modèle patriarcal de la famille par l’augmentation des naissances hors mariage dans le monde occidental au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’article identifie les contextes nationaux dans lesquels l’adoption plutôt que le placement des enfants est devenue une méthode acceptée et, dans certains cas, privilégiée pour atteindre ces objectifs. Il soutient que la capacité à reconstruire des enfants « souillés » pour les rendre acceptables pour les parents adoptifs potentiels, se présentant au départ comme motivée par la bienveillance, mais de plus en plus par l’infertilité, a été un élément central de cette transition. L’augmentation de la demande qui en a résulté a souvent poussé les autorités pourvoyeuses à élargir leur définition des enfants à adopter, en créant des chaînes d’approvisionnement, dans des endroits aussi divers que l’Australie, l’Espagne, le Nigeria et la Corée du Sud, dans lesquelles les futures mères étaient hébergées et recevaient des soins médicaux à condition qu’elles abandonnent leur enfant à la naissance. Dans de telles circonstances, la liberté du consentement, sur laquelle repose le statut juridique de l’adoption, est gravement compromise. En identifiant les cas où l’absence manifeste de consentement concernant les enfants placés en adoption pendant la guerre ou les troubles civils, notamment en Allemagne et en Argentine, a conduit à perturber les adoptions et, dans de nombreux cas, à les annuler, l’article explore les défis que posent pour l’avenir les tentatives des activistes contemporains de faire classer comme forcées, voire illégales, les adoptions faites dans d’autres contextes et d’autre cadres juridiques.
was born in Australia and obtained degrees in politics, women's studies and history from La Trobe... more was born in Australia and obtained degrees in politics, women's studies and history from La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne, where she is Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History. Her teaching and research interests centre on nineteenth-century British colonialism and she has published work on Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean. She is currently completing a book the methodological approach of which casts new light on the career of Colonial Governor Edward Eyre. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the rule of law in the colonial encounter.
In May 1910 Edward VII, king of Great Britain and Ireland and emperor of India, who had assumed t... more In May 1910 Edward VII, king of Great Britain and Ireland and emperor of India, who had assumed the throne on the death of his mother Queen Victoria in 1901, died at the age of 68. He had worn the Crown which held together an Empire of formidable extent that ranged across a quarter of the globe and included over 300 million people. 1 Of these, nearly 19 million were settlers, most of British origin, in the White Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the newly united South Africa, the economic transactions of which constituted 16.5 per cent of Britain's overseas trade. 2 Edward's son and successor George V had visited all of these Dominions, a feat not matched by his father and grandmother. King George's coronation, scheduled for 22 June the following year, provided a suitable occasion for the prime minister of Britain, H. H. Asquith, to call together Dominion representatives for an Imperial Conference. The first Imperial Conference had coincided with Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, in 1887, and several mutually advantageous meetings had occurred subsequently, the most recent having been in 1907. 3 At this juncture, with international tensions brewing, the most urgent business for the British Liberal Government was to unite the Dominions around issues of defence. And so in May 1911 the prime ministers of the Dominions, flanked by their appropriate ministers, set foot in the British capital, all apparently pleased, if not flattered, to be there to receive the applause of the press and the assiduous attentions of the senior ministry and royal family. From the newly united South Africa came its first prime minister, General Louis Botha, recently commandant-general of the defeated Boer army. The long-serving French-Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier represented Canada. Also from Laurier's sphere, but separate from Canada, was Sir Edward Morris of Newfoundland, which had stayed outside the Confederation. From the Commonwealth of Australia came Mr Andrew Fisher, the first Australian Labor Party man
South Africa: better 'the Hottentot at the hustings' than 'the Hottentot in the wilds with his gu... more South Africa: better 'the Hottentot at the hustings' than 'the Hottentot in the wilds with his gun on his shoulder' These upheavals also made it possible for White settlers to penetrate significantly into the interior. From about 1836, substantial numbers of Afrikaners from the eastern Cape (subsequently to be called Voortrekkers), who were dissatisfied with the social and economic policies of the British colonial government, began to trek into the interior, seeking land and militarily challenging the dominant African rulers. The ultimate result of this 'Great Trek' was the establishment of Boer (Afrikaner) republics in the interior, and in Natal on the southeast coast. The Boer republic of Natalia was established in 1838, following the military defeat of the Zulu king, Dingane; but in 1842, it was militarily annexed by Britain, in the following year becoming the second British colony in South Africa: Natal. 3 With its history of Dutch and British interventions, it can be seen that, by the mid-nineteenth-century, what is now known as South Africa comprised a patchwork of states, ruled by distinct national and ethnic groups. 4 There were two British colonies, the Cape Colony and Natal, along the southern and southeastern coast, controlling access to the sea; two inland Boer (Afrikaner) republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal; 5 and numerous African polities, ruled by Indigenous peoples such as the Xhosa, the Zulu, the Sotho, the Tswana, the Pedi, the Swazi and the Griqua. By the time, in 1899, of the outbreak of the South African War, all of the independent African polities had come under European (essentially British) rule, and the war for control of South Africa, its people and its resources was one fought between, on the one side, the two Boer republics and, on the other, Britain and its two colonies. In the 1850s, however, Britain had no great interest in the interior of South Africa, and was content to recognise the independence of the two Boer republics in the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions of 1852 and 1854 (see Map 4.1). Following the pattern set in the Canadian and Australasian colonies, and advocated in the Durham Report, the British Government granted representative government to both the Cape and Natal in the 1850sto the Cape in 1853 and to Natal in 1856. In both cases, the grant raised the question-for the colonists and the Colonial Office in London-of what the policy should be in relation to the political rights of the substantial numbers of Indigenous inhabitants within each colony. Among the European-ruled states of nineteenth-century South Africa, this was an issue only in the two British colonies. The two Boer republics-the Transvaal and the Orange Free State-granted the franchise to all adult White males, without qualification-but not to any non-White people; for the whole period of their existence, the two republics allowed no formal political rights to the large numbers of African people living within their borders. The 1839 Constitution of ESTABLISHING SETTLER DOMINANCE
The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from... more The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from the late 1830s to 1870 were notable for their swift movement politically from initial Crown colonies to virtual local self-government. As in Canada, the British Government first made arrangements for representative government based on a property franchise for all of these colonies, the already existing and the new, and then conceded responsible government to the colonists. Further, by 1860 the legislatures of the eastern and southeastern Australian colonies had instituted full manhood suffrage. Formally, the Indigenous peoples of the Australasian colonies, Aborigines and Maori, were included in this rush along the path to self-government and democracy. Closer examination reveals that colonists on the Australian continent could afford to show contemptuous disregard of Aborigines' involvement in political processes. New Zealand settlers, by contrast, would need to surround their initially fragile dominance of the colony with safeguards against Maori potential to influence their political agendas. White Canadians explicitly and consciously enshrined in law that Indigenous political rights were dependent on 'progress' in 'civilisation'. In the Australasian colonies, that agenda also would never be far from the surface, interwoven with urgent settler imperatives grounded in their intensive pursuit of their own economic interests. The means by which colonists could acquire land and their subsequent usage of it would strongly influence Maori and Aborigines' entitlement to political citizenship and the likelihood of their exercising it. 1 'The aboriginal inhabitants are all British subjects and could qualify for the franchise equally with others' At the time the Select Committee on Aborigines was sitting in Britain, in 1836, the principal British colony of New South Wales (NSW) was a [ 63 ]
The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from... more The first colonies on the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand in the decades from the late 1830s to 1870 were notable for their swift movement politically from initial Crown colonies to virtual local self-government. As in Canada, the British Government first made arrangements for representative government based on a property franchise for all of these colonies, the already existing and the new, and then conceded responsible government to the colonists. Further, by 1860 the legislatures of the eastern and southeastern Australian colonies had instituted full manhood suffrage. Formally, the Indigenous peoples of the Australasian colonies, Aborigines and Maori, were included in this rush along the path to self-government and democracy. Closer examination reveals that colonists on the Australian continent could afford to show contemptuous disregard of Aborigines' involvement in political processes. New Zealand settlers, by contrast, would need to surround their initially fragile dominance of the colony with safeguards against Maori potential to influence their political agendas. White Canadians explicitly and consciously enshrined in law that Indigenous political rights were dependent on 'progress' in 'civilisation'. In the Australasian colonies, that agenda also would never be far from the surface, interwoven with urgent settler imperatives grounded in their intensive pursuit of their own economic interests. The means by which colonists could acquire land and their subsequent usage of it would strongly influence Maori and Aborigines' entitlement to political citizenship and the likelihood of their exercising it. 1 'The aboriginal inhabitants are all British subjects and could qualify for the franchise equally with others' At the time the Select Committee on Aborigines was sitting in Britain, in 1836, the principal British colony of New South Wales (NSW) was a [ 63 ]
Australian Mothering: Historical and Sociological Perspectives, 2019
Adoption has always been a story about competing and conflicting claims to the status of mother. ... more Adoption has always been a story about competing and conflicting claims to the status of mother. This chapter analyses the invocation of the maternal in the more than 35000 classified adoption advertisements published in Australian newspapers between 1840 and 1954. Paul Bruthiaux has argued that classified advertisements were models of ‘linguistic simplicity’, highly coded communications in which authors chose from an-established repertoire of words and phrases to get their message across, but sequenced them in novel ways. The chapter examines sequencing of the word mother in advertisements seeking or offering a child for adoption, looking for evidence of change over time, and locating this analysis in the context of debates around the transformation of adoption from a mercantile to an emotional transaction.
Adoption, the permanent removal of a child from one family to another is never politically neutra... more Adoption, the permanent removal of a child from one family to another is never politically neutral, but rather is marked by a power imbalance that is often denied by the legal processes through which it is authorised. The co-option of the term ‘forced adoption’ by activists in several western countries has served to disrupt existing understandings of twentieth-century adoption as a benevolent welfare practice through which homes are found for ‘unwanted’ children or a free market transaction through which infertile couples are able to construct families. While not without contestation, this disruption challenges historians of adoption to place their work in a wider context of national and international child removal practices. Drawing on the growing body of scholarship documenting such practices in different national contexts, this article will begin to map the extent and variation in the ways in which governments have sanctioned the use of adoption to reinforce social policies in such areas as the assimilation of Indigenous or other racial minorities, repatriation of mixed descent children in the aftermath of colonialism, retribution against political opponents during conflicts and internal moral cleansing in peacetime, repressing challenges to the patriarchal model of family. The article will seek to identify national contexts in which adoption rather than institutionalisation became the preferred method for achieving such aims. It will argue that central to this transition was the ability to reconstruct such ‘tainted’ children as acceptable to potential adoptive parents, initially presenting as motivated by benevolence, but increasingly driven by desperation at their infertility. The consequent rise in demand in many instances pressured the supplying authorities to widen their definition of children that needed to be removed, creating supply chains, in locations as diverse as Australia, Spain, Nigeria and South Korea, through which expectant mothers were accommodated and provided with medical care on the understanding that they would surrender their child at birth. In such circumstances the freedom of the consent, on which the legal status of adoption is based, is severely compromised. By identifying instances in which the clear lack of consent in relation to children placed for adoption during war or civil disruption, particularly in Germany and Argentina, saw the adoptions disrupted, and in many instances reversed, the article will explore the challenges to adoption that the attempts by contemporary activists to have adoptions in other contexts and jurisdictions classified as forced, or even illegal, pose for the practice into the future
Based on a database of Australian cases from 1834–1954, this article argues that abandonment was ... more Based on a database of Australian cases from 1834–1954, this article argues that abandonment was an intentional strategy intended to maximise a child’s chances of survival while preserving its family’s reputation. However, abandonment had the potential to expose family secrets, bringing them into the public gaze and subjecting them to interrogation. Abandonment was also used for revenge, exposing the identity of putative fathers in a demand for financial support. Through this analysis the article positions abandonment as a key site of interaction between the individual and society, and the private and the public in relation to the politics of secrecy.
Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism 1885-1917, 2021
Beginning with Strong's Royal Commission testimony the chapter traces his role in the development... more Beginning with Strong's Royal Commission testimony the chapter traces his role in the development of Melbourne's distinctive form of social activism.
Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 2021
Although the origin story of the child protection movement traditionally begins with the founding... more Although the origin story of the child protection movement traditionally begins with the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1874, it was through the United Kingdom, with its imperial links, that the movement first became national and later international. The amalgamation of thirty-two local societies to form the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 1889 provided a powerful platform from which to disseminate ideas around child protection and develop frameworks for legislation, establishing models that would be embraced by reformers across the empire. Within ten years of its foundation, the NSPCC was reporting on kindred societies in India, South Africa, New Zealand, and several of the Australian colonies, although none was able to completely replicate the original model. This article traces the transmission of NSPCC ideas throughout the colonies and, identifying the factors that led to success or failure (or, more often, local adaptation), evaluates the NSPCC's imperial child protection mission.
The experiences of children are notoriously elusive in the sources on which historians traditiona... more The experiences of children are notoriously elusive in the sources on which historians traditionally rely. This paper will discuss several projects in which Trove has expanded the history of childhood in Australia, uncovering a nation-wide trade in children through adoption advertisements, and enriching our knowledge of out-of-home care, and the many inquiries into its failings. Trove has democratised the practice of history — allowing care leavers and abuse survivors to research their own histories — and enabled new avenues for identifying microhistories. However, this article also argues that Trove-focused history without an understanding of context can be misleading.
Feminist analyses have shown how from the mid-nineteenth century women shaped the cities in which... more Feminist analyses have shown how from the mid-nineteenth century women shaped the cities in which they lived. This article argues for the existence of an urban gynocentric zone, the site of a cluster of women-owned businesses charged with handling the unwanted products of women’s bodies. Shaped by shame, it constituted a female space within a larger metropolis, invisible, unacknowledged, yet well enough known to be a place of ready resort for women who needed its services. The article analyses the network of services businesswomen developed to do the dirty work necessary to cleanse the city of moral impurity, and the ways in which they negotiated the taint that such transgressive work necessarily involved. In so doing it promises to inform wider debates about the history of abortion, midwifery, baby farming and adoption.
Drawing on recent inquiries into historical institutional abuse, this chapter examines the degree... more Drawing on recent inquiries into historical institutional abuse, this chapter examines the degree to which the experience of physical and sexual violence in out-of-home care has been gendered.
Inquiries into historical institutional abuse have only recently come to be viewed through the le... more Inquiries into historical institutional abuse have only recently come to be viewed through the lens of transitional justice. This article argues that their distinctive victim focused approach disguises a reality that institutions in which violence was endemic blurred the line between victims and ‘perpetrators.’ Earlier inquiries often blamed residents for the prevalence of institutional violence, avoiding accusations that authorities had failed. Contemporary inquiries, intent on exposing institutional failures, draw a dichotomy between victims and perpetrators, but this makes it difficult for a victim/‘perpetrator’ to find a space in which to speak. This article explores the ways in which such people shape their understandings of their dual identity and the challenges which they pose to the unity of survivor advocacy groups in the shift from inquiry to redress. It argues that the existence of victim/‘perpetrator’ should be seen as evidence of institutional failure rather than an indication of individual culpability
This article explores the long history of institutions for children in Australia and of the exist... more This article explores the long history of institutions for children in Australia and of the existence of abuse within them. By examining the function that such institutions were designed to perform, and the forms and structures that were devised to best achieve such purposes, the article argues that abuse was all too often not simply inherent in, but essential to, institutional operation. It pays particular attention to the classification of children deemed to be in need of institutional “care” and shows how, through a process of “othering”, their institutionalisation too often rendered them vulnerable to abuse.
The establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse foll... more The establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse followed years of lobbying by survivor groups, damning findings from previous inquiries, and increasing societal recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by child sexual abuse. Through extensive media coverage, the Royal Commission brought into public view the reality that the sexual abuse of children was widespread, and its recommendations are prompting organisational, policy, and legislative reform. This article explores the background to the Royal Commission, situating it within the history of previous inquiries and growing community outrage at the failure of institutions to adequately protect children and respond appropriately when abuse occurs. The article explores the ways in which the Royal Commission, more so than previous inquiries, brought child sexual abuse into public discourse. It also serves as an introduction to this special issue of the Journal of Australian Studies, which illustrates how the Royal Commission has fostered new scholarship across a range of disciplines as researchers engage with complex issues related to institutional child sexual abuse, its history, causes, impacts, and the important role of inquiries in confronting it.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal comm... more The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal commission in Australia's history and one of the largest public inquiries into institutional child abuse internationally. With an investment from the Australian government of half a billion dollars, it examined how institutions with a responsibility for children, both historically and in the present, have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Announced in the wake of previous Australian and international inquiries, public scandals and lobbying by survivor groups, its establishment reflected increasing recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by childhood sexual abuse and a strong political commitment to improving child safety and wellbeing in Australia. This article outlines the background, key features and innovations of this landmark public inquiry, focusing in particular on its extensive research program. It considers its international significance and also serves as an introduction to this special edition on the Australian Royal Commission, exploring its implications for better understanding institutional child sexual abuse and its impacts, and for making institutions safer places for children in the future.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal comm... more The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is the largest royal commission in Australia’s history and one of the largest public inquiries into institutional child abuse internationally. With an investment from the Australian government of half a billion dollars, it examined how institutions with a responsibility for children, both historically and in the present, have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Announced in the wake of previous Australian and international inquiries, public scandals and lobbying by survivor groups, its establishment reflected increasing recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by childhood sexual abuse and a strong political commitment to improving child safety and wellbeing in Australia. This article outlines the background, key features and innovations of this landmark public inquiry, focusing in particular on its extensive research program. It considers its international significance and also serves as an introduction to this special edition on the Australian Royal Commission, exploring its implications for better understanding institutional child sexual abuse and its impacts, and for making institutions safer places for children in the future.
Uploads
Books by shurlee swain
Papers by shurlee swain
The article will seek to identify national contexts in which adoption rather than institutionalisation became the preferred method for achieving such aims. It will argue that central to this transition was the ability to reconstruct such ‘tainted’ children as acceptable to potential adoptive parents, initially presenting as motivated by benevolence, but increasingly driven by desperation at their infertility. The consequent rise in demand in many instances pressured the supplying authorities to widen their definition of children that needed to be removed, creating supply chains, in locations as diverse as Australia, Spain, Nigeria and South Korea, through which expectant mothers were accommodated and provided with medical care on the understanding that they would surrender their child at birth. In such circumstances the freedom of the consent, on which the legal status of adoption is based, is severely compromised. By identifying instances in which the clear lack of consent in relation to children placed for adoption during war or civil disruption, particularly in Germany and Argentina, saw the adoptions disrupted, and in many instances reversed, the article will explore the challenges to adoption that the attempts by contemporary activists to have adoptions in other contexts and jurisdictions classified as forced, or even illegal, pose for the practice into the future
necessarily involved. In so doing it promises to inform wider debates about the history of abortion, midwifery, baby farming and adoption.
for the prevalence of institutional violence, avoiding accusations that authorities had failed. Contemporary inquiries, intent on exposing institutional failures, draw a dichotomy between victims and perpetrators, but this makes it difficult for a victim/‘perpetrator’
to find a space in which to speak. This article explores the ways in which such people shape their understandings of their dual identity and the challenges which they pose to the unity of survivor advocacy groups in the shift from inquiry to redress. It argues that the existence of victim/‘perpetrator’ should be seen as evidence of institutional
failure rather than an indication of individual culpability