WA’s State Cultural Heritage Policy
Wow. I’ve been away from this blog for a month. I’m teaching at UWA this semester and it seems to have taken over my life. Normal programming should resume shortly. In the meantime, I’ve just become aware that the WA State Government has released its first ever State Cultural Heritage Policy. NSW has had one since … Read more
Femme Fatale and The Female Criminal
When I worked on the Bunyip to Beautiful exhibition for Museums Australia (WA) last year at uni, we spent a lot of time discussing, revising, deliberating, even arguing about how to write the text for the panels. We were concerned with the tension between fact and opinion, being objective but creating atmosphere, being educational but … Read more
International Women’s Day
In fact, today is the centenary of International Women’s Day, which is going to make my day all day, even though most people won’t even know about it. In celebration of this I thought I’d talk a bit about the excellent exhibitions I saw in the UK about the suffragette movement. First let me say … Read more
Women’s Work
I know we are all sick of Josephine Asher (don’t read the article, you will just want to fry your own eyeballs). Besides a whole heap of other points made by other people, there is still one thing she says that everyone seems to be taking as read. Well into the last century the husband … Read more
Honouring Women’s History
I was in Fremantle the other day and came across a … well, I’m not sure if it was a memorial, public art or historical interpretation. Maybe it was all three. You can see it in the photo above. Entitled ‘To the Fishermen’ it provides a brief history of fishing in Fremantle and Rockingham, the … Read more
The Missing Reverend
While trawling through a rather long Trove search result list for things to do with the Wesley Church in Albany (for work), I kept seeing references to The Rev. T. A. James. There were some odd headlines: ‘Supposed Drowning Case’, ‘Mysterious Disappearance’, ‘Sydney Detectives Make Discoveries’, ‘James Masquerading as ‘Mr. Lee”, ‘Church Funds Intact’, ‘James … Read more
57 Murray Street – work in progress
I’m currently working hard on the history of the departments that governed Aboriginal people in WA from 57 Murray Street. This, you probably don’t remember, is my placement project for a uni subject. I’m finding this research really fascinating and horrific. I thought I might share a little bit of what I’ve found. It isn’t finished … Read more
Review: Letters of a Woman Homesteader
I downloaded Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart on the strength of a review on Amazon that said, simply, I wouldn’t regret it. And I didn’t. There are 26 letters, written from Elinore to her previous employer Mrs Coney. They span the years 1909 to 1913 when Elinore took her daughter Jerrine … Read more
Flirting with Change
When I moved back to Perth after many years over east (as we say here – meaning the eastern states) I decided that I would not pack up and move again for a while. I wanted to sit and become comfortable in this place and develop my profile and work opportunities. Not to mention that … Read more
The Next Chapter
I’m suspicious that some scandal happened and she changed her name when she married. I can’t find any evidence of this, but I haven’t finished searching yet. Nothing ever works out the way you think it will (or at least that’s my perception). The above quote is where I left off talking about Johanna (Mary … Read more
