@article{a9e1647c664c40d4a744b05a5bc91bc4,
title = "{\textquoteleft}No complaints{\textquoteright}: counter-narratives of immigration and detention in graffiti at North Head Immigration Detention Centre, Australia 1973–76",
abstract = "Immigration has played a particularly significant role in shaping settler-colonial societies, including Australia. Successive governments have taken instrumental roles in constructing narratives of Australia{\textquoteright}s immigration history. Contrary to the images we see today–of capsizing boats and desperate people seeking refuge–the picture of post-Second World War immigration was all sunshine and smiles, hope and opportunity. Throughout the post-war decades the vaunted Australian sense of fairness was tested by those who entered the country without valid entry permits, for example stowaways and ship{\textquoteright}s deserters or visitors, including students who had overstayed their visas. In this paper, we consider an archaeological assemblage of 327 graffiti made by immigration detainees while they were awaiting deportation from the North Head Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, New South Wales. These graffiti provide a counter-narrative to the rosy image and official record of late-twentieth-century immigration to Australia.",
keywords = "Australia, detention centre, graffiti, Immigration, Sydney",
author = "Anne Clarke and Frederick, {Ursula K.} and Peter Hobbins",
note = "Funding Information: The research reported here was carried out as part of the Quarantine Project supported by the Australian Research Council. We would also like to acknowledge our Linkage Industry Partner, the Mawland Group, who generously contributed both funds and in-kind support for the Quarantine Project. We thank the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Sydney for supporting our research and our colleague and Partner Investigator, Professor Alison Bashford from the University of Cambridge, who made us think about the importance of Australia{\textquoteright}s Pacific relationships in the twentieth century. We are grateful to Vanessa Hermann, Charles Darwin University, and Maria Sin, University of Hong Kong, for Indonesian and Chinese translations respectively. We would also like to acknowledge historian Dr Carmel Kelleher, Macquarie University, for her doctoral research on A20 which has been important in framing our archaeological response to the Immigration Detention Centre at the North Head Quarantine Station. We thank the National Archives of Australia for permission to reproduce Figures 2 and 3. The recordings and photographs were made in Sydney Harbour National Park, with the permission and generous assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales). Finally, Charlotte Feakins, Andrew Crisp, Peta Longhurst, Iain Johnson and Ben Wharton all assisted with the fieldwork at A20 between 2013 and 2015. We thank them for their hard work on the project. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Linkage Grant [LP120200259]. Funding Information: Ursula K. Frederick, PhD, is an archaeologist and artist with expertise in mark-making and photography. She is currently a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the Australian National University. Working initially with Indigenous rock art, she has also published widely on both historical and contemporary graffiti, and more recently on contemporary art. Her own artworks encompass a range of media, particularly photography, print-making and video. Recent publications include Stories from the Sandstone: Quarantine Inscriptions from Australia{\textquoteright}s Immigrant Past (2016), That was Then, This Now: Contemporary Archaeology and Material Cultures in Australia (2016) and Object Stories: Artifacts and Archaeologists (2015). Funding Information: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Linkage Grant [LP120200259]. The research reported here was carried out as part of the Quarantine Project supported by the Australian Research Council. We would also like to acknowledge our Linkage Industry Partner, the Mawland Group, who generously contributed both funds and in-kind support for the Quarantine Project. We thank the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Sydney for supporting our research and our colleague and Partner Investigator, Professor Alison Bashford from the University of Cambridge, who made us think about the importance of Australia?s Pacific relationships in the twentieth century. We are grateful to Vanessa Hermann, Charles Darwin University, and Maria Sin, University of Hong Kong, for Indonesian and Chinese translations respectively. We would also like to acknowledge historian Dr Carmel Kelleher, Macquarie University, for her doctoral research on A20 which has been important in framing our archaeological response to the Immigration Detention Centre at the North Head Quarantine Station. We thank the National Archives of Australia for permission to reproduce Figures 2 and 3. The recordings and photographs were made in Sydney Harbour National Park, with the permission and generous assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales). Finally, Charlotte Feakins, Andrew Crisp, Peta Longhurst, Iain Johnson and Ben Wharton all assisted with the fieldwork at A20 between 2013 and 2015. We thank them for their hard work on the project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Linkage Grant [LP120200259]. Funding Information: Ursula K. Frederick, PhD, is an archaeologist and artist with expertise in mark-making and photography. She is currently a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the Australian National University. Working initially with Indigenous rock art, she has also published widely on both historical and contemporary graffiti, and more recently on contemporary art. Her own artworks encompass a range of media, particularly photography, print-making and video. Recent publications include Stories from the Sandstone: Quarantine Inscriptions from Australia{\textquoteright}s Immigrant Past (2016), That was Then, This Now: Contemporary Archaeology and Material Cultures in Australia (2016) and Object Stories: Artifacts and Archaeologists (2015). Funding Information: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Linkage Grant [LP120200259]. The research reported here was carried out as part of the Quarantine Project supported by the Australian Research Council. We would also like to acknowledge our Linkage Industry Partner, the Mawland Group, who generously contributed both funds and in-kind support for the Quarantine Project. We thank the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Sydney for supporting our research and our colleague and Partner Investigator, Professor Alison Bashford from the University of Cambridge, who made us think about the importance of Australia?s Pacific relationships in the twentieth century. We are grateful to Vanessa Hermann, Charles Darwin University, and Maria Sin, University of Hong Kong, for Indonesian and Chinese translations respectively. We would also like to acknowledge historian Dr Carmel Kelleher, Macquarie University, for her doctoral research on A20 which has been important in framing our archaeological response to the Immigration Detention Centre at the North Head Quarantine Station. We thank the National Archives of Australia for permission to reproduce Figures 2 and 3. The recordings and photographs were made in Sydney Harbour National Park, with the permission and generous assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales). Finally, Charlotte Feakins, Andrew Crisp, Peta Longhurst, Iain Johnson and Ben Wharton all assisted with the fieldwork at A20 between 2013 and 2015. We thank them for their hard work on the project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",
year = "2017",
month = may,
day = "27",
doi = "10.1080/00438243.2017.1334582",
language = "English",
volume = "49",
pages = "404--422",
journal = "World Archaeology",
issn = "0043-8243",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "3",
}
