Australia, Anti-Slavery, and Popular Culture, 1890 to the present

Funding: 2014: $29,242
2015: $22,304
2016: $25,000

Project Member(s): Burn, J.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)

Start year: 2014

Summary: This project explains how 'anti-slavery' discourse shaped humanitarian campaigns in Australia, including Aboriginal rights, indenture, forced labour, trafficking and sexual slavery, by investigating the transmission of ideas and campaigns through international humanitarian networks in Britain, Europe and Australia. The significance of this project lies in its focus on popular culture and the visual representation of slavery, their influence upon public opinion and debate nationally and internationally throughout the long 20th century into our present. In a jointly authored monograph, edited collection and journal articles, we explore the role of anti-slavery history in shaping contemporary attitudes towards slavery and forced labour.

Keywords: anti-slavery, humanitarianism, visual culture

FOR Codes: Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History), Understanding Australia's Past, Historical Studies not elsewhere classified, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History