Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

Reading Oral Histories from the Pastoral Frontier: A Critical Revision

Hokari Minoru
Before Ann McGrath’s Born in the Cattle (1987),1 discussion of the Aboriginal situation in the cattle industry focused on ‘how badly Aboriginal labour was treated by white pastoralists’. The first major publication on the topic was Frank Stevens’ Aborigines in the Northern Territory Cattle Industry (1974).2 Stevens’ major concern was the condition of Aboriginal stock workers, particularly the wage inequality between black and white stockmen. The anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt, as advisers to the Australian Investment Agency (Vesteys), researched the ...
Click here to read more.

Network Review of Books

The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades: Stories from around the world (2004)

Reviewed by Denise O'Dea in the October 2004 issue.
Fleeing across the night sky from the amorous Orion, the seven mythical sisters of the Pleiades have had an enduring hold on the Western imagination. As Munya Andrews puts it, they were once 'celestial Greek celebrities', daughters of Atlas, acolytes of Artemis, and heroines of countless myths and legends. Like modern celebrities, their every move was scrutinised; ancient time-keeping, agriculture, and navigation, after all, depended on the unwavering observation of their movements. Even today, their influence continues in scattered words and phrases: 'halcyon days', the month of May, the ... read more.

Australian Citizenship: See You in Australia (2004)

Reviewed by Charles Broughton in the February 2005 issue.
The story of Australian citizenship is more complicated than many Australians would expect, and closely reflects our progression as a nation. This includes the development of a sense of self, our changing relationship with the monarchy, the treatment of Australia's Aboriginal peoples over time, and the progression from an implicit 'White Australia' policy-stance towards a non-discriminatory immigration policy that has made Australia one of the most ethnically diverse of nations; all the while also paralleling, and often anticipating, the developments in 'citizenship' in other ... read more.

Network Dialogue

The Australian Public Intellectual Network is conducting a survey on the best minds in the country: these might include academics, writers, activists, professionals, religious leaders, politicians, community leaders, etc. The API Network keen to know who you might rank as the ten most influential and/or important thinkers in Australia at this present moment? You may want to make a distinction between importance and influence in compiling your list. Are there reasons for your selection?
Click here to take part today.

Network Books

Defying Gravity: A Political Life

Dennis Altman
I was filled with a strong desire to recount the interwoven story of the two major changes in consciousness I have lived through during the past thirty years, namely the creation of a ‘gay nation’ and the simultaneous re-imagination of Australia as a multi-cultural society … The great challenge for Australia, as for many other countries, is to find a balance between the recognition of diversity and the need for social cohesion based on more than merely preserving the privileges of a dominant group. ... ($34.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

Mortgage Nation: The 2004 Australian Election

Edited by Marian Simms and John Warhurst
This comprehensive study of the historic win by the Howard Coalition Government is the fourth collaborative venture between Marian Simms and John Warhurst. In their introduction and overview Simms and Warhurst provide a comprehensive account of politics between the 2001 and 2004 elections, including the delicate balancing act in the Senate, the impact of external factors, like the US Alliance, and internal factors like the troubled state of the Labor Party; and conclude with an ... ($29.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

Two For the Price of One: The Lives of Mining Wives

Linda Rhodes
A mixture of poignant biography, social history and critical analysis, Two for the Price of One offers a fascinating and eminently readable account of the lives of ‘mining wives’ across Australian history. As ordinary women, they face extraordinary circumstances, challenging the male-centred story of mining and presenting the industry as never before. ... ($29.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

Sharing Spaces

Gus Worby and Lester-Irabinna Rigney
This broad-ranging, interrelated collection of conversations and essays by Elders, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars addresses a range of contemporary issues including the politics of sharing space derived from a colonial history of non-sharing, the relationship between the stories Australians tell themselves about their place in the world as peoples and nation, the differing concepts of country and knowledge that give stories their context and meaning and the way this combination ... ($24.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

Contesting Assimilation

Edited by Tim Rowse
'Assimilation' was one of the most hopeful social ideals of post-second world war Australia, a rallying cry for those who wanted a 'fair go' for Indigenous peoples. [...] By the 1970s, 'Assimilation' had slipped into disrepute and was a dirty word among people of progressive opinion. [...] In Contesting Assimilation, fifteen historians illuminate moments in twentieth century Australia when the policy of 'assimilation' was being planned, implemented, abandoned and debated. ... ($34.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

The Sea Coast of Bohemia

Peter Kirkpatrick
"Peter Kirkpatrick’s book is as celebratory an account of the life of one generation in an Australian city as Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet and David Malouf’s Johnno, and achieves for Sydney what these other writers achieve for Perth and Brisbane." Robert Holden, Australian Book Review "The Sea Coast of Bohemia offers a thorough, convincing and intricate discussion of the emergence of ‘the new’ in many forms after the War … It is an elegant, affectionate ... ($34.95) -- TO ORDER, please contact the Network Books office at 08 9266 3717 with your details, email orders@api-network.com or download and mail our order form.

Richard Nile's Blog