UC EVENTS

Culture and Creativity seminar series, s1 2023 – Stateless Love: War, interracial marriage, and Australia’s Asian Deportations 1946 – 1950

Speaker: Dr Ernest Koh (UC)

Date\Time: Thursday 13 Apr 2023, 12:30-13:30

Location: Building 2 Level A Room 2A14, University of Canberra (https://www.canberra.edu.au/maps/buildings-directory/building-2); or

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/99618656133

Abstract

In 1942, as Japanese armies swept through Southeast Asia, hundreds of vessels carrying European refugees fleeing the fighting began arriving in the north and west of Australia. These vessels were crewed largely by sailors of Malay, Chinese, and Filipino descent. Upon their arrival, most of these sailors enlisted in the Australian and American navies, and several were injured or killed in various naval campaigns across the South Pacific. By the end of the war in 1945, many of the surviving Asian sailors had settled down in Australia, fallen in love, and started families. But with the conflict over, the Commonwealth government began to deport the sailors, and in a number of cases their Australian-born wives and children as well. 

Drawing from a range of archival sources including court documents, private letters, and contemporaneous newspaper coverage, as well as oral history interviews, this paper examines the social, political, and legal repercussions of these erstwhile little-known deportations on Australia’s subsequent immigration policy. 

Image: Tony and Marjorie Ang (nee Pettit) c.1944. They had met in Brisbane while Tony was enlisted in the US Army during the Second World War, subsequently married and had five children together. They were deported to Hong Kong in June1949. With thanks to the Ang family and MediaCorp for the use of this image.

Bio

Ernest is an historian with the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. Originally from Singapore, he has also held research fellowships at the University of Washington and Beijing University. He has authored and edited several books, including Diaspora at War, Oral History and Memory in Southeast Asia, and the forthcoming Maids and Modernities: A history of domestic service in Singapore. Ernest’s first documentary, Forgotten Heroes, won a ‘Gold’ award in the history category at the 2022 Cannes television festival. He has recently completed two further documentaries on the deportation of Asian sailors.

This project was funded by, and undertaken in collaboration with, the Singapore government via its media subsidiary MediaCorp

“The Culture and Creativity seminar series is run by the Centre for Cultural and Creative Research. It explores culture, creativity and the myriad connections between them.”

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