Bonegilla camp transformed from a military training site to a reception and training centre for European displaced Persons and later for non-British migrants in 1947. In its almost 25 year existence it was a place of hope and laughter, unfulfilled desires, a future and utopic place, a site of cooperation and friendships, hostilities, physical abuse, thefts, deceit and deportations. Is this what the ‘New Australia’ was supposed to look like?

Following a dialogical perspective, the seminar traces the stories and past narratives of everyday life in a migrant reception centre that was also a training site in Australianess for good and desired future citizens from non-British Europe. This will be a presentation of a work-in-progress, matching and connecting different sides and (his)stories of Bonegilla. Specific focus will be devoted to the question of how Bonegilla’s physical and symbolic boundaries were constructed and what were the reasons for consolidation of these boundaries.

 

Maša Mikola is a Visiting Scholar at the ANU Centre for European Studies. She holds a PhD in Intercultural studies and has been working as a researcher in anthropology and migration at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia and at Deakin University in Melbourne. Maša is particularly interested in the notions of space and place, emotions and studies of belonging and identity. 

 

To view the flyer for this event please see: Outside Bonegilla: activities, disturbances and responses to the making of a contained nation