| Περίληψη: | Subjects and Aliens confronts the problematic history of
belonging in Australia and New Zealand. In both countries, race has often been
more important than the law in determining who is considered 'one of
us'. Each chapter in the collection highlights the lived experiences of
people who negotiated laws and policies relating to nationality and citizenship
rights in twentieth-century Australasia, including Chinese Australians enlisting
during the First World War, Dalmatian gum-diggers turned farmers in New Zealand,
Indians in 1920s Australia arguing for their citizenship rights, and Australian
women who lost their nationality after marrying non-British subjects. The book
also considers how the legal belonging—and accompanying rights and
protections—of First Nations people has been denied, despite the High Court of
Australia’s recent assertion (in the landmark Love & Thoms case of 2020)
that Aboriginal people have never been considered ‘aliens’ or ‘foreigners’ since
1788. The experiences of world-famous artist Albert Namatjira, and of those made
to apply for ‘certificates of citizenship’ under Western Australian law, suggest
otherwise. Subjects and Aliens demonstrates how people who legally belonged were
denied rights and protections as citizens through the actions of those who
created, administered and interpreted the law across the twentieth century, and
how the legal ramifications of those actions can still be felt today.
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