Dirt Poor Islanders: Book launch with Winnie Dunn
This webinar is the second in the Australian Centre's 2024 Critical Public Conversations series: Sovereignty and Solidarity: Redefining belonging in so-called Australia.
To date, the representation of “Pacific Islanders” in Australia are poor. Even our community title is incorrect! Therefore, “Pacific Islanders” in this country are more accurately described as Pasifika Australians. On this complicated continent, Pasifika Australians are misrepresented in three main ways, as: Brownface minstrels; Criminals; and Hypermasculine/hypersexual rugby players. From the demonising narratives that Pasifika Australian men face (see Chris Lilley’s work in Summer Heights High/Jonah from Tonga), to the misunderstanding of drill-rap in the form of controversial music group, OneFour.
Winnie Dunn’s novel, Dirt Poor Islanders, sheds light on this darkness by outlining the beauty of the Pasifika Australian diaspora. A novelist from the western Sydney diaspora, Winnie is passionate about subverting stereotypes about her community, specifically the dehumanisation of men and the erasure of women. All to create a story of complex, intersectional, humanising portrait of Pasifika Australian people.
PRESENTERS
Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer and editor from Mount Druitt. She is also the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Sydney University. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Griffith Review, Meanjin and Sydney Review of Books. Her most notable anthologies include: Sweatshop Women: Volume One (Sweatshop, 2019), Sweatshop Women: Volume Two (Sweatshop, 2020), Straight Up Islander (SBS Voices, 2021) and Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). Assisted by Creative Australia, Winnie's debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette, 2024).
Andonis Piperoglou is the Hellenic Senior Lecturer in Global Diasporas. He grew up on Ngunnawal country and has Cypriot and Castellorizian cultural heritage. Prior to commencing at the University of Melbourne, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University. Andonis is a specialist in migration and ethnic history, with a particular interest in the dynamics of whiteness and Greek diasporisation in Australia. He works on historical connections between colonialism, racism, and the formation ethnic identities, as well as human movements between the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Andonis teaches subjects on migration, diaspora, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and globalisation. He is passionate about inclusive historical practice and engagement with migrant communities
The presenters have granted permission for this recording to be used for personal viewing and educational purposes.