Hi/stories

This stream investigates the multiple stories that circulate in this place through which people make meaning of themselves and their communities. It explores the role of story and narrative in the production of so-called Australia, and simultaneously makes space for the marginalised, complex, and conflicting stories that threaten to undo the coherence of the settler colonial nation. It interrogates the politics of public history and memorialisation and investigates art and creative practice as sites to disrupt colonial nation-building.

This stream further draws on the histories of the families, migrations and communities that make up so-called Australia today, reinvigorating questions of the personal in relation to the political by contextualising intergenerational stories and silences within a broader political context. It centres the possibilities and limitations for how truth-telling may impact the political, historical, social and cultural relationships between Indigenous and settler peoples including in international comparison.

While the stream will continue to produce traditional research outputs, a key opportunity for research is to explore how non-traditional research outputs and processes can support the development and impact of their work to diverse audiences.

For more information contact convener Dr Julia Hurst, julia.hurst@unimelb.edu.au.