Screenshot of journal article. Title: Old Wine in New Bottles for Australian Readers: Captain Cook and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in Children’s Picture Books. Authors: Martin Kerby, Eseta Tualaulelei, Lisa Ryan, Margaret Baguley, and Alison Bedford (University of Southern Queensland). Abstract: This article explores a famous but controversial figure in the Australian imaginary, Captain James Cook, and his representation in children’s books over different periods. We examine three representative examples of children’s books that explore James Cook and his first voyage to the South Pacific: The Story of Captain Cook: An Adventure from History (Ladybird Books, 1958), Excuse Me, Captain Cook: Who Did Discover Australia? (Salmon, 1988) and Meet … Captain Cook (Murdie and Nixon, 2011). Each book was created by the respective authors and artists at different points in time, so we analyse the stories using Joseph Campbell’s three-stage metaphor of the “Hero’s Journey”, a canonical structure that he identified in mythological narratives or monomyths that resonate across cultures and epochs. Our analysis demonstrates that representations of Cook in children’s picture books are largely conservative, drawing the reader’s attention away from contentious alternative perspectives of his story.

In our final article for 49.4, Kerby, Tualaulelei, Ryan, Baguley and Bedford use Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" to explore how Captain Cook has been portrayed in children's books from the 1950 to the 2010s.

#KidsLit #OzHistory #CaptainCook #OzStudies #OpenAccess

tinyurl.com/pcxfbeuv

Wicked’s Silver Slippers: The Untold Story Behind Dorothy’s Iconic Shoe Color Switch Dorothy’s slippers are silver, not ruby, in “Wicked”—a bold choice rooted in literary history and a creative tribute that reshapes how fans experience one of Oz’s most beloved legends.The Legacy of Dorothy’s Slippers: From Film to New FantasyThe ruby slippers Dorothy wears in the legendary 1939 film

Did you know Dorothy’s slippers in Wicked are silver, not ruby? Discover how a design rooted in Baum’s original book reshapes Oz lore and fan debates. Get the inside story now! #WickedMovie #OzHistory

Screenshot of journal article. Title: "Remaking a Scholarly Elite? Insiders, Transnationalism, Outsiders and Australian Women Historians". Author: Melanie Nolan, ANU. Abstract: This article considers a group of Australian women historians trying to break through the employment “glass ceiling” (a colloquial term for invisible social barriers based on gender) before the 1970s. The experiences of this group provide a case study of the ways they entered, and thereby remade, a scholarly elite in the period before second-wave feminism. These academic women built transnational careers that took them to universities elsewhere in the Anglophone world, which served to improve their employment prospects back home. I argue that this transnational employment strategy relied on an insider-outsider divide, whereby Australian women historians accrued qualifications and experience outside Australia to try to leverage entry into a local elite formerly closed to them.

Start your week right with more 49.2:

Melanie Nolan examines women historians' transnational approach to career-building as a strategy to break the glass ceiling of elite academia.

#OzStudies #OzHistory #FeministHistory #academia #gender #OpenAccess

tinyurl.com/yc2j7m3p

Screenshot of journal article. Title: The Catholic Elite and the Issue of Loyalty During the Great War in Australia. Author: Scott Denis McCarthy, Deakin University. Abstract: The historiography of the Great War in Australia tends to emphasise the ostracisation of the Irish Australian Catholic community from the dominant discourse of imperial loyalty espoused by Australia’s Anglo-Protestant majority. Such readings have neglected the Catholic elite, whose support for the war, and later conscription, aligned with the higher-status Protestant elite. It was from the latter group that established Catholics sought acceptance and in whose ranks they sought inclusion. The navigation between those ambitions and the loyalty demanded by the church and its working-class following effectively bifurcated the Catholic community along class lines during the Great War in Australia. This article examines the attitudes of the Catholic professional and commercial elite to the war and conscription to determine the extent to which those attitudes were shaped by the cultural hegemony of Protestant elites in wartime Australia. It argues that Catholic elites adhered to Protestant norms of Britishness and imperial loyalty to combat the perceptions of Irish and Catholic treachery and to secure their positions within elite society.

Your 49.2 Friday read:
McCarthy examines the extent to which attitudes to the Great War among the Catholic elite were shaped by those of the Protestant elite and the effect of this in securing their own status.

#OzStudies #elites #GreatWar #WWI #CatholicHistory #OzHistory

tinyurl.com/4rbtvbra

👀 any #Ozhistory #Anzac #warhistory readers want to review this one for APH, DM us!

Richard Travers and Peter Stanley survey the state of the field of Australian military history Published in History Australia (Ahead of Print, 2025)

🙋‍♀️ in @historyaustralia.bsky.social reviewing Richard Travers and Peter Stanley - two very different approaches to the historiography of war in Aus doi.org/10.1080/1449...

#Ozhistory #Anzac

#OzHistory folk in Melb, get thee to Trades Hall on 29 May for the launch of Liam’s new book! RSVP 👇

🎣 for reviewers because this looks amazing - any #OzHistory scholars want to review for APH, DM us!

🙋‍♀️ in TC’s Anzac Day Friday Essay - it’s time to listen to the voices of soldiers and veterans who turned against war and fascism

#Anzac #OzHistory

**NEW REVIEW**

On the website, Martin Crotty reflects on Peter Stanley's insights from 1,000 books on Australian military history

aph.org.au/2025/04/book...

#Anzac #OzHistory

If any of our readers would like to review this for Australian Policy and History, DMs are open! #auspol #OzHistory

CCH Seminar - 16 April - Mia Martin Hobbs - Centre for Contemporary Histories (CCH) Join us online or in person for a seminar with Mia Martin Hobbs Challenging Anzac: anti-war and left-wing veterans in Australia In the 21st century, the Australian military has promoted critical thinking and diversity of thought as key assets needed to effectively wage contemporary war. Yet recent research has revealed that serving personnel who challenge […]

I'm excited to share research from the Challenging #Anzac project with the Centre of Contemporary Histories tomorrow! Talking about how radical left-wing veterans have been silenced throughout Aus history, and what that means for today's ADF

Info 👇 #OzHistory

cch.deakin.edu.au/news/2025/03...

Screenshot of advert for SLA Exhibition Online Kellys

This sounds like fun. :-)

From the State Library of Victoria: www.slv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/mou...

Want a refresher on the story? www.australianhistoriespodcast.com.au/1-the-kelly-...

#AustralianHistory #OzHistory #History #KellyGang #NedKelly

Come along to the ACU Friday Forum this week for a special seminar for the anniversary of the Fall of Saigon! I'll be talking about veterans, trauma, and Vietnam, alongside Dr Anh Nguyen and Dr Indigo Willing.

Details below or PM if you'd like an email invite!

#VietnamWar #OzHistory #Skystorians

“We, to Them, Are Their Heroes”: Narratives of Rescue in White Australian Veterans' Memories of the Vietnamese This article examines white Australian veterans' views and memories of Vietnamese people in three stages: during the war, after the Fall of Saigon, and upon return to Vietnam. Drawing on original ora...

🙋‍♀️ in AJPH on racialized war memories among Vietnam veterans, showing how memories of enemies and allies are configured to validate Australia's role in the war

Open access so read it here for free! doi.org/10.1111/ajph...

#VietnamWar #oralhistory #whiteness #OzHistory #ANZAC #Skystorians

Screenshot of the journal front page. Title: Imaginary Worlds and Child Readers at Kurrajong Heights in the 1890s. Author: Paula Jane Byrne, Visiting Scholar, State Library of NSW

Some 48(4) for your Friday: Byrne examines the gendered borrowing practices of young readers at a Kurrajong Heights library in the 1890s, and the influence of lower middle-class women writers on their imaginary worlds.

#libraries
#reading
#OzLit
#OzHistory

tinyurl.com/53v94zv8

Screenshot of the first page of a journal article. Title: Unforgetting: The Yarri and Jacky Jacky Memorial at Gundagai. Author, Lisa Slater, University of Wollongong

Next up in 48(4), Slater is stopped in her tracks by the Yarri and Jacky Jacky memorial in #Gundagai, prompting a lyrical reflection on how and why we memorialise Australia's complex past.

#IndigenousHistory #memorials #OzHistory #OpenAccess #OzStudies

tinyurl.com/yc4tjxb9

Does anyone know of any work on the response of #Australian local councils to the Depression? Were they supportive of the unemployed? Hostile to unemployed camps etc? #OzHistory #Skystorians

Merle was one of many who served in WWII. Aged 104, she's seeing her records for the first time The National Archives of Australia has digitised over a million service records from World War II, many of which haven't been seen for 80 years.

“The National Archives of Australia has digitised over a million service records from World War II, many of which haven’t been seen for 80 years.

The project has given a new perspective on women’s service during the conflict.”

By James Vyver
#Genealogy #History #OzHistory

More than a century after they were gifted to a Swiss family, William Barak's artworks have returned Two works by Aboriginal artist and advocate William Barak will go on display this week after being returned to Victoria 126 years after they were gifted to a Swiss family.

Barack was a champion of his people and can be an inspiration to us all. Fantastic that some of his artwork is back with his mob and soon available for us all to reflect on.

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12...

#AustralianHistory #OzHistory #History #IndiginousHistory #Australia #WilliamBarak