Australia Fair on SBS Audio the long tail of the White Australia policy – Australia Fair is the new SBS podcast with some challenging history lessons for everyone who calls Australia home, chronicling the key moments contributing to our national identity.
Interviewing academics and high-profile Australians, host Janak Rogers travels back in time to examine everything from ‘blackbirding’ South Pacific Islanders and settling ‘Ten-Pound Poms’, to attitudes towards the first Vietnamese refugees arriving on Australian shores by boat and African youth ‘crime gangs’. The series charts Australia’s growing pains through successive waves of immigration, and our nation’s ongoing efforts to make multiculturalism work.
“Australia Fair is a podcast that examines the contradictions of being a modern multicultural country where some racist attitudes continue to prevail. The podcast looks for ways forward while shedding light on what is, at times, a very dark history,”
– he said.
“I’ve always thought deeply about my own identity and connection to this country. I was born in Australia, but my mother was an Indian socialite and my father a British soldier. No one looked like me growing up, so I couldn’t help but question whether I belonged here and what it means to be Australian.
“As a storyteller, I also think it’s crucial we consider what stories we tell and who tells them. Australia Fair has a wide line-up of guests who all have a story and a voice in this conversation, from politicians and experts, to refugees, activists, and more.”
Australia Fair also includes a huge range of archive audio and news clips documenting the changing voices of the nation over time.
Australia Fair is available to listen now on the SBS Audio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LiSTNR and wherever else you stream podcasts.
Australia Fair was soft launched on Monday 21 October, and officially released on Monday 28 October.
Episode summary:
The eight-episode series captures key moments in Australian history:
- Episode one starts with those who were here first – Australia’s First Nations peoples. Featuring lawyer and environmental activist Jacqui Katona, Senator Lidia Thorpe, former Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, and more, Rogers delves into the economic and racial motivations behind maintaining a white majority.
- The discovery of gold brings gold fever and anti-Chinese sentiments that continue today. From invasion fears to discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rogers speaks with screenwriter and director of SBS’s award-winning series New Gold Mountain, Corrie Chen.
- What did Australians think of the White Australia policy in the years following Federation? Rogers delves into the shameful history of ‘blackbirding’ South Pacific Islanders, where people were tricked or forced into indentured labour, interviewing guests like founding chair of the Association of South Sea Islanders, Emelda Davis, who shares her family’s personal story.
- Post-war Australia was focussed on racially-driven policies to ‘populate or perish’, including settling British migrants for 10 pounds, later known as the ‘Ten-Pound Poms’. Rogers also speaks with Holocaust survivor Peter Gaspar and visits Bonegilla, where hundreds of thousands of post-war migrants were held on their arrival to Australia. Rogers also shares his own family story of immigration.
- The Vietnam War led to a wave of migration as refugees fled and the White Australia policy was abandoned. Prominent Vietnamese-Australians join the conversation including Ms Dai Le MP, former journalist and Member for Fowler; Tu Le, lawyer and former politician; and Tam Tac Lam, who arrived on the first refugee boat from Vietnam in 1976.
- Episode six captures key moments in history under the Howard Government including 9/11, the 2001 Tampa affair, and the ‘children overboard’ scandal. Assadullah Nazari, a survivor of Tampa, shares their reflections. Award-winning Kurdish writer and human rights activist Behrouz Boochani speaks of his years in detention on Manus Island, and we hear from refugees stuck in limbo for over a decade in Australia.
- Much closer to the present day, Rogers unpacks the narrative around African ‘gangs’ and crime waves exploring how media coverage directly affects communities. Communityactivist Bol Mayan, journalist Jim Malo,and filmmaker Mariam Koslay share their stories.
- The season finale of Australia Fair tackles the profound effects of the Israel-Gaza conflict on Australia’s social fabric and the surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents. Independent Senator Fatima Payman joins Rogers to talk about her outspoken criticism of Israel and departure from the Labor Party.
Media Release – SBS
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Australia Fair on SBS Audio the long tail of the White Australia policy
