Reporter Xinnan Wang traces student activism from a 1961 protest against Australia’s White Australia Policy to a recent campus rally at the University of Melbourne. Along the way, she uncovers the forgotten history of anti-racism movements, immigration reform, and student protest in Australia, while questioning her own assumptions about activism.

Interviewees:

• Andonis Piperoglou
• James Waghorne

Reporter: Xinnan Wang
Show Host: Siena Kinkela.
Executive Producer: Michael Saliba
Sound Design: Xue Xue
Marketing: Megan Yin, Leyla Arrykova.
Supervising Producer: Louisa Lim 

See photos of our objects and more behind the scenes on Instagram at @‌uncuratedpod

Uncurated is a Centre for Advancing Journalism podcast, produced at the University of Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.  

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In 1917, three years into World War One, student Guido Baracchi got into trouble with the University administration for publishing articles about Australia’s involvement in the war. This socialist, anti-war, anti-conscription student was seen as a traitor by the staff and other students, and his punishment was being thrown into a lake by his peers. Today, the University of Melbourne still tries to silence student protesters when their message pushes back against the system.

Interviewees:

• Jeff Sparrow
• Philip Goad
• Zara Chauvin-Cunningham

Reporter: Grace Gooda
Show Host: Siena Kinkela.
Executive Producer: Michael Saliba
Sound Design: Xue Xue
Marketing: Megan Yin, Leyla Arrykova.
Supervising Producer: Louisa Lim 

See photos of our objects and more behind the scenes on Instagram at @‌uncuratedpod

Uncurated is a Centre for Advancing Journalism podcast, produced at the University of Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the very end of WWII, a group of UniMelb students threw eggs and other ingredients at the then Minister for War Organisation of Industry, John Dedman. The suit he wore, designed to cut corners and save fabric for the war effort, ironically became the target of an anti-rationing and conscription protest that day. Several Australian politicians have been egged since then, it might be worth asking why.

Interviewees:

• Dr Elaine Pratley 

• Van T Rudd

Reporter: Siena Kinkela
Show Host: Siena Kinkela.
Executive Producer: Michael Saliba
Sound Design: Xue Xue
Marketing: Megan Yin, Leyla Arrykova.
Supervising Producer: Louisa Lim 

See photos of our objects and more behind the scenes on Instagram at @‌uncuratedpod

Uncurated is a Centre for Advancing Journalism podcast, produced at the University of Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the stonemasons who fought for an eight-hour workday at the University of Melbourne in 1856 to today’s staff strike at our university, this episode will explore 170 years of labour rights activism in Australia. A famous American singer and civil rights activist, Paul Robertson, will take us back to the 1960s and the power of labour rights protest. But what has changed over the past 170 years, and why does the struggle for workers’ rights continue? 

Interviewees:

• Jeff Sparrow
• James Waghorne

Reporter: Xue Xue
Show Host: Siena Kinkela.
Executive Producer: Michael Saliba
Sound Design: Xue Xue
Marketing: Megan Yin, Leyla Arrykova.
Supervising Producer: Louisa Lim 

See photos of our objects and more behind the scenes on Instagram at @‌uncuratedpod

Uncurated is a Centre for Advancing Journalism podcast, produced at the University of Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The porticoes, lawns and classrooms of the University of Melbourne have seen their fair share of unrest, spanning from eggings to dunkings through protest marches, barricades and occupations.  Some of the most consequential protests in Australian history took place on this campus. 

In this new season, students from the Centre from Advancing Journalism explore the university's unruly past.  Each episode we’ll dust off an object from the archives that tells a story about protest here on our campus, revealing the role played by students in the fight for labour rights, gay rights and women's rights, as well as in the anti-war movement.   

We will explore the story of forgotten protests as we explore the value of campus activism, and we ask what happens when the university tries to rule student unruliness.  This series also asks: what do we lose when protest is stifled?  

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The University of Melbourne's involvement in the testing of atomic bombs in South Australia is not that well known.  Yet it had a massive impact on the Indigenous people living there, with health impacts that were felt for decades. 

University academics were enlisted to ensure the safety nuclear blasts at Maralinga and Emu Field. But how good of a job did they really do? 

Interviewees:

• Karina Lester - Senior Aboriginal Language Worker at The University of Adelaide
• Dr James Waghorne - Senior Research Fellow and University Historian at The University of Melbourne
• Elizabeth Tynan - co-ordinator of the professional development program at the James Cook University Graduate Research School and researcher of the history of British atomic weapons testing in Australia 

Note:  This episode has been updated to reflect further details of Leslie Martin's role in atomic testing. 

Music

Gold Hands – Holly Sweeney

Piano Study – Joel Keith

Special mention to the following sources:

Yami: The Autobiography of Yami Lester

Tim Sherrat

The McClelland Royal Commission

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For many international students, International House is more than just a place to stay—it’s a welcoming oasis in an unfamiliar city. But did you know that the community at International House holds a rich history dating back to 1957?

Dive into the history of International House and one of its most cherished traditions: the Great Trike Race. A race that symbolises the spirit of unity at the International House.

INTERVIEWEES

Frank Larkins

Caitlin Stone

Frank Schrever

MUSIC CREDITS

Flight by Alex Garla

Monster by Rock Vishal Shah

Forest by Kabas KAS

Grainger Things by Daniel Cropley 

Focus by Ambient Vibes

Our world by Coverr

Inspiring Cinematic by StudioKolomna

Magic Inspiration by Artlss22

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John Medley was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 1938 to 1951. But Medley was also a member of the Eugenics Society of Victoria, a group which called for the sterilisation and institutionalisation of minority groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, prostitutes and members of the LGBTQI+ community. So why does the university have a building named after him?

Unearth the role the University played throughout the dark history of the eugenics movement and the truth behind who John Medley was. 

INTERVIEWEES

Dr Ross Jones

Professor Dennis Foley

MUSIC CREDITS

Cold and Hard by Cold Case

Dolly and Pad by Piano Mover

Hickory Interlude by Onesuch Village

Leaving Baffin Island by Baffin Island

Stepback by Dasjardins

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The Baillieu Library is the largest library here at the University of Melbourne. Walking through the library, the shelves are filled with books on everything from philosophy and history, to science and computing, all from a Western Eurocentric perspective. But the library also holds one of the largest collections of Rare East Asian books and materials in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Throughout this episode, Jiaxuan Zhu explores how knowledge has been built here at the University of Melbourne and reflects on the importance of diversity and looking past just Eurocentric knowledge foundations. 

INTERVIEWEES:

Dr Shiqiu Liu

This podcast is on the exhibition “Learning Beyond Borders: Thomas Chong’s Study and Practice of Medicine”, presented by the Archives and Special Collections of the university.

MUSIC CREDITS 

Epidemic Sound: Sowing the Summer Barley by Francis Wells
Epidemic Sound: Shrines by David Celeste

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The Harry Brookes Allen Museum is one of many collections at the University of Melbourne. The University has collected artefacts that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge that is vital to Melbourne, Australia and the world. 

But the way University scholars collected these artefacts was not always done in an ethical way. Reporter Haoyue Deng learns how a rare marsupial mole is the key to the forgotten people behind some of the University's collections. 

INTERVIEWEES: 

• Rohan Long, Curator of the Harry Brookes Allen Museum at the University of Melbourne 
• Emma Kowal, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Deakin University 

Inspiration for this episode was informed by the recently published book Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia by Ross L. Jones, Dr. James Waghorne, and Professor Marcia Langton of the University of Melbourne. If you would like to know more about The University of Melbourne’s response, you can download the book for free here.  

MUSIC CREDITS

Bird(Magpie) sound from Freesound

Bush walking from Freesound 

Mouse squeak from Pixabay 

Snake from Pixabay 

Eternality by Nathan Zammit from the Living Instruments Project 

Tundra by Jack Burmeister from the Living Instruments Project 

Marimba by Olivia Marsh from the Living Instruments Project 

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What would Australia look like if we had monkeys swinging around our cities? In the late 19th Century, a number of associations called “acclimatisation societies” sprung up across Australia with the goal of bringing familiar plants and animals to what the British colonists saw as an impoverished landscape. 

This episode explores the massive ecological transformation that shaped what the university’s environment looks like today, and how Indigenous knowledge about land preservation was ignored for decades.

INTERVIEWEES

Dr Pete Minard (historian of colonial science and environmental history)

Prof Lynette Russell AM (historian of Indigenous Australians and colonial anthropology)

SOUND ATTRIBUTIONS

axe chopping (in the forest) by Selector, accessible at www.freesound.org/s/410768, License: Creative Commons 0 1.0

Pied Currawong Strepera graculina by Sunny Tseng, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/871215, License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike 4.0

Grey Butcherbird Cracticus torquatus by Peter Boesman, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/859826, License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike 4.0

Australian Raven Corvus coronoides by Zebedee Muller, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/801431, License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike 4.0

Laughing Kookaburra Daceolo novaguineae by Ken George, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/858185, License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike 4.0

Common Myna Acridotheres tristis by Greg McLachlan, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/331396, License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commerical Share Alike 4.0

Peace Piano song by Calvin Clavier. https://pixabay.com/music/modern-classical-peace-piano-song-216338/ 

Birds and Insects near Dam - Cathedral Ranges by Sassaby, accessible at freesound.org/s/427877, License: Creative Commons 0 1.0

180081 Sheep Farm 01 by FST18008, accessible at https://freesound.org/s/441801, License: Attribution 4.0

Cinematic rythmline by SamuelFJohanns from Pixabay

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