Uses of the past: settler culture, regional identity and the modern nation

Article


Lee, Christopher. 1998. "Uses of the past: settler culture, regional identity and the modern nation ." Australian Studies. 13 (2), pp. 55-69.
Article Title

Uses of the past: settler culture, regional identity and the modern nation

ERA Journal ID34695
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorLee, Christopher
Journal TitleAustralian Studies
Journal Citation13 (2), pp. 55-69
Number of Pages15
Year1998
Place of PublicationStirling, Scotland
ISSN0954-0954
2042-5120
Abstract

Over six days from the eighteenth to the twenty-third of March in 1924 the regional city of Grenfell coordinated a sustained civic celebration that it called the 'Back to Grenfell Week'. A commemorative festival of substantial proportions, 'Back to Grenfell Week' was intended to encourage former residents to return to the district, honour the pioneers, and promote the central New South Wales region.

My discussion of the 'Back to Grenfell Week' Festival of 1924 and the 'Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival of the Arts' from 1958 is an exploration of the expressed tension between these two imperatives and their effects upon the strategically shifting social identities of a regional Australian culture.

Keywordsregional Australian identity, regional festivals, local history
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020430302. Australian history
470213. Postcolonial studies
440699. Human geography not elsewhere classified
Public Notes

Deposited with the permission of the publisher.

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Humanities and Communication
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https://research.usq.edu.au/item/9xyzv/uses-of-the-past-settler-culture-regional-identity-and-the-modern-nation

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