Behind the 'Big Man': uncovering hidden migrant networks within Scandinavian-Australian sources

Behind the 'Big Man': uncovering hidden migrant networks within Scandinavian-Australian sources

This paper is a reflective piece discussing several issues that have arisen during historical research regarding Scandinavian migration to Australia. The paper discusses some of the issues that historical sources have thrown up while researching Scandinavian Diasporic communities, namely the way in which networks of belonging and community have remained hidden behind sources controlled and produced by elite members of migrant groups and the figureheads of Scandinavian Australia – the 'Big Men'.1
The 'Big Men' phenomena and associated problems of source bias and record incompleteness are examined, to point out reasons for a past historical focus that has been built upon exaggerated and contributionary material and, as such, fails to give proper credit to other community members that were often involved in the creation of stronger and lasting social networks than these figureheads themselves. In particular, the role of Scandinavian women and their networks will be examined to point out alternatives to previous positivistic approaches to the impact of Scandinavians in Australia. The paper argues that for a more complete understanding of those involved in the creation of ethnic migrant communities, scholars must view all historical material in a way that focuses on not only the 'Big Men' that are fixed in the foreground of the sources, but those figures and groups that have until now remained in the peripheral vision, unexamined and uncelebrated.

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