WesterlyMagazine

Coming Soon: The Full Circle Podcast!

Starting from the first week of October, Westerly will be launching a new podcast series! ‘Full Circle’, a project run by Centre for Western Australian History, was an exploration of the experiences of British migrants to Western Australia, and the impact that migration has had on their relationships with their families back home in the U.K.

After a long gestation period, this research has now been distilled into bite-sized podcast form! Over six episodes you’ll hear from a diverse group of interviewees as they speak honestly and often emotionally about everything from their difficult departures and exhilarating arrivals, to their first games of Australian Rules football and citizenship ceremonies.

The interviewees range in age and background and the series takes in a wide time-period. Some interviewees emigrated as recently as 2010, and others as early as 1949. It’s been our aim with this series to delve into the more complex and less well-known issues of migration to and within Australia, and where possible, we’ve tried to bring forward stories which counter the conventional notions and myths of the migrant experience in Australia.

The series is for all: we hope that those who were British migrants themselves enjoy it, as well as those also whose parent, grandparent or relative made the big move many decades ago. However, we also hope that our readers and listeners enjoy the series regardless of their background—British migration is just one form of migration to and within this country and hearing and speaking about it allows us to consider how we’ve dealt with migrants and other communities, and the work that as a society we still have to do.

This is particularly timely given the upcoming release of our November issue, in which we are focusing on the cultural connections, movements and exchange between Australia and the Asia and Indian Ocean region.

Episodes will be released fortnightly onto SoundCloud, with the first one coming out on Monday the 2nd of October. Listeners can access and download the episodes directly from our website or follow the link to SoundCloud. Here’s a little taste below!

A better life

Gerry left the outskirts of Sheffield, U.K. for Perth in the early 1960s. Like many migrants he saw a lot of posters that advertised the so-called “better life” in Australia.

But what was so wrong with the life he already had? Was this promise of a better life in fact more of a myth?

Listen to the rest of Gerry’s story, and others like him, in the Full Circle Podcast series.

Please follow this link to the podcast if the embedded SoundCloud file is not shown:

https://soundcloud.com/westerlymagazine/coming-soon-the-full-circle-podcast-a-better-life/s-Nldri

Disclaimer: Due to the nature of the project and the conditions in which the interviews were conducted, sound levels do vary, and listeners may need to adjust volume as necessary. Please consider it a mark of the authenticity of the material!

Image credit: Immigrants for Australia, August 1949, 1983-5236/14190/1, Diary Herald Archive at the National Media Museum, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/8416663904. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).