On the Methodology of Greek-Australian Historiography

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the methodological issues that are raised by efforts to write the history of the Greek-Australian communities. In general Australian historiography tends to undervalue the national significance of Greek-Australian history. We attempt firstly to outline the conditions under which we might begin to redress this weakness. To this end we identify the role that the communities play in the development of white Australian national identity throughout the twentieth century by arguing that white Australia has assigned to the migrant communities the social position of what we call the “perpetual foreigner-within”. We then proceed to sketch some of the main features of two patterns of response to this assignment that have developed within the Greek-Australian communities of the twentieth century.