Welsh Patagonians the Australian connection

One hundred and fifty-one Welsh Patagonians migrated to Australia between 1910 and 1916. A similar number of Welsh had sailed away to Patagonia in 1865 to start their own self-sufficient colony along the Chubut River in southern Argentina, free to speak and teach in Welsh, worship as they pleased, and to govern themselves. A magnet to a better life in Australia was the prospect of legal title to their own land. Migrating as groups, they separately formed two ‘Welsh settlements’ along the Murrumbidgee River of New South Wales and around Moora-Miling in Western Australia. Two large families who went to Darwin never took up their promised land. Drought, depression and poor quality land eventually dispersed these immigrants to all parts of Australia. This book traces the unique experiences of an almost complete group of immigrants, whose extensive kinship and affiliations kept alive their stories long enough for them to be related in this book. Rich personal testimonies gleaned from oral histories with sixty-three descendants, together with genealogical information spanning generations, are blended here with library and archival research from four countries. The result is a fascinating story of the connections of these Welsh Patagonians to Australia. Australian immigration encouragement policies are seen through the experiences of the Welsh Patagonians, casting new light on the application of Australian immigration policies and settlement schemes in the early twentieth century.

Michele Langfield and Peta Roberts tell the epic story of the double migration of the hundreds of Welsh colonists who settled in southern Argentina and Chile after 1865, and who came on to Australia early last century.

Traces the family groups and tells their stories through interviews with the participants.

A displaced Britishness: Welsh Patagonians in Canada and Australia

This paper focuses on a unique group of British emigrants in their double migration experience from Wales to Patagonia in the second half of the nineteenth century and thence to Canada or Australia in the early twentieth. The history of the Welsh Patagonian settlements in the Chubut Valley of Argentina and the Andes foothills has been extensively documented. Less is known about the two subsequent migrations from Patagonia to Canada in 1902, and from Patagonia to Australia between 1910 and 1915. What distinguishes these movements is that, in each case, the settlers migrated as a group and placed a high priority on taking up adjoining land. In their three adopted countries they established discrete Welsh communities, some more enduring than others.

There is a general consensus that the initial move from Wales to Patagonia in 1865 was for nationalistic, cultural and linguistic reasons but for those who followed later, economic motives were more common. By the time of the migration from Patagonia to Canada in 1902, there was no illusion that Welsh nationalism could be preserved intact or autonomy guaranteed. Historians dispute the primary motivation for this particular move, some arguing that socio-economic and political factors in Patagonia were paramount, others that it resulted from inducements and political manoeuvrings from Canada and Great Britain. What is clear is the desire of the settlers to return to a country 'under a British flag'.

This paper addresses these issues relating to the Welsh Patagonian migration to Canada in the context of a comparison with the migration to Australia some years later. Such a comparative analysis has not previously been undertaken. Notions of identity and an erstwhile ‘Britishness’ are explored, in terms of the migrant’s sense of self and the political implications of citizenship, military service, reception and assimilation in the
host societies.

Onset of word form recognition in English, Welsh, and English-Welsh bilingual infants

Children raised in the home as English or Welsh monolinguals or English–Welsh bilinguals were tested on untrained word form recognition using both behavioral and neurophysiological procedures. Behavioral measures confirmed the onset of a familiarity effect at 11 months in English but failed to identify it in monolingual Welsh infants between 9 and 12 months. In the neurophysiological procedure the familiarity effect was detected as early as 10 months in English but did not reach significance in monolingual Welsh. Bilingual children showed word form familiarity effects by 11 months in both languages and also revealed an online time course for word recognition that combined effects found for monolingual English and Welsh. To account for the findings, accentual, grammatical, and sociolinguistic differences between English and Welsh are considered.

Filching the Argentine colonists : the encouragement of Patagonians to the Northern Territory in the early twentieth century

This paper explores the background to the emigration of 220 settlers from Patagonia in South America to the Northern Territory during the course of World War I. The group, which arrived in Darwin on the Kwanto Maru in 1915, comprised an unusual mixture of nationalities. The breakdown given in the passenger list and the contemporary press was 113 Spaniards, 45 Russians, 30 Italians. 28 British, I Argentinian [of British parents], 1 Frenchman, 1 Serbian and 1 Greek. Some of the 'Spaniards' were presumably Spanish speaking Argentinians but most were indeed of Spanish descent, such as the Martinez, Perez and Villalba families. Of the British amongst the group, almost all were Welsh. They came as a result of inducements held out to the Welsh amongst the party in the years immediately prior to the war by the Commonwealth Government, which administered the Northern Territory after 1911. This account provides a fascinating case study of the recruitment of immigrants to Australia, and particularly to the Northern Territory, in the early twentieth century.

Building capacity for rural health : the role of boundary crossers in coalition maturity for partnerships with external agents

The concept of partnership has entered policy rhetoric and is urged as good practice in a variety of domains including health. Rural communities tend to have fewer resources available for the provision of services such as health than their metropolitan counterparts, and so could be expected to benefit from partnerships with external agencies. Indicators of coalition maturity for working in partnership with external agents in order to build stronger communities are distilled from the group development and partnership research literature and considered in the light of the experiences of the University Department of Rural Health in community engagement. The chapter draws on experiences of two rural community coalitions working to plan and negotiate health service provision. The coalitions were analysed against the indicators. A key indicator of maturity and readiness for working in partnership with external agents is related to the behaviour of ‘boundary crossers’. Boundary crossers are defined as people who move freely between two or more domains and who understand the values, cultures and language, and have the trust, of both. Domains can be within a community or be the community and an external sector. Community health professionals, especially those in senior positions, often act as boundary crossers between the community and broader domains such as regional/state health services or policy, although other community members can fill the role. Other key indicators of coalition maturity for working in partnership with external agents include local leadership that empowers the community, a willingness of community coalitions to take risks and mould opportunities to meet their vision, and a culture of critical reflection and evaluation of past actions.

This chapter analyses the impact of boundary crossing behaviour on community readiness and partnerships with external agents that are intended to build rural community capacity to plan and negotiate health service provision. It is argued that the characteristics and modus operandi of boundary crossers who are members of rural community coalitions affect the level of maturity of the coalitions and community readiness to work with external agents. An understanding of the characteristics and modus operandi of boundary crossers provides valuable insights for external agents in designing their approach to partnerships that build rural community capacity for health.

Masculinity and femininity in "The Mabinogion"

This thesis is submitted within the discipline of Women's Studies. It attempts to assess the life of women in a tribal society at the brink of dissolution. Wales at the eve of and during the first century of the Norman occupation is representative of such a society and historians admit that what little we know of its social conditions can be gleaned from the pages of the narrative prose collection The Mabinogion. Consequently this study uses an interdisciplinary approach. Eight stories from The Mabinogion collection have been studied: The Four Branches, comprising Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, Branwen Daughter of Llyr, Manawydan Son of Llyr and Math Son of Mathonwwy; the story of Culhwch and Olwen and the Three Romances, comprising The Lady of the Fountain, Peredur Son of Efrawg and Gereint Son of Erbin. The Four Branches are a fourfold narrative held together by the figure of Sovereignty (formerly the Celtic goddess of the land), her chosen consort and her son. The protagonists are now represented as superhuman men and women and encoded in their lifestories are the rules for gender-related 'right' behaviour of princes and their spouses. The Three Romances still show the same constellation, but the figures of Sovereignty and her consort have been replaced by the Knight and his Lady with considerable loss of behavioural certainty for both genders. The romances are also indicative of growing economic insecurity. Culhwch and Olwen has been included for contrast and for its richness in folkloric motifs. Apart from studying the gender-roles in leading families at the time, the thesis advances the theory that The Four Branches may have been the work of a Welsh noblewoman - a theory based on the inherent knowledge of Welsh pre-Christian dynastic traditions, legal and political practices and the realities of women's lives at the time. The study also shows that the status of women and their legal rights in pre-Norman Wales were much more restricted and cannot generally be compared with that of women in England or Ireland.

Describing chronic pain : towards bilingual practice

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study that collated and categorised a range of Welsh-medium chronic pain descriptors and their conceptually equivalent English translations in order to provide a preliminary basis for chronic pain assessment amongst patients in the bilingual community of North West Wales. The results demonstrate the unique and complex nature of individual pain experiences and the challenges of meaningful interpretation, particularly when patient and practitioner do not share a common preferred language. Detailed analysis of the descriptors provided valuable insight into the patient's world, revealing cultural patterns of beliefs and behaviours as well as the suffering associated with chronic pain. Implications for improving chronic pain assessment amongst bilingual speakers are explored.

Multi-media and real fiction theatre making

Visual images, in the process of both the imagination and conception of a theatre production, are central to contemporary practice in drama-making. The use of multi-media in theatre is not only a fruitful way to represent the visual component of a particular experience, it but also constitutes a way of speaking the unspoken. Visual language expresses through multi-media and allows broaching taboo subjects, speaking directly to the audience in spite of the indirect form and drawing subtle connections with the live action so as to make meaning. The tension between live action and any form of visual art blurs the lines between imagination and reality. The multi-media theatre is a metaphor for the human mind exposed to social reality. It consists of interruptions, half-finished conversations and ideological aspersions including its primary function of meta-representation.

Avoiding Stereotyping and enhancing intercultural understanding

Anecdotally, language learners often struggle to acquire in­tercultural understanding. Teaching intercultural understanding presents significant challenges for language teachers. This article offers some in-sights into language learners' intercultural understanding and strategies to help enhance intercultural understanding that seek to promote analyti­cal and critical thinking. The aim is to build on the principles of the emerging pedagogy of Intercultural Language Learning (1cLL). IcLL suggests there is a 'third place', where cultures overlap. IcLL acknowl­edges the importance of identifying with the 'other', whilst not denying the 'self'. Intercultural competence requires sensitivity to difference, an ability to identify with others and to critically reflect on one's own cul­tural background.

Needle fixation and moral panic

This thesis weighs into the contemporary debate regarding needle fixation, utilising recent theory from addiction discourse. Freud and Lacan to specuate an unconscious cause for the compulsion to self-inject regardless of substance. It then applies this revelation to analyse the world of the 'needle fixator' and society's moral panic reaction.

Language teaching for the Asian century: Indonesian in Australian universities

This research investigates Australian university students’ perceptions of Indonesian culture, and their interaction with Indonesians. It proposes an approach to language teaching that includes an overseas study experience, and aims to transform language learners into intercultural speakers.