ABOUT BOOK

Subjects and Aliens confronts the problematic history of~ belonging in Australia and New Zealand. In both countries, race has often been~ more important than the law in determining who is considered 'one of~ us'. Each chapter in the collection highlights the lived experiences of~ people who negotiated laws and policies relating to nationality and citizenship~ rights in twentieth-century Australasia, including Chinese Australians enlisting~ during the First World War, Dalmatian gum-diggers turned farmers in New Zealand,~ Indians in 1920s Australia arguing for their citizenship rights, and Australian~ women who lost their nationality after marrying non-British subjects. The book~ also considers how the legal belonging—and accompanying rights and~ protections—of First Nations people has been denied, despite the High Court of~ Australia’s recent assertion (in the landmark Love & Thoms case of 2020)~ that Aboriginal people have never been considered ‘aliens’ or ‘foreigners’ since~ 1788. The experiences of world-famous artist Albert Namatjira, and of those made~ to apply for ‘certificates of citizenship’ under Western Australian law, suggest~ otherwise. Subjects and Aliens demonstrates how people who legally belonged were~ denied rights and protections as citizens through the actions of those who~ created, administered and interpreted the law across the twentieth century, and~ how the legal ramifications of those actions can still be felt today.