The French Australian Review – No 72 Australian Winter 2022


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Foreword

KERRY MULLAN, Preface

IVAN BARKO, Tribute to Colin Nettelbeck

ALEXIS BERGANTZ AND ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI, ISFAR@35: Australia and France in a Regional Global Context: Past Engagements and Future Research Directions

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The authors review the work of ISFAR, The French Australian Review and The ISFAR Research Committee in the light of recent political events. Since Australia’s geographical position affords ISFAR a close window onto its Pacific neighbourhood, ISFAR and FAR are uniquely placed to play a crucial role in providing the historical and contemporary perspectives from which to evaluate and document French Australian relations in this region.

Keywords: French-Australian relations, Indo-Pacific and France, New Caledonia, French Polynesia.

BARBARA SANTICH, ISFAR Research Project: French-Australian Exchanges in Viticulture and Winemaking

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British colonists very quickly saw the potential in Australia for growing grapes and making wine, and naturally looked to France as their model. Early vignerons, such as Gregory Blaxland and William Macarthur, visited France to study vineyards and winemaking practices, and often returned with cuttings of French vines. In the second half of the century French vignerons, such as Camille Réau and Jean-Pierre Trouette, established vineyards in Australia. In view of their significance, ISFAR has initiated a project to produce entries for the FADB and a book highlighting the significance of these exchanges. This paper gives an outline of the aims and scope of the project, together with potted biographies of several of the more influential individuals.

Keywords: ISFAR, Australia, France, wine viticulture, William Macarthur, Louis Edouard Bourbaud, Bill Hardy.

Elizabeth Rechniewski, Beatrice Grimshaw: Traveller, Writer and Advocate for Australian Imperialism in the South Pacific

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The author argues that Beatrice Grimshaw was not only a traveller but a prolific writer, of novels, pamphlets and cruise brochures, newspaper and magazine articles that were highly influential in forming the contemporary public’s representations of the Pacific islands and their inhabitants. She also sought to intervene in the political affairs of the nascent Australian nation, encouraging and seeking to facilitate through her writings and her contacts with leading Australian politicians its imperialistic ambitions over the neighbouring islands, including those partly or wholly claimed by France, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

Keywords: Beatrice Grimshaw, France, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Alfred Deakin.

Nicole Townsend, ‘Kangaroos’ and ‘Froggies’: Australian-French Relations and the Allied Invasion of Lebanon and Syria, 1941

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This article focuses on Australia’s war with France during the Second World War, when Australian troops partook in the invasion of the Vichy French mandates of Lebanon and Syria in June 1941. It uses various sources, including oral history interviews, memoirs, diaries, and unit histories, to elucidate how Australian troops negotiated relations with the French, who were both friend and foe. In doing so, it sheds light on a lesser-known period in the Australian-French relationship.

Keywords: Australian-French relations, Operation Exporter, Syria, Lebanon, Second World War, Vichy France, Free France. 

Chantal Crozet, Convergence and Divergence on Gender Inclusive Language in France and Australia

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This article aims to reveal some rich points of ideological divergence and convergence of gender inclusive language (hereafter GIL) between France and Australia as found in scholarly literature and the written press. French and Australian societies are both being challenged by the push for more gender inclusive language. However, linguistic challenges to achieve gender inclusivity in French are much more complex and extensive than they are in English. This explains in part the much more intense level of public debate on GIL in France than in Australia, a point of divergence between the two countries.

Keywords: Gender inclusive language, inclusive writing, The Académie Française.

Kerry Mullan, French-Australian Relations: Une Entente Glaciale Revisited

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In light of last year’s deterioration in French-Australian relations, this article will examine the AUKUS exchanges between former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Emmanuel Macron, with a particular focus on the underlying French and Australian English cultural values and assumptions which influenced their communications. It will be argued that these different ways of seeing the world were largely responsible for the decline in relations between the two leaders. The author comments that some benefits of multilingualism, such as better understanding of other worldviews (and one’s own), intercultural communication skills, connection with others, and access to more knowledge, are often considered secondary—and yet, they are indispensable.

Keywords: French-Australian relations, cultural values, interactional style, AUKUS, multilingualism

DOCUMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

Danielle Clode, Book Review: Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby (eds), Roaming Freely Throughout the Universe: Nicolas Baudin’s Voyage to Australia and the Pursuit of Science

This book focuses on science and the role of François Péron in Nicolas Baudin’s voyage to Australia and its lasting effects. Péron was one of only three scientists to complete the journey out of the fourteen who originally embarked. There are four sections: the first on the scientific context of voyaging, the second on Péron himself, the third on the scientific records from the voyage and the fourth which, initially, seems to be about participants who were not Péron. In the reviewer’s opinion, the book is ‘not simply a collection of essays’ because the essays have been skilfully situated to foreshadow later developments, gradually layering and revealing detail, nuance and complexity and giving the collection an unexpected narrative structure that is, at times, positively thrilling’.

Keywords: Baudin, Péron, Le Havre Museum, Malmaison, Naturaliste, Géographe.

Andrew Montana, Book Review: John Drury, Two French Sisters in Australia: 1888–1922: Berthe Mouchette and Marie Lion, Artists and Teachers

John Drury’s tribute to the two French sisters, Berthe Mouchette and Marie Lyon reinforces their contributions to French-Australian relations through both their teaching and their cultural activities in both Melbourne and Adelaide. Drury’s meticulous research adds depth to our knowledge of their work, especially of their artistic practices and Lion’s writing. They are also remembered for their post-war charitable work and the ongoing connections with Dernancourt and the Somme.

Keywords: Berthe Mouchette. Marie Lion, Oberwyl, Lady Loch, Annie Besant, Theosophy Adelaide.

Edward Duyker, Book Review: Suzanne Falkiner, Rose: The Extraordinary Voyage of Rose de Freycinet

Suzanne Falkiner’s Rose is an engaging account of the life of Rose de Freycinet, née Pinon (1794–1832). The book is also a biography of Rose’s husband Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (1779–1842) on whose Uranie expedition 1817–1820 she was secreted, in male guise, at the age of twenty-two. Falkiner has used Rose’s manuscripts and the various edited and published versions of her journals and letters (and those of her husband and fellow voyagers) with discernment and skill.

Keywords: Rose de Freycinet, Uranie, Louis de Freycinet, Académie des Sciences.

Briony Nielson, Book Review: Andréas Pfersmann, La littérature irradiée : Les essais nucléaires en Polynésie française au prisme de l’écriture

In La littérature irradiée: Les essais nucléaires en Polynésie française au prisme de l’écriture, Andréas Pfersmann, a literature academic at the Université de la Polynésie française, explores the interplay of issues relating to France’s nuclear testing in the Pacific, as reflected in the work of literary writers in French Polynesia, as well as in metropolitan France and in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Keywords: littérature irradiée, nuclear tests Pacific, Pfersmann, French Polynesian literature.

Edward Duyker, Book Review: Margaret Cameron-Ash, Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia

Reviewer Edward Duyker argues that the idea that Lapérouse was engaged in a race with Arthur Phillip and had secret orders to establish a French colony at Botany Bay, in 1788, is not based on available research.

Keywords: Lapérouse, Arthur Phillip, Botany Bay, French in Australia.

Elaine Lewis, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

The French Australian Review – No 67 Australian Summer 2019-2020

JOHN WEST-SOOBY, Foreword

ANGELA GIOVANANGELI, Communal Luxury and the Universal Republic in the Designs and Pedagogy of Lucien Henry
WINNER OF THE 2019 IVAN BARKO AWARD

Lucien Henry, Paris Communard and Australian artist, has been described by art historians as the most productive and influential artist working in Sydney from 1879 to 1891. He was hailed as one of the first artists to advocate a national art through his use of motifs, symbols and patterns found in the local fauna and flora. Meanwhile, some studies on the Paris Commune refer to the continuing influence of the Communards who, following the popular uprising, worked on projects in various parts of the world and continued the legacy of the Commune. This paper examines some of the ideology and designs of Henry, notably through the letters and articles written by the artist in journals and letters during his period in Australia, to argue that Henry’s artistic and teaching practices in Australia represent the ontology of transculturation as a result of his experience in France during the Paris Commune.

Keywords: Lucien Henry, Paris Commune, Australian decorative arts, transculturation, Australian nationhood, Communal luxury, Universal Republic

Elizabeth RECHNIEWSKI, The Reception of Louise Michel in Australia

This article explores the representation of Louise Michel’s ideas and activism in the Australian press, in a period when newspapers played such an influential role in the transmission of news and the formation of opinion. The Australian press devoted over two thousand articles and items of news to her in the twenty-five years from late 1880 to early 1905, from her return to France from deportation to the year of her death. In a period of rapid political and social change in Australia, Michel became a reference point and a touchstone for discussion about key issues of the day: the rise of the workers’ movement, the new ideologies of anarchism and socialism, and women’s rights. Moreover, in a period of Franco-British imperial rivalry the papers did not hesitate to use Michel’s case to criticise the ‘illiberal’ political regime in France or that nation’s bellicose intentions. The article focuses on the significance accorded to this controversial figure in the debate over women’s rights in Australia, when Michel was often cited as an example of a ‘political woman’ to be feared, or, more rarely, as a model to be emulated.

Keywords: Louise Michel, women’s rights, Australia, press history

NATALIE EDWARDS AND CHRISTOPHER HOGARTH, French Migrant Writing in Australia: Australianness in Two Female Memoirs from the 2000s

This article reads the work of Catherine Rey and Marie-Paule Leroux as examples of French-Australian migrant literature. It compares the way these two writers, both of whom moved to Australia from France in mid-life, portray their migration in their literary texts. Reading their work through the lens of recent migration theory, it argues that these texts depart from paradigms that position France as the centre, that place Paris or an alternative urban space as the ultimate destination, or that stage movement between former colony and colonial power. The two writers practise, in different ways, a strategic exoticism that renders their texts attractive to specific audiences within France and Australia.

Keywords: Catherine Rey, Marie-Paule Leroux, migration, transnationalism, exoticism, Global French Literature

DOCUMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

KERRY MULLAN, Melbourne Salon and ISFAR events
2 May 2019, French Cinema, The New Wave and its Legacy, Dr Andrew McGregor
30 May 2019 (Sydney) Communal Luxury in the Designs of Lucien Henry, Angela Giovanangeli
8 August 2019, Book launch: Castaway, author Robert Macklin in conversation with Elaine Lewis
22 October 2019 (Sydney) First Contacts: The Australian Aboriginals and the Artwork of the Baudin Expedition, Emeritus Professor Margaret Sankey
4 November, Dr Emmanuelle Crane, An Intercultural Dialogue: When linguistics are involved in the current French-Australian submarine project

TOM THOMPSON, Obituary, Jean-Paul Delamotte, 1931–2019

Jean-Paul Delamotte devoted 40 years of his life to promoting French-Australian relations, particularly through his translating and publishing of Australian writers and his sub-titling of Australian films. He and his wife, Monique lived and worked in Australia from 1974–76. Back in Paris, he established the Association Culturelle Franco-Australienne (ACFA) in 1980 and also set up a small publishing house, La Petite Maison. They welcomed many visiting Australian writers over the ensuing twenty-plus years. In 1992 Delamotte was made a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his contribution to the promotion of Australian culture.

Keywords: Jean-Paul Delamotte, Association Culturelle Franco-Australienne, La Petite Maison, Editions Tom Thompson, Sydney-Paris Link Series, Paul Wenz

ANGELIQUE STASTNY, Book Review, Hamid Mokkadem, Yeiwene Yeiwene : construction et revolution de Kanaky (Nouvelle Calédonie)

This book published in French in 2018, details the political journey of Yeiwene Yeiwene (1945–1989), one of the leaders of the Kanak independence movement in New Caledonia. The biographer presents him first and foremost as a man of action, close to the people who initiated action at the grassroots level, as well as being a man who took on high positions within institutions and companies. The reviewer acknowledges the importance of this book in documenting the life of this important Kanak leader and encouraging readers to learn more about the struggle for independence in New Caledonia.

Keywords: Yeiwene Yeiwene, New Caledonia, Agency for the Development of Kanak Culture (ADCK), FLNKS, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, the Loyalty Islands

JANE GILMOUR, Book Review, Amanda Curtin, Kathleen O’Connor of Paris

Amanda Curtin is a fiction writer who has adapted her skills as a fiction writer to recreate the story of the life of Kathleen O’Connor. O’Connor left Perth in 1906 and spent many of the next 40 plus years of her life living and working as an artist in Paris. Her work gradually achieved recognition in Paris and she exhibited in the Salons as well as in private galleries. She supplemented her income by working as a decorative artist taking commissions for fabric, wallpaper and furniture designs. She was the author of a regular column for the Perth newspaper in which she described the fashions and social activities in Paris and provided recommendations for people visiting. The biography documents the later years of her life as she struggled to resettle back in Perth. Her work was recognized in Perth with two smaller exhibitions and then a major solo exhibition in 1967 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Kathleen O’Connor died in 1968.

Keywords: Kathleen O’Connor, C.Y. O’Connor, Australian artists in Paris, Montparnasse, the Salons, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Town Talk

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes